Chicken is sometimes flown in from Pennsylvania, the fish from Japan.

The apricots and prunes, though, are picked in an orchard only a few miles down Highway 9. They come from the Novakovich Orchard in Saratoga, a sprawling 11-acre family-run business on Fruitvale Avenue that has thrived even as other similar ventures became victims of growing urbanization.

According to George Novakovich, the Manresa celebrity chef has a special liking for the orchard's Blenheim apricots.

"They are not easy to grow. They grow well only in the climate of the Bay Area," says Novakovich, a third-generation family member to tend to the orchard.

As he passionately describes the many qualities of the Blenheim apricots, Novakovich almost seems like the character played by Virginia Madsen in the hit movie Sideways when she describes the temperamental grape that is used to make pinot noir.

"They're full of juice but they don't travel well. They bleed easily," he says.

On a good day, Novakovich can compose similar paeans about most of the other fruit that is grown by the family.

Forty-three and single, Novakovich sometimes spends more than 15 hours a day working. His brother Matt prunes, disks and maintains the orchard. Another brother, Dan, a fireman with the Santa Clara County Fire Department, helps out whenever he can. Their mother, Leah, tends to the fruit stand.

During the harvest season, the family often hires farm workers. This month, the Novakoviches are harvesting bing cherries. They seem to fly from the decrepit looking fruit stand into customers' hands. The cherry harvest will be followed soon by apricots, peaches and nectarines.

"Increasingly, Christmas has become the busiest time of the year for us," says George Novakovich, who has a business degree from the San José State University.

The family has created a gift shop that operates during the holiday season. The shop sells gift boxes of dried fruits and assorted goodies.

"The chocolate-dipped apricots are a favorite," he says. Another fast-moving item is the turtle, a pecan dipped in caramel and chocolate.

"Sometimes we work until 3 a.m. during the holiday season," he says.

The Novakoviches hope that the holiday gift boxes will enable them to increase revenues and survive in the years to come.

"We plan to keep selling direct and make the Christmas season bigger," he says, adding that every year the family tries to come up with some new gift ideas.

"A lot of people who live in Saratoga like to send out a gift box that is local," he says.

Very often, the recipients of these gifts become regular customers who love the quality of the products. "Each year we get more and more people on our mailing list," he says.

In recent years, the orchard also started selling fruit preserves. On occasion, they also sell tomatoes, green beans and corn.

There is almost a paternal pride in Novakovich's voice when he talks about the family business.

"We let the fruit ripen on our trees. They get a lot of sun, so they are much sweeter than the fruit sold at regular grocery stores," he says.

There are many locals who also take a fierce pride in the Novakovich Orchard. Henry Miller, who lives a few blocks away, is one of them.

"Besides the fruit, I like to be able to go up there and talk to them. I like talking about how the crop is shaping up," he says.

Miller owns a tiny orchard himself. "It's just a hobby. The fruit that I grow is distributed to family and friends," he says.

Miller says that he is disappointed that the area's orchards have disappeared.

"These guys will keep going. They work hard. Everyone in their family works in the orchard. They know what it takes to get the job done," says Miller.

Shirley Martire, who has been buying fruit from the family for more than 30 years, attributed its success to the friendly attitude of the owners.

"Saratoga has grown up in the last 30 years but the orchard has stayed exactly the same," she says. "What they do is not easy, especially when every other similar business in the area has disappeared."

Leah Novakovich surely knows what Martire is talking about. She came to the farm in 1952, after she married George Novakovich, Sr. "I've been here ever since," she says.

George Sr. lived at the Fruitvale Avenue address since he was a baby. "The family bought this place in an auction in 1925," says Leah, who still speaks with the gentle lilt of a Southern accent. "My family was originally from Arkansas and Oklahoma."

The Novakovich family is of Yugoslavian descent. The family came to California in 1911 and lived in Sonora. They moved to Santa Clara County in 1925.

Mary and Matt Novakovich, George Jr.'s grandparents, soon started planting fruit trees on the land they had purchased. Before long, they had a booming business. Mary died in 1966, some years after Matt.

Leah had to adapt quickly to the hardworking lifestyle of the immigrant family. "I remember cutting apricots for four weeks when I first came here," she says.

It was Leah who started investing more time in the family's fruit stand. "Before, we would be selling most of our harvest to packing houses like Dole's," says George.

As the 1980s arrived, the family started planting cherry trees. "In 1989, we had a bumper cherry crop. That was the year our father [George Sr.] died," says George.

The family insists that nothing much has changed at the orchard. Two friendly and somnolent golden retrievers, Toby and Jake, are always around to wag their tails at customers.

The implements of modern harvesting, though, are slowly making their presence felt. A lift truck is used to maneuver the heavy crates of fruit now while a mechanical contraption takes care of the prune harvest. George has recently started using an all-terrain-vehicle the size of a small golf cart to make his way through the orchard. "A tractor is too large. This makes it much easier for me to get around," he says.

Other vestiges of the past have disappeared. The family used to raise pigs in the early '50s. "They made smoked meats," Leah says. A chicken coop lies empty near the barn.

Since 1975, the family has also looked after the Heritage Orchard on Fruitvale Avenue at the city's request.

Both Leah and George live on the property. They say that they have no plans to move. Leah lives in a historic Queen Anne built in 1890. The house is on the city's heritage building list.

"You know, this place was really rural before. I could stand here and be able to see all the way to the Village," George says.

He can't do that anymore. Million-dollar homes have sprouted up all around, blocking his cherished view.

"It's the last remaining family-run orchard in Saratoga," says April Halberstadt, curator at the Saratoga Historical Museum. Halberstadt says that Saratoga began to be known for its orchards in the mid-19th century. James Peter Springer came to the Bay Area in 1841 from Missouri and ultimately settled in Saratoga with his family in 1852.

"Missouri was a big apple-growing area at the time and Springer brought his cuttings and expertise to Saratoga," Halberstadt says.

According to a book by historian Florence R. Cunningham, the first large-scale fruit business in Saratoga started around 1876.

"The new orchards quickly became profitable, so others followed suit," Halberstadt says.

For a while, in the late 19th century, the 680-acre Glen Una Ranch in Saratoga was thought to be the largest apricot orchard in the world.

"Santa Clara Valley was very attractive to many experimental horticulturists and there is a long history of experiments in grafting and cross-pollination to improve production and quality," Halberstadt says.

Glen Una Ranch is long gone. So are the other orchards. The Novakovich family, though, is firmly determined to keep its business going. "We do pretty good. We can pay our bills and taxes," Leah says.

Every so often, some real estate developer will hint at a possible offer.

"Sometimes we will get offers in the mail but the money is only so much. We still have to do something," says George.

Leah says that she always avoids quoting a price when someone makes an offer. She fears that someone might actually be ready to pay, no matter how high the amount.

"What will we do with all that money? We won't know where to go," Leah says.

And where would Chef Kinch get his apricots?