Farms of Amador Annual Farm Tour

Doors opened at four o’clock at the Kennedy Gold Mine, 12594 Kennedy Mine Road in Jackson, on September 13, 2026. Dinner was served at half past five. The Amador County Chamber of Commerce listed the date as a Sunday, and one Farms of Amador post called it Saturday the 13th. Molly Allen and Jennifer Anderson came back by popular demand to weave flower crowns for the guests, with the flowers supplied by Domenico Winery. “Me and Jenn did the flower crown thing at The Farms of Amador Dinner and it was good,” Allen posted the next day. The dinner featured four vineyards: Rombauer Vineyards, Casino Mine Ranch, Iron Hub Winery, and Tabeaux Cellars. Diners could also bid on a lavender breakfast for eight. Chef Ernie cooks it, and it is eaten under Daniel D’Agostini’s walnut tree. Afterward the party tours Abbondanza Farm and harvests fresh lavender. Every dinner seat was gone by September 3.

Olive trees, a school farm, and Upcountry

Earlier in the day the tours left at 10 a.m., noon, and 2 p.m. Tour tickets were still for sale after the dinner sold out. There were three stops. The first was Upcountry Farms, run by Dan, Tori, and Freya. The second was Amador Olive Oil, run by Susan Bragstad. The third was the new Amador County Unified School District farm at the Mother Lode Land Trust. On the 12th, the day before, the Amador Resource Conservation District held its own gathering at the Kennedy Mine. Presenters included the UCCE Master Gardeners of Amador County, Reigning Bees Apiary, Tri County Wildlife Care, and the Central Sierra Audubon Society. There was also a photo contest and face painting.

Farms of Amador describes itself as a countywide, non-profit agricultural education organization in the foothills of California’s Sierra Nevada. The tour and dinner is its annual fundraiser. In 2026 it was held with the Amador Farmers Market. Proceeds go to School to Farm experiences and school garden programs. The organization says the farms on the tour change every year, and the event “rotates between early spring and late summer in order to appreciate the many seasons of planting and harvesting.” Andrea Macon is the executive director and was the event contact. She grew up on a small cattle ranch in Central Oregon, where her family canned tuna caught off the coast. She moved to Amador County in 1994. Director Ron Antone retired from fifty years of building and designing stage sets in New York and Los Angeles. He settled on a lavender farm in Mount Aukum and started the Farms of Amador School Farm Tour program. That program is the one the dinner pays for. A 2017 notice in the Ledger Dispatch said the money raised filled “a much needed funding gap” so that local schools could take field trips to farms.

Dinner in the Walnut Grove

According to a November 2009 survey of California agritourism associations by the UC Cooperative Extension, Farms of Amador was started in 2005 by the Extension. At the time of the survey, Extension staff ran it and its website sat on the Extension’s own site. It had since become a 501(c)(3) with a board of directors and about 90 members, most of them producers. Dues had been cut to $20 from $40 to $60 to bring in new members. A state agriculture grant had paid for free metal signs for members. The survey listed three projects: a farm trails map, a website, and an annual tour event.

That year the tour ran under another name. On Sunday, August 30, 2009, the Amador Farmers’ Market and Farms of Amador held “Dinner in the Walnut Grove.” Each ticket came with a map for a self-guided drive to several farms and two vineyard-wineries. The drive ended in the Shenandoah Valley at the home of Jim and Suzy Gullett, owners of Vino Noceto. Amador Catering served dinner in the shade of the walnut trees on the east side of the house. Herb Boxhorn played, the wine came from Vino Noceto and Story, and Andrae’s Bakery made dessert. A raffle and a silent auction raised money for the market’s operating and advertising costs and for Farms of Amador’s marketing and education work.

Longhorns, a granary, and the Poor Farm

By 2017 the event was called the Farm Tour and Dinner. On Saturday, August 12 of that year it went back to the Ione Valley. The Ledger Dispatch printed two accounts. One described a tour of four ranches and farms between 1 and 5 p.m. The other described a self-guided tour of three stops. The first stop was Westhaven Ranch, where visitors saw champion Texas Longhorn cattle up close. The second was Upcountry Farm, then called organic farming newcomers, at the peak of its flower and vegetable season. The third was the Winterport cattle farm, 180 acres, established in 1869. Ned and Emily Taylor hosted dinner at the Pope-Taylor Ranch, which has a restored granary 150 years old and views across the valley. Lucy’s Spice Box served a California Heritage family-style dinner, and the 41st Street Quartet played classical jazz. Tickets were $75 and sold at the farmers markets in Sutter Creek, Jackson, Pine Grove, and Plymouth. “This popular event sells out every year,” the notice said.

The 2019 tour, on Sunday, September 29, started at Amador Olive Oil on Climax Road. Susan Bragstad had made olive oil there since 1995, when she bought the farm with 170 old olive trees. She later planted more than 200 more and built a barn with rain capture and solar power. The second stop was Daniel D’Agostini’s Abbondanza on Shenandoah Road in Plymouth. D’Agostini had turned his childhood home into a certified organic and Biodynamic farm and learning center. It had free-range chickens, a top-bar beehive habitat, lavender beds, and a photography studio he built himself.

The third stop was on D’Agostini Drive. Mike and Jenni Mahoney had bought a farmhouse from about 1914 on the former Jameson Ranch. The house was in poor shape, and they had moved from Utah across the desert with everything in the back of a truck, “Grapes of Wrath-style.” So they named the place “The Poor Farm.” They restored the craftsman house and planted redwoods and a pistachio orchard. Their new barn was raised on a timber frame more than a hundred years old, brought from Wisconsin, and it holds Mike’s woodturning shop. He gave demonstrations on the lathe for the tour. The day ended at Iron Hub Winery on Steiner Road. Tom and Beth Jones bought the 33-acre property in 2014. Tom had been the founding winemaker at Lava Cap Winery in Apple Hill. On the terrace he showed guests how he tastes ripening grapes to decide when to harvest. Taste restaurant cooked dinner, and the Stealing the Covers Trio played.

On Sunday, September 7, 2025, the tours were guided. They visited Pansaré Cellars in Sutter Creek, Mount Echo Ranch in Ione, and Reigning Bees Apiary in Plymouth. Andy’s Crossover Kitchen cooked dinner at the Amador Flower Farm on Shenandoah School Road.

The olive grower at every edition’s edge

Susan Bragstad is a retired architect and a three-term mayor of Amador City. She is one of the original founders of the Amador Farmers Market. In 2019 the Ledger Dispatch reported that she had not missed a day selling at the summer markets in 26 years. The Farms of Amador team page now says she has come every week since the market began, which it counts as 30 years. Her farm has 400 trees. She is also a founder and director of the Kennedy Mine Foundation, which ties her to the place where the 2026 dinner was served. “When you start something, you should stay with it, and make sure it thrives.”