Saratoga, California Since
1955
Dining
Marty Dorcich runs the fruit stand on Quito Road in Saratoga that has been attracting locals since his father, Louie, started it back in 1961. This could be the last year of the stand following the sale of the land where it is located. By Suzanne Cristallo 'They're guaranteed to get your husband back," or so says Marty Dorcich when he lauds his strawberries to a customer. Dorcich runs the fruit stand on Quito Road in Saratoga that has been attracting locals since his father, Louie, started it back in 1961. Louie died last fall at the age of 84. Marty, 52, carries on as he has since he was a teenager, helping out at the stand while his father spent his days as a butcher at Gene's Fine Foods. He uses some of the one-liners his father was famous for, carrying on a stream of banter with customers who arrive every few minutes, and punctuating his sentences with a thoughtful chew on a cherry or two. "I'm a marketing man myself," he explains as he encourages the uninitiated to take a taste from among the cherries he has dubbed "Bada Bings," in the vernacular of HBO's The Sopranos. "My father would have slapped the hand of any taster," he recalls. "He was a farmer." The two acres of land behind the signs boasting "Fresh Picked Strawberries and Cherries" are now enclosed by a chain-link fence. The house and property, with towering cherry, fig and pomegranate trees, have been home to various members of the Dorcich family since 1960. Two fig trees, "probably the oldest in Saratoga," Marty believes, rise from 40 to 50 feet high and spread as wide. The noblest of the two supported an imposing tree fort during his teen years. Now the place is for sale, with an offer pending. "We're no different than anyone else caught up in inflation and the ridiculousness of greed," Marty says of the sale necessitated by the death of his father. While he loves the house he has lived in since fourth grade, he can't afford to move it. "People buying this land won't be local," he predicts, figuring the property, priced at $3.6 million, will probably end up with up to six houses on it. "So the houses will have to be expensive - it's a hard thing," he adds, reflecting on the choices forced on his family. Meanwhile, the stand still stands, and will as long as the Dorciches own the house. "I could be here next year," he says. "Lots of people want our cherries and berries back." The stand usually opens around 9 a.m., allowing enough time for Marty to run out to his Gilroy ranch and some neighboring farms at 6 a.m. to load up his 1974 Dodge van with fresh-picked strawberries. Then it's on to the cherry farms to wait while the pickers finish gathering the day's crop. The fruit is guaranteed fresh, and because the tender, soft-skinned Camarosa strawberries have no shelf life, they must be eaten within about two days of picking. "You won't find these berries at Safeway," he says of the sweet, plump, crimson fruit. Five dollars buys three baskets of them, with up to three pounds of berries per basket. Twelve baskets go for $18 - a sweet deal that lasts only until the season ends around mid-July. Likewise for the cherries. A pound of the garnet Bings, glossy-skinned and slightly tart, is $5. The sweeter yellow-reds, which farmers call "whites" but are properly named Royal Anns or Reiniers, come along "every blue moon," according to Marty. He sells them for $5 a pound, "even though they cost me more." When the strawberries and cherries end, there still will be figs from the old trees, persimmons, pomegranates and maybe fresh corn. "I'll be here as long as it's ours," Marty says. "Look for the open gate." Dorcich Fruit Stand, at 13089 Quito Road, Saratoga, is open from 9 a.m. "until the fruit's gone." |
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