Photograph by George Sakkestad
The familiar Dorcich family fruit stand will spend one last season on Quito Road this summer, says Marty Dorcich, showing off the current strawberry selection. The property is being sold to developers.
Dorcich stand to make one last stand
Fruit stand giving way to new development
By Oakley Brooks
Something familiar returned to Quito Road in recent weeks--the Dorcich fruit stand.
For 18 months following the death of owner Louis Dorcich Sr. in September 2000, the property--once a bustling cherry orchard at which Dorcich used sell his fruit and Watsonville strawberries--sat abandoned.
But recently Dorcich's son, Marty, pried open the chainlink fence that kept the trespassers out, and began hawking strawberries from his family's land again.
The Dorcich family said that with a pending sale of the two-acre estate to local developers, they will make one last run at operating the fruit stand this summer.
Marty Dorcich, who lives in Campbell, said he expects to harvest about 50 cherry trees that are still viable. He also would like to plant sweet corn and pumpkins on the property.
"It's more of a tribute to my dad than anything," Marty said.
For about 20 years, Louis Sr. tended the cherries, figs, persimmons and plums in the orchard at 13089 Quito Rd., with the assistance of his wife Helen and their 11 children. By day, he was a butcher at Gene's Market.
He moved his family into the two-story bungalow farmhouse along Quito in 1961, after urbanization and rising property values in West San Jose drove him to a more rural lifestyle in Saratoga.
"That's my room right up there," Marty said recently, pointing from the strawberry stand to the baby-blue bungalow, a relic from another era.
The house stood as a shell of its former self. A large board with "Keep Out" emblazoned across it sat over the front door. Through one of the only side windows without a curtain drawn across it, the downstairs looked empty and dark. Only a few bedposts in a back room showed that someone had once lived in the house.
A rusty plow and neatly stacked fruit crates lay in the backyard. There was also a pile of cabinets, old chairs and used lumber. The barn, doors open, was vacant like the house, cords dangling from the ceiling lights.
Louis Dorcich Jr. said last week some "local people" who had presented a development plan for the property were currently in a credit check. If all goes well, he expects to have a firm commitment from the bidders by June.
He didn't expand on the details of the proposal, saying only that it would be for "upscale housing."
The family got six different bids last spring when the property first went on the market--most of the bids to subdivide the land into six 12,000 square-foot lots.
Local developer Scott Kelly proposed putting a cul-de-sac on the property, and relocating the farmhouse to one of the six lots.
Louis Dorcich Jr. said then that the highest bids were in the $4 million range.
But when the real estate market softened early last year, the bids fell through.
Early requests this year from the Dorciches were in the $3 million range, according to local developers.
The city's heritage preservation commission has asked that developers keep the farmhouse intact on the site.
But the fruit trees will make just one more stand before they go.
Marty Dorcich said late last week he would soon turn over the ground beneath the trees, now covered with two seasons of grass and some orange poppies.
Locals stopping by Dorcich's stand were already excited by the juicy, ruby-colored strawberries on sale.
They rolled up to his spot and happily shelled out $17 for a 12-quart box or $5 for three quarts.
"About 80 percent have a story to tell about my Dad," Marty said.
Sally Garcia, who lives on the San Jose-Cupertino line, had brought her young granddaughters to get strawberries from Louis Dorcich Sr. in his last year.
"We really miss him," Garcia said last week, gathering a couple of pints from Marty. "Every time we drive by here, we think about him."
Garcia said she was disappointed to see the small farm in disrepair, "but we're happy to see Marty here."
Around 2 p.m., Marty announced to his wife on his cell phone that he was "over the hump"--he had sold about half of the 50 or so boxes he'd brought up from Watsonville.
It was significantly less than the amount of berries his father used to sell in a day. But some of Louis Sr.'s old helpers have started up competing stands around the area.
Marty said cherries will give him an edge in June or July; few stands will have the local crop.
But when September rolls around and the last pumpkin goes, Marty will pack up for good. The trees and garden will be replaced by homes.
"When they're gone this year," said Louis Dorcich Jr., "they're gone."
Saratoga, California Since 1955
