Photograph by Kathy De La Torre
Leah Novakovich moved to the Saratoga orchard as a new bride. Today, she and two of her grandsons run the orchard.
Homegrown fruits bloom at Novakovich Orchard
By Suzanne Cristallo
Winter isn't weathered yet, but signs of spring are already transforming the barren Novakovich Orchard in Saratoga. Buds promising a canopy of cherry blossoms are strung like knots along tree branches. Wild mustard grows tall from the rain-drenched soil. And in the old dipping shed, which now serves as a kitchen and gift shop, George Novakovich Jr. is busy dunking dried apricots in melted chocolate and arranging "turtles" in heart-shaped boxes for Valentine's Day.
For 75 years there have been Novakovichs on these 11 acres. In 1925, native Yugoslavians Matt and Mary Novakovich bought the land and settled in the white farmhouse. There they reared four children while tending prune and apricot trees. Today, their daughter-in-law Leah and grandsons Matt and George Jr. still care for the place, harvesting nectarines, apricots, prunes, cherries, peaches and plums for sale, fresh or dried, from their little store behind the house.
Passage down the long drive past the orchard to the old house and big red barn is a comforting trip for those who remember, or imagine, the textures of another day: rough barn surfaces of white-washed wood, the taste of freshly fallen oranges or the cluck of chickens picking contentedly at invisible treats on the drive.
Leah and her husband, the late George Sr., were the second generation to work the place, replacing the prunes with cherry trees some years back. They met through the Klears, owners of what was then the Village Creamery on Big Basin Way. Leah was a student at San Jose State University, and George was a volunteer fireman.
They spent their first "date" in the creamery. Afterward, "he'd come clear across town to see me," Leah recalls. "That impressed me." Their May marriage was followed by a move into the farmhouse with George's mother--just in time, Leah discovered, for the apricot harvest.
Orchard farming is a gamble that can be influenced positively by a drought, or negatively by a too wet spring or a too long winter. George's 30-year career with the Saratoga Fire Department was the life-saver in the couple's ability to keep the property in a time when country was becoming city.
"It was a regular paycheck," she recalls. "Prop 13 also saved our necks, so we could keep the farm when property taxes were constantly rising." The late Kenneth Peake of Monte Sereno's Claravale Dairy, who appreciated the family's effort to keep the orchard, delivered milk to them, a gift they returned in apricots.
Huge homes press against the back fences of the Novakovich property, peering down on the trees that will yield the orchard's famous cherries in May, apricots in June and peaches and nectarines in July. In August, corn and tomatoes are brought in, as are pumpkins in October.
George Jr., 38, who is one of the third generation to live and work on the place, has used his SJSU business degree knowledge to create the gift shop. There, he packages apricots and other dried fruits for local sale or by mail to places as distant as Australia and England. It's the orchard's "turtles," consisting of dried apricots, pecans and caramel dipped in chocolate, that are the big sellers. A Valentine box of 16 is $16.
While George runs the store, brother Matt, 46, maintains the family orchard--pruning, disking and irrigating--while also caring for Saratoga's 12-acre Heritage Orchard at Fruitvale and Saratoga avenues since its designation by the city as protected land. Fruit from both orchards are available fresh in the store.
Novakovich Orchards, 14251 Fruitvale Ave., Saratoga. Winter hours: open Sun.-Fri., 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Closed Saturday. 408.867.3131.
Saratoga, California Since 1955
