CALIFORNIA'S GOLD: OLIVES AND BERRIES (TV)
Summary
One in this series of travel programs featuring host Huell Howser, who tours California, exploring the state's diversity.
Howser visits two family-owned and operated businesses in California. His first stop is the Graber Olive Ranch in Lindsay, CA, established in 1894. Their olives are world-famous for a unique flavor and their methods of picking and processing their olives has changed relatively little in the century since its establishment. Howser tours the ranch, observing the methods used by the olive pickers and learning about olive growth. Next, he travels 200 miles southward to the Graber Olve House in Ontario, CA, where the olives are cured, processed, and canned. He meets the Graber family, still running their business using old-fashioned processing methods. Howser is given a tour of the olive processing facility, where he learns about the methods by which olives are graded and sorted according to size. He then witnesses the vats in which the olives are soaked in salt brine for three weeks before they are canned using machines designed in the 1930's. He interviews the Graber family; they have eschewed modern methods of mass-production in favor of a "hands-on" approach to running their business.
Next, Howser travels to Knott's Berry Farm in Buena Park, CA. Knott's Berry Farm began as a roadside berry stand built by Walter and Cordelia Knott, who bought land and started growing berries. In 1934, they also constructed a restaurant next to the stand, where Cordelia served her chicken dinners, which soon became famous throughout the state. To alleviate the long lines the restaurant would often accrue, Walter decided to construct an authentic Western "ghost town" nearby. Many of the buildings were imported from actual ghost towns, and Mr. Knott insisted that the entire thing be as authentic as possible. The ghost town would eventually grow into a massive amusement park, but the original still stands, relatively unchanged. Howser is shown around by two of Mr. and Mrs. Knott's children, Marion Knott and Virginia Knott Bender. He is shown the various sights in the ghost town and meets the employees, many of whom are multigenerational and have worked there for many years. They continue to strive for the authenticity and "charm" Walter Knott envisioned when he built the place; even the trees are examples of what would be in a Western town. Howser is also shown Cordelia Knott's restaurant, also relatively unchanged, and learns about what she was like. He also gets to sample one of the restaurant's famous chicken dinners, still made according to Cordelia Knott's recipe.
Details
- NETWORK: KCET-TV (Los Angeles, CA) / PBS
- DATE: March 5, 1995
- RUNNING TIME: 0:28:50
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: B:55898
- GENRE: Education/Information
- SUBJECT HEADING: Education/Information
- SERIES RUN: PBS KCET - TV series, 1991-2012
- COMMERCIALS: N/A
CREDITS
- Huell Howser … Producer, Writer
- Phil Noyes … Associate Producer
- Morgan Neville … Associate Producer
- Huell Howser … Host
- Virginia Knott Bender
- Manuel Benitez
- Betty Collier
- Vicente Garcia
- Betty Graber
- Bob Graber
- Cliff Graber
- Cliff Graber II
- Howard Kirkpatrick
- Cordelia Knott
- Marion Knott
- Walter Knott
- Susan Palacios