Farmer Ron’s a fair attraction -- no bull

Sixty-eight-year-old “Farmer Ron,” as the kids know him, courageously

climbed over the rail and into the ram’s pen, holding his

outstretched fist chest high.

Bad idea. The territorial animal backpedaled momentarily, breathed

once out of its huge black nostrils, reared up and bucked his huge

curled horns into him.

“He’s got a temper, and he loves to play,” he said after he’d been

pushed back against the rail. “But I’m probably making him mad, so

maybe I should stop doing this.”

Passersby simply smiled. What can you say? The ram seemed playful

enough, but the undaunted Ramsey “Ron” DeGerare also knows his

animals. And he’s insured.

He’s piffled with pigs, goaded with goats and larked with llamas,

but according to visitors and staff at the Orange County Fair’s

Centennial Farm, DeGerare never butts heads with anyone. As a

first-year volunteer at the Fair’s year-round working farm, the

retired plumber and 41-year Costa Mesa resident has found solace in

helping kids, receiving fan mail and reliving a childhood spent on

the family’s Ohio farm, all as the farm’s most popular volunteer.

Administrators at Centennial Farm hinted that DeGerare has

received a thank-you note or card for every day he’s worked there --

or on average, once a week for a year. Assistant Program Coordinator

Cynthia Critchley said that’s unheard of. And that’s a noteworthy

claim for a man who treasures children’s smiles just as much.

The Daily Pilot’s Jeff Benson toured Centennial Farm with DeGerare

and found out just how much the man enjoys showing kids the fun he

has all day.

What do you do?

I’m volunteering here as a docent. We take children on tours and

show them the animals, the vegetable gardens and the citrus trees.

And they get to hold the baby chicks. That’s one of the highlights. I

just love to watch them.

There are crops grown here all year. We have walnut trees and

macadamia-nut trees, and we raise horseradish and asparagus. A lot of

kids don’t know what asparagus is.

Then they get to see how the cows get milked. My favorite thing is

to show them the Holstein cows and the Jersey cows. One is a brown

cow and the other is black and white. So I’ll ask them, “Which one

produces the chocolate milk?” They always think the brown one gives

them the chocolate milk, but I tell them, “No, your mothers give you

the chocolate milk.”

You have some interesting things. What’s that over there?

That’s a worm farm. It’s surprising because sometimes the girls

will dig right through there and it’s the boys who stand off. Then

they see how much fun the other children are having, and they’ll want

to hold one too.

How did you get started at Centennial Farm?

I’ve been volunteering here for one year, but this is my first

Fair. It’s not as much fun to be stationed in one spot. When we give

tours for the kids, we usually have between 22 and 30 in a group, and

they have an extra advantage over the people just going to the Fair.

Sometimes, we’ll let them in to see the bigger animals close up,

and they can plant radish seeds in a cup and take them home.

You seem really popular here. How do the kids respond to you?

They call me “Farmer Ron.” I get letters almost every week --

sometimes huge posters. One said, “Thank you, Farmer Ron, for letting

us see the animals.”

The pay is great, just to see the kids’ faces and getting those

notes and letters. It makes me feel good that they think enough of

the trip and the tour to write.

And it’s great for the kids, too, because a lot of times they

don’t know where vegetables come from. They think they come from the

store. We have a wide variety of vegetables, even some I’ve never

eaten.

You sound like you really enjoy this.

Oh yeah. I’m from Ohio, originally. I worked on a farm called

Victory Gardens, and it was all dug by hand. We had chickens, and as

a youngster, I had a chicken hawk and two crows as pets.

The crows were very amusing. I cut one wing on each of them so

they wouldn’t fly away. Mom would hang her clothes, and they’d go

undo the clothespins, and the clothes would fall to the floor.

Can you describe what your tours are like?

We meet the kids at the gate here. Some of them bring their

lunches, and the farmers take the lunches to the tables, so the kids

don’t have to carry anything. We’ll talk about the chicks for a

while, and then we’ll have them take a chick and we’ll put it right

in their hands. That’s the exciting part.

Then we’ll go over to the beehive and talk about the bees. I

always tell them a honeybee will only produce one-tenth of a teaspoon

of honey in its lifetime.

We also have donkeys, llamas, a peacock, chickens and roosters,

and we show them those, too. Then we’ll go through the vegetable

garden and bring them to the bigger animals. We’ll show them the

horses, pigs and cows and take them to the milking barn.

Do the kids get to milk the cows?

No, we don’t let them do that. But when the calves come up to you

like puppy dogs, it makes you almost not want to eat meat anymore.