Auburn Magazine Issue #3

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 9
with the highest sugar content.
At 12, he tended his neighbor’s crops,
and when he saw that the peach trees
were dying, he invested in a few raspberry
vines. Now he and his wife have 190
raspberry vines in rows 300 feet long.
Next, he added thornless blackberries.
“Berries want to live,” he said.
And right now, the u-pick berries are not
only living, they’re thriving. The farm is
full to bursting with Chester blackberries.
The berries that aren’t picked by local
customers are packed up and carted to
farmers’ markets from Marin County to
Reno, along with a cornucopia of other
fruits and veggies. In addition to berries,
the Boughtons grow 120 various crops
on close to 30 acres on three properties.
When the berries are finished, it will
be kiwi season, and then chestnuts,
and then mandarins.
“You can walk out there any time of
the year and find something to eat,”
Tim Boughton said proudly, pointing
to the fields in the distance.
In keeping with the tradition of the
Tanaka family who owned the property
in the 1940s, the Boughtons pick 1,200
persimmons each year, hang them in
rows and hand massage them every day
for three weeks.
“They’re like candy,” Tim Boughton
said. “We sell out in a month.”
While Rhonda Boughton enjoys
the produce and the customers, she
particularly loves the quiet moments
on the land. She recalls picking ripe
peaches from an old tree on a recent
morning, tearing off pieces of fruit for
the two dogs by her side.
really cool.”
Even though it came to him naturally,
Tim Boughton didn’t always want to be
a farmer. His dream was to spend every
day in the mountains, digging for gold
instead of potatoes.
In the off-season, he still spends his
days in the hills, mining for treasure.
Except, for the Boughtons, there is no
off-season.
On a rare day mining with friends, Tim
Boughton carries along a home-grown
watermelon to share at lunch. Between the
photos of handfuls of gold nuggets, he snaps
a shot of his friends with red watermelon
juice running down their arms.
Recently, Boughton wasn’t able to join his
friends on their mining trip. They texted
him photos of their hard-won treasure.
He texted them back with a photo of his
own: Rows and rows of verdant green crops
growing in the sunshine.
“This is my gold,” he wrote. “It’s the
kind that grows back.”
“It was so beautiful,” she said, dabbing
at the tears in her eyes with a berrystained
handkerchief. “It was just
AMBER OAKS BERRY FARM FRUIT SHED
U-pick berries are available by appointment through the end of August. For more information, visit
Amberoaksberryfarm.com or call 530-885-3420.