From Almonds to Alfalfa
A love of farming led the Caton family to Juniper
Story and photos by Dianna Troyer
When Joe Caton sold his almond farm in California to relocate to Idaho, he refused to leave behind heirloom tributes to his Portuguese heritage.
“I had to bring my grandfather’s hay rake and mower,” Joe says. “Those vintage implements remind me of his willingness to try something new and that he had hope and faith his work ethic would bring him success.”
The implements stand beside Joe’s driveway in Juniper, where he has grown wheat, safflower and alfalfa since 2022.
He and his wife, Mary, both have grandparents who left Portugal and eventually farmed and raised sheep and cows in the Gilroy area of central California.
Joe says their relatives’ optimism, hard work and devotion to agriculture reminds him of about a dozen families who have been farming in Juniper for several generations.
“We’re grateful to have found a place like this to work and live,” Joe says. “We’ve enjoyed learning about Juniper’s history from Lillian Barrus Nelson’s book. Several of the early buildings still stand. The house beside ours was once the post office.”
From 1912 to 1914, settlers applied for homesteads where deer, grouse and wildflowers abounded and meadowlarks serenaded them. Farming began with hand plows and horses around 1913, according to Lillian, who chronicled Juniper residents’ memories. Eventually, a church and school were built. Farmers persevered despite occasional hailstorms and floods.
“I’ve always enjoyed the wide-open feel of this valley and the natural sweep of its hills and mountains,” Geraldine Nelson recalls in the book. “There is a quiet solitude about this land that I dearly love.”
Leah Henrie Nelson remembered when the wind blew the wheat, “it looked like acres and acres of waves of water.”
Juniper residents took a break from farming and were thrilled to watch a runner carrying the Olympic Torch through Juniper on June 28, 1984.
Whenever Joe checks his haystacks or equipment, he can take a short tour of the settlement’s history and still see its early buildings.
About a mile away from the Catons’ home, a church and school still stand and have been converted into a home and shop. Nearby, a log cabin has withstood more than a century of weather.
A local family recently bought the land where Juniper’s pioneer cemetery is located and plans to reopen it. A headstone in the cemetery stands as a memorial to the couple who homesteaded there in 1918 and donated the land for the cemetery.
The cemetery faces Black Pine Mountain, where the Catons explore trails with their daughter, Mary, and her children, who live about a mile away.
“When we first came, I sent a spontaneous text to neighbors inviting them to a surprise birthday celebration for my dad on April 28,” Mary says. “They all showed up and offered to pitch in and help. We had the best evening celebrating. We’re lucky to have moved into this little community and call it home.”
She says it is a relief to know her four children can play outside safely.
“This move has given us quality time and a simpler life,” she says. “I don’t have to worry about them. They can explore and have room to roam.
My son, Caton, is 9 and is excited to start competing in rodeos, riding calves. They love that PoPo and Grammy live close by.”
Mary has been involved in her dad’s farming business for several years. She continues to work as a dispatcher in the family’s trucking business, which her dad started when he raised almonds from 1998 to 2021 near Turlock in central California.
“She’s always loved working on the farm,” Joe says of his daughter.
Three-year Search
Joe and his wife found and decided on the farm in Juniper after a three-year search.
“We liked Idaho because (the state’s) political leaders are supportive of agriculture,” Joe says. “We wanted to get away from California politics and increasingly restrictive regulations that made it harder and harder to farm. We used to burn our tree prunings, then we were only allowed to burn on certain days, then we couldn’t burn them at all. Rules changed, too, concerning use of safe ag chemicals.”
When a Juniper family’s relatives no longer wanted to farm, a real estate agent contacted the Catons.
“We liked the location and size,” Joe says of their 800-acre irrigated farm. “It’s a great community, and our neighbors told us if we needed something to give them a call. We help each other and watch out for each other out here.”
Joe says he hopes their grandson is the next generation to make a living from agriculture.
“Maybe Caton will one day farm here,” Joe says. “He’s always saying he wants to live and work with PoPo.”