Farmer passionate about sharing grandfather’s heritage berries a legacy Growing
Story by Linda DuBois • Photos by Fred Greaves
This spring, about 5,000 people are expected to descend upon Boysen Berry Farm in Orland to pick plump, sweet boysenberries. Hannah Nelson of Chico expects to be among them. “We love going berry picking as a family and we really like it there,” she said. Last spring, her second time at the farm, she went with her mother and her four nephews, ages 4 to 14. “I just love being outside with the family, getting the kids away from electronic devices and just being able to talk and enjoy each other—and they all loved eating the boysenberries as we picked them.” The family ate the berries fresh, froze them for smoothies and made jam. Nelson said she appreciates the unique flavor of the farm’s boysenberries, which she describes as “kind of like a blackberry, but sweeter.” But these berries that Nelson and other U-pick visitors take home are more than tasty—they represent a family’s heritage and an important part of agricultural history. Remembering Rudy To Jeanette Boysen Fitzgerald, her farm’s U-pick program is part of her mission to share the legacy of her grandfather, Rudolph Boysen, who developed the boysenberry in 1923 by crossing a loganberry and marionberry.
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May/June 2022
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