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Hilltop Gardens Farm hasn’t been burned out, yet the family business for more than 60 years is still feeling the heat from the worst summer on record for wildfires in the province.

“We were hoping this year would be our year,” said Jewel Rice, who owns the farm along with her husband Mike Rice.

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The 112-acre operation near Spences Bridge has more than 3,000 fruit trees and also grows tomatoes, pumpkins and melons, some of which is sold from a roadside stand. It is just 25 minutes’ drive south of the fire that ravaged the Ashcroft and Cache Creek areas.

In early July, just as their business’s peak season was about to get underway, their area was hit with an evacuation order lasting more than three weeks.

“We got six days in with a few products sold, and then everything had to be shut down just as we had close to 5,000 to 6,000 pounds of apricots waiting to be sold,” Rice said

The business has had to do something to survive that the Rices have long been loath to do.