![](https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/l93/pandisoo/P1690534lo.jpg)
With a population hovering around 700 people, most of the Traver locals work in agriculture—or at Bravo Farms, which beckons plenty of visitors traveling north or south to make a stop along the way.
![](https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/l93/pandisoo/P1690539cropLO.jpg)
Its signage offers both "A Taste of the Central Valley"...
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...and the "2nd-Happiest Place on Earth" (right behind, presumably, Disneyland).
![](https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/l93/pandisoo/P1690538cropLO.jpg)
Although there are other Bravo Farms locations nearby—in Tulare and Kettleman City (circa 2014)—the Traver one is the original.
![](https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/l93/pandisoo/P1690537lo.jpg)
It began in the 1970s as a simple fruit stand, conveniently located halfway between Bakersfield and Fresno. At one point, it was known as the "Hitching Post."
![](https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/l93/pandisoo/P1690546cropLO.jpg)
The result of a partnership between cheesemakers Jonathan Van Ryn and Bill Boersma, Bravo Farms has evolved beyond produce and even dairy to become an Old West-style wonderland...
![](https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/l93/pandisoo/P1690541cropLO.jpg)
...including plenty of antiques (or "farmtiques," as they say)...
![](https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/l93/pandisoo/P1690544lo.jpg)
...some of which were brought to the complex by Van Ryn's father, a collector who's since moved to New Mexico.
![](https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/l93/pandisoo/P1690564lo.jpg)
In the Los Angeles Times, a reader described Bravo Farms as like a small Knott’s Berry Farm—"without the entrance fee."
![](https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/l93/pandisoo/P1690570lo.jpg)
But Knott's doesn't have a seven-story treehouse the way Bravo Farms does (unfortunately closed for COVID-19 during my visit).
![](https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/l93/pandisoo/P1690551lo.jpg)
To be honest, when I stopped in on my way home from getting smoked out of points north, I wasn't looking for cheese or antiques.
![](https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/l93/pandisoo/P1690548lo.jpg)
I was there for the animals.
![](https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/l93/pandisoo/P1690568lo.jpg)
They were mostly minding their own business...
![](https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/l93/pandisoo/P1690553lo.jpg)
...but I had a few spare quarters to buy feed for Larry the llama.
![](https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/l93/pandisoo/P1690559cropLO.jpg)
He took some convincing at first...
![](https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/l93/pandisoo/P1690558lo.jpg)
...but he eventually came around...
![](https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/l93/pandisoo/P1690557cropLO.jpg)
...spitting on me and giving me love nibbles.
![](https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/l93/pandisoo/P1690561lo.jpg)
I had to cut my time at Bravo Farms short—not only because of COVID restrictions, but also because the air quality was still terrible from the nearby wildfires.
![](https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/l93/pandisoo/P1690562lo.jpg)
To be honest, I couldn't wait to get back in my car...
![](https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/l93/pandisoo/P1690572lo.jpg)
...but not before getting some mint chocolate chip ice cream from Rosa Brothers Milk Company, headquartered in Tulare.
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