Welcome to

Bee’s Bakery Cafe

and Home Ec Hive!

Hi! My name is Elizabeth, and we are so excited to be here in my beautiful hometown of Oakhurst, California.

We have opened this bakery with the love and support of my grandmother, Carolyn. There’s no way we could have done it without her and we remain grateful every day. We named our bakery after Carolyn’s mother, Geraldine Kaylor. Geri was a home economics teacher at Madera High School for 35 years and her mother, Donna, was also a home economics teacher from the Ozark Mountains of Arkansas. Geri came to be known as Bee when her granddaughter kept hearing her grandpa ask “Geri, where’s The Bee?” so the little girl thought her grandmother’s name was “The Bee.” The Bee was The Fresno Bee, a publication religiously read every day for 45 years by the Jim and Geri Kaylor household. That granddaughter ended up majoring in journalism at Fresno State University and her grandmother liked the nickname, so it stuck.

Visiting The Kaylor Ranch was a world apart from the daily hubbub of city life, where you spent your time focusing on everyday events of growing food, canning, sewing, turning ice cream, baking, barbecuing, picking berries, feeding chickens, harvesting vegetables and collecting honey. My mom even made a western melodrama black and white movie on the ranch with her high school friends! (Shout out to Mark, Ray, Shannon and our English teacher, Patsy Garoupa!) Grandpa was great at making every project an adventure and Bee was there to make every meal a healthy feast of fresh food and yummy treats. Hospitality was also something special to them. There were so many guests at their table - neighbors, farm helpers, former students, co-workers, friends but mostly family. They anticipated your needs at the table and encouraged you to try different things. Grandpa grew tomatoes that were so flavorful, tangy citrus, crunchy walnuts, sweet strawberries, fragrant onions, tart pomegranates, amazing boysenberries, fun pumpkins, thumpy watermelons and lots of other great things.

Sewing something new was always special for Bee. She loved teaching others to sew and she was very good at it. We sewed prom dresses, Halloween costumes, quilts and wedding dresses and we participated in fashion shows with our grandmother’s students. We are blessed to have been loved by Bee and Grandpa and been influenced by their hard work and simple pleasures. Sometimes we imagine what she would think, to have a restaurant named after her! She was very modest and likely would have considered it undeserved but we’re sure she would have felt deeply touched at the honor.

Bee taught us so much about baking cookies, cakes and pies that it became my dream to open a bakery. After graduating Yosemite High School, my family encouraged me to get a degree. So, I majored in Hospitality - Restaurant Management and graduated from Cal Poly Pomona. Then, I felt the need for a bakery internship. So, I moved to South Lake Tahoe and worked at a successful bakery, Crazy Good Bakery. While there, I learned about some new things I hadn’t done - bagels, cinnamon rolls, bread and pastries! Oh my!

At last, here we are. Oakhurst has needed a bakery for a long time! When we saw this building, it needed a lot of work. There was a kitchen so my dream grew to include breakfast and lunch. The patio renovation also gives us the opportunity to host parties or small events and perhaps some evening hours during the summer.

My grandparents, John and Carolyn, have cultivated an iris garden with over a thousand varieties of beautiful flowers, Bee Haven Iris Garden in Coarsegold. They will be here too, selling a wide variety of irises, both potted and ready-to-plant rhizomes. Their website is BeeHavenIrisGarden.com. If you’re a local, you might know John from the firewood ministry at Sierra Vista Presbyterian Church. He’s a deacon and leads a group of hardworking men and women who have kept at least a thousand people in our community warm and cozy.

We are each combinations of previous generations and those influences spread around the globe. My dad’s mother, Margaret Thompson, lovingly known as Nanny, is from Yorkshire, England and from her, we’ve learned some special recipes including our favorite, Yorkshire Puddings. I also had a feisty great-grandmother Betty, a mid-century, modern artist and reading teacher in Madera. She grew up in a family restaurant, Rudd’s Diner, in Lubbock, TX and she definitely wasn’t a good cook so it’s really her sense of style and amazing artwork that will show up in our bakery. Then, there’s that New York Italian guy my mother loves, Larry. His favorites will show up in a few Italian recipes from his family. And a special word for my dad, Andrew, who loved to barbecue and was always offering us “the perfect bite.” It had just the right amount of meat, a spot of sauce, that bit of potato and sprinkle of seasoning. I wish he was here to see this! He would have loved it.

We have many people to thank for helping us get Bee’s Bakery Cafe open. Our appreciation goes to John and Carolyn Honnette, Jim and Lori Peterson, Chuck and Sandy Wiest, Aaron and Erica Pipes, Mike and Dana Lenneman, Sunrise Rotary and the great guys at Napa Auto Parts. Thank you to my brother Tyler and my sister Laurel. Thank you Larry, for your hard work to literally support us during this long 2-year process. Thank you Uncle Wayne, Aunt Marissa, Bea and Dani for your love and support. We also want to mention my late grandfather, Patrick Pipes, whose advice we miss every day. Without him, we can’t imagine having the funds or courage to have reached this goal. He loved his family and instilled the drive to provide opportunities for future generations.

We are grateful for the professional services of: Ken Beaston Construction, Our Favorite US Navy Electrician John Campanella, Tim Madden the Fixologist, Courtney Smith Drafting, Andrew Nelson and Sue Weinert at Nelson Miller and White Accounting, Justin Garcia at Sysco, Purl’s Sheet Metal and HVAC, Sue Madden at Yosemite Visitor’s Center, Mark Smith for the wood shelves, Kyle and Hannah Nelson at Firesign, Allan Murray Realty, Brandon Miller at Eco Strike, Oakhurst Plumbing, Round Table Pizza, Davis Hix at Cal Valley Printing, Tim Demera Construction, Sheri Lee and Colleen Kraft at Kraft and Lee Insurance, Ed Davis Carpentry, Nicolas Montagnoli at Top Notch Painting, Casey Lucas at Reverent Coffee, Marilyn Riggs at State Farm Insurance, Marla Bazan at Premier Valley Bank, Yvette Freitas at ADT, Brett Haynes at Haynes Landscaping, Amy at Amy’s Landscaping, Crystal at Oakhurst Business Center, Sierra Telephone, Tractor Supply, Capitol Pipe, Ace Hardware and the guys at H&L Lumber. We also want to thank our neighbors at Arbor Works, Sierra Asset Management, Cat’s Meow, Napa Auto Parts and Grocery Outlet.

We hope you enjoy coming to our mid-century modern and home ec inspired restaurant. Eat, drink, visit with family and friends, celebrate occasions, listen to music, learn to sew, play chess, read, study or relax with good food and great coffee. Thank you for coming and supporting us on this journey.