Photograph by Kathy De La Torre
Lou Dorcich sells strawberries and cherries from a fruit stand in his driveway on Quito Road.
It may be last year for Quito fruit stand
By Kara Chalmers
Louis Dorcich, 85, runs one of the last private orchards in Saratoga. He grows cherries in what were peach and apricot orchards years ago, and he sells them from his driveway stand at 13089 Quito Road. Dorcich also invests in strawberries. Each morning, he or one of his sons or friends drives to Gilroy for strawberries to sell with his cherries. But about two months ago, Dorcich had a stroke, which left him feeling tired too often, he said.
"This may be my last year," Dorcich said. "I don't think I can hack it." He said he will be glad when this season's over.
Dorcich is waiting for his doctors to give him the OK to keep working. If they don't, he said he would sell his property and move somewhere less demanding, maybe a home on a golf course.
"I'd hate to leave Saratoga," he said, but he makes it clear that what he would really miss is the old Saratoga, not what he calls the "new" Saratoga.
The new Saratoga is much less rural and while he thinks he has some exceptional neighbors, he said he's never even seen some of the new ones--they work all the time. He says he gets as many as four calls a day from real estate agents trying to talk him into selling his property.
Dorcich grew up on a Santa Clara ranch. His father was a cherry grower on Stevens Creek Boulevard near Lawrence Expressway. His father's father came to the United States in 1854 from Croatia.
When Dorcich was first married, he and his wife, Helen, lived in a large, beautiful house on Winchester Boulevard in San Jose. They raised some of their 11 children there. But San Jose was growing rapidly in the 1960s. When the Valley Fair mall was constructed, turning their neighborhood into a bustling shopping area, Dorcich bought the ranch property in Saratoga. He knew that because of rising property values, he could sell his San Jose home for a good price and buy something more rural, more his style.
When he purchased the two-acre property about 40 years ago, it was a mess. The house was unfinished and all the peach and apricot trees were dead.
Helen Dorcich had her 11th child that year. When she came home from the hospital with the new baby she exclaimed, "What have you done to me!" when she saw the place, Dorcich said.
But Dorcich's agriculture instinct took over. "It was a challenge," he said.
"We must have torn out 100 dead peach trees," said his son, David Dorcich.
It was then that Dorcich began a hobby that has continued until today. When they moved in, the family immediately planted all kinds of fruit trees and vegetables, for their own use. They canned fruits to last them through the winter. His children piled cucumbers and ears of corn onto their toy wagons and went door to door selling them, three for a dime.
"We were very family oriented," Dorcich said, adding that he could have hired help but part of his intent with the orchard was to keep his children home. "We wanted to keep the kids busy."
But the "hobby" required a lot of hard work, both from Dorcich and the rest of the family.
"We were ranchers in suburbia," David Dorcich said. He said that growing up on the Quito Road ranch was a unique experience. Like other kids, the six Dorcich girls and five Dorcich boys attended Quito school, he said, but after school they returned home to become farmer's kids. "We didn't do after-school sports, we worked," he said.
Dorcich worked in the grocery business. He and his brother owned a meat and grocery store. After Dorcich retired in 1959 because of ulcers, he worked at Quito Market, where 24-Hour Fitness stands today in Quito Village. He stayed there until about 1977.
Around that time, Dorcich decided to grow only cherry trees, and about 15 years ago, his driveway fruit stand business took off. "Everybody seemed to like the thought of fresh picked cherries," he said.
Today, the ranch is, as it always has been, family operated. Helen Dorcich passed away eight years ago and only Dorcich and one of his sons live in the house now. But Dorcich's children and grandchildren come to help him pick cherries and keep up the grounds every weekend. Last year, one of his grandsons brought his football team from Archbishop Mitty High School to help.
"I can't beat the life I've had here," Dorcich said. "I've enjoyed it immensely." He said there is a satisfaction he still gets each year at harvest time, seeing the results of his hard work. His son David said the orchard has kept his father young.
About 200, mostly cherry, trees surround Dorcich's home, but there are two large fig trees, as well. Both are over 35 feet tall. In the fall, he sells persimmons, plums and figs on an honor system.
"I think I'm the only place around that has a 'serve yourself,'" he said. In the bucket he sets out for payments, he said he gets a lot of cute notes, from people who write things like, "you charge too little," or that they didn't have their checkbooks and will pay him later. Usually, he ends up with more money than he asks for.
"People like good, fresh strawberries, so they say 'keep the change,'" Dorcich said. "Cherries are the same way."
Dorcich is afraid that this year, his crop of cherries will not last until July 4, especially with the recent heat waves. July 4 is usually his last day of business for the cherry season, which starts in April.
"If this weather keeps up, I'll have plums and figs next week," he said.
The reason for the heat waves, he thinks, is that all the people who have moved into the valley have created a thermal blanket, which does not permit cherry trees get the rest they need. He says that while he picks great big, dark cherries from his trees, many small young ones fall off too soon due to weakness
"In the last six years, I haven't had a good year," he said. But he adds that no one can get his kind of cherries in any store. "No one has them as fresh as we do."
People like what Dorcich sells and they come from all over the valley to get it, he said. He sells out almost every day.
"People seem to like coming here," he said. "I don't know why, but they do."
The Dorcich ranch at 13089 Quito Road is open daily through July 4.
Saratoga, California Since 1955
