Sunnyvale, California Since 1994
Cover Story
Deborah Olson is 'cherry' happy about the opening of the new Olson Cherry Stand, located where the old one used to be. The ceiling beams were recycled from the old cherry stand barn.
Standing Tall C.J. Olson celebrates 103 years of existence with annual Cherry Festival By William Jeske A Sunnyvale cultural institution celebrated another turning point in what Deborah Olson calls "an unbelievable journey." The 103-year-old C.J. Olson Cherries fruit stand, still at its original location at the intersection of El Camino Real and Mathilda Avenue, held its annual Cherry Festival June 8 and 9. In marking yet another year of survival in the face of an ever-expanding urban area, the festival also proved to be an exercise in fusing the old with the new. A 13–year struggle to save the Olson ranch came to a head in June 1999 when the Sunnyvale City Council voted 5–2 to pass the Planning Commission's recommendation for the land to be leased to developers. "It's been two years of solid negotiations," said Deborah Olson, a fourth-generation orchardist. "I think the time spent negotiating has allowed the community to get used to the idea of there being no more ranch." The commission also approved the razing and rebuilding of a new fruit stand. "The Olson family has been here for more than a hundred years," Mayor Fred Fowler said. "They've been the center of culture and tradition—our heart belongs to the Olsons, and the Olsons belong to Sunnyvale." The new stand is larger, brighter and apparently more efficient, as far as the staff is concerned. "I have a loading area now! Isn't this great?" Deborah said gleefully a few days before the opening. The Olson family leased the former orchard acres to the Irvine Company, which a reluctant city council allowed to implement a mixed-use plan for retail and residential buildings. The new development, appropriately called The Cherry Orchard Shopping Center, consist of a Borders, a Starbucks, and some other retail and service companies. After the ribbon-cutting ceremony, Mayor Fowler stepped across the parking lot to the A.G. Ferrari Foods store for its opening ceremony. "They've been wonderful neighbors," Deborah said of the other businesses in the center. There's also the nearby Cherry Orchard Apartments, consisting of 283 units in four-story buildings. Architect and family friend Joe Bellomo designed the new fruit stand at Deborah Olson's insistence. 
Olson's Cherries: A tradition for 103 years
The new Olson Cherry Stand recently opened to the public and boasts a bigger space, air conditioning, hot water and restrooms. Deborah said that she and Bellomo must have gone through at least a dozen designs before settling on one that met the needs of her and her staff. One mandatory element for the new fruit stand was that it must include a historic water tower—with the logo for the imaginary college Sunnyvale State University—that is now waiting nearby to be placed atop a small office building next to the fruit stand. The idea for the fictitious university comes from a brush Deborah's father, Charlie Olson, had with a famous college basketball coach. As Charlie tells it, he met the now-deceased coach Jim Valvano of North Carolina State University at the top of a stairwell at a banquet in 1983. Valvano had coached his team to the Final Four and, upon meeting Charlie, mistook him for another coach. "Where do you coach?" Valvano asked. Without pausing, Charlie simply answered, "Sunnyvale State University." Charlie decided to run with the gag and created the three-stemmed cherry to be printed on polo shirts, T-shirts, coffee mugs and baseball caps. He had the logo painted on the water tower in 1985, which the city wants to designate as a historical landmark. Scaffolding and support beams from the original fruit stand, built in the 1920s, have also been incorporated into the new structure. "That stand lasted until the bulldozer knocked it over," said a droll Charlie Olson, wearing well-worn tan coveralls and enjoying a barbecue sausage basted in a cherry marinade. "This building here will withstand 10,000 years," he added. "It's overkill engineering, but that's what they do today because of earthquakes and all that sort of thing." The June 8 festival drew several hundred customers and well-wishers, who sampled reliable Olson wares like juice, nuts, chocolate-covered fruit and barbecue marinades, displayed on palates and crates that date from the 1920s. Activities included guessing how many cherry pits were in a jar, occasional pit-spitting contests and a short tour of the nearby cherry orchard on Mathilda Avenue, hosted by Charlie Olson. The triangular orchard takes up about 2.5 acres, compared to the 15 acres it encompassed in the 1980s. "I'm disturbed that we lose all this good farmland," Charlie Olson said. "We were in bad shape; we had about five years of crop failures, but now we're in much better shape for having chosen to have the land developed." If running a successful agricultural-based business is so risky, why continue? "Because I'm nuts!" Deborah exclaims. "To be in the cherry business, you have to be nuts." C.J. Olson Cherries is located at 348 W. El Camino Real, Sunnyvale, 94087. For more information call 1.800.738.BING, ext. 2464, or visit www.cjolsoncherries.com. |
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