Los Gatos Weekly-Times

Photograph by George Sakkestad

Lou Dorcich picks cherries from his two-acre ranch in Saratoga.

Small ranch on Quito Road has become an institution

By Suzanne Cristallo

Lou Dorcich has been selling freshly picked fruit from a stand at the edge of his driveway on Quito Road for decades. "Hundreds of my customers I've known for 40 years," he says.

On two acres of fertile soil surrounding his Saratoga home, his 200 cherry trees have over the years produced the fruit that has kept him and his 11 children busy picking and selling seven days a week from April to July. The picking duties span the generations, down through 19 grandchildren and soon to 17 great-grandchildren. The group numbers as many as 53 on holidays.

"Few schools around here have not been shocked by my clan," Dorcich says with a laugh. "My wife, Helen, died six years ago, but she used to be in everything--school this and school that."

Dorcich has held on to his land in spite of developers offering him millions for it. "I'm alone now, and it keeps me going and [feeds] the children's nostalgia for the past. But," he chuckles, "my kids are more likely to remember the weed-pulling."

Dorcich has part interest in additional land in Morgan Hill. Each morning, he arises at 4 a.m. to travel there for the day's picking of strawberries. By 9 a.m., his stand is loaded with boxes selling three for $4. By afternoon, only a few are left. A woman and her grandchild finger the remaining ones. "Is this all you have left?" she laments with feigned disgust.

"I'm going to smack your grandma," Dorcich jokes to the child. "She comes this late and expects the best." To the woman, he says, "I'm going to send you to Safeway and teach you a lesson." In an aside, he says with a twinkle, "I've been talking to her for 15 years like this. But I must have a certain charm. They keep coming back!"

Dorcich's Bing cherries come from trees he carefully selected for their root stock and pollination history. Two grandsons pick them each morning, and on weekends, six or seven other children show up to help.

The Bings, which have been in for the past week, and the Morgan Hill strawberries will be available only until the first week of July. Then Dorcich closes the stand, leaving the summer's crop of figs and the persimmons in the fall in unattended boxes for customers to buy on an honor system, leaving cash in a box. "People are wonderful," Dorcich says. "They leave little notes if they don't have change."

Dorcich has become an institution. "He's such a fun-loving, energetic, wonderful man," says neighbor Carole Reames. "But I've given up ever hoping to be at his stand early enough to buy his fruit."

Dorcich Mini Ranch, 13089 Quito Road, Saratoga. Open daily through July 4, 9 a.m. until the fruit is gone.

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