Morgan Hill orchard offers flavor of rare fruits
A peach is a peach. A cherry a cherry. Unless, of course, you’ve
met Andy Mariani. He is a premiere rare fruit grower and he
maintains one of the largest collections of stone fruit
– peaches, plums, apricots, nectarines and cherries – on the
West Coast at his Morgan Hill farm, Andy’s Orchard.
Morgan Hill orchard offers flavor of rare fruits
A peach is a peach. A cherry a cherry. Unless, of course, you’ve met Andy Mariani. He is a premiere rare fruit grower and he maintains one of the largest collections of stone fruit – peaches, plums, apricots, nectarines and cherries – on the West Coast at his Morgan Hill farm, Andy’s Orchard.
“You can taste things in his collection that beat anything in the state,” said Nancy Garrison, a master gardener and member of the California Rare Fruit Growers.
During the summer months, Mariani opens up his orchards for special fruit tasting events which allow those from far and near to have a taste of his life’s work. While his farm does need to make a profit, Mariani has set aside parts of his orchard to grow varieties that won’t yield the best crops or make him the most money. In fact, some of his fruit trees don’t even grow enough sweet treats to sell.
“It’s my own passion for that particular variety,” Mariani said. “I will grow it and I like to share it with other people. Say it doesn’t produce well, for those few trees, it’s really a treasure as something that has a lot of flavor.”
The first fruit tasting of the year, held June 18, proved Garrison’s point. During the Sunday morning event, Mariani and his staff set out nearly 40 varieties of cherries for guests to taste before a tour of his orchard. Mariani offers many of the old standbys found in grocery stores and farmers markets such as Bings and Rainiers. At his tasting, however, visitors had a chance to taste some of the harder to find varieties such as Benton, Vans, Black Republican and Black Tartarian.
Biting into some of the fruits, a novice cherry sampler might suspect the Black Tartarians were overripe with their soft flesh, but Mariani explained the difference between two groups of cherries. The guigne, or gean, cherries have soft, tender flesh and the Bigarreaux cherries such as Bings which have a firm, crisp flesh. The soft flesh cherries are so rare because they are harder to package and ship than their firmer fleshed cousins.
“Our focus is on really high quality tree ripened fruit and different varieties,” Mariani said. “We differentiate ourselves from the fruits you can get at the grocery store or a farmers market.”
He prides himself on the complexity of flavors offered in some of his fruits.
“There is something to be said about having different varieties, different flavors and different textures,” he said. “There’s acidity, sweetness and astringency. If you get an immature fruit it is something that might be a little sweet, but other than that it doesn’t have much flavor.”
Mariani started the summer tasting and orchard tours three years ago as a way to draw newcomers to his farm and to share his passion for fruit.
“We have the third largest metropolitan area in California…we are only 10 miles away from them,” Mariani said. “It’s an operating farm and some people have never been to one.”
The Feldman family came out to the event on Father’s Day for their first experience at the local orchard. The family moved to Morgan Hill about a year ago and heard of Andy’s Orchards from a neighbor. Cindy Feldman had also read about the tastings in a recent Sunset Magazine article. She spent the morning tasting cherries with her husband, Jerry and two daughters, Sarah and Laura.
“I only thought there were regular red ones and maraschino [cherries],” Sarah said of the varieties they discovered.
“Peaches are my favorite, so I am sure we will be back again this summer,” Cindy Feldman said.
The family enjoyed the tasting and learned about operations at the orchard. Mariani sells his fruits all over the world, including Japan where his cherries can sell for as much as $1 each.
“In Japan, a man might go out on a date and he will purchase two cherries, one for himself and one for his date,” Mariani said.
While cherry prices are high this season, Mariani explained the reasons the cost fluctuates, especially in a year like this when late rains created problems with pollination. Bees are used to pollinate the cherry trees, but because it rained so much in March and April, the bees were not very helpful in cross-pollinating the trees at Mariani’s place. The late rains also caused root damage and several trees will have to be torn out before next season. Mariani estimated that his cherry crop was only 30-35 percent of what it normally is.
“I went through grad school finals,” Mariani said. “But cherry season is the most God awful thing you can go through. They are highly perishable. The price can change from $10-20 a box.”
Most of his cherries were picked in a five-day period and guests to the orchard June 18 tasted some of the last local cherries of the season. But summer has just begun and there will be many more fruit tasting throughout the season focusing on different fruits as they ripen.
“It’s really hectic, but anytime you invite guests over for a barbecue or dinner or party it’s nice,” he said. “This is an extension of something like that. It’s inviting a lot of people over to show off what you are doing. Hopefully, they find it interesting.”
For more information, visit www.andysorchard.com or call 408-782-7600.
2006 Fruit Tastings
July 1, 10 a.m. Apricots and other fruits
July 9, 10 a.m. apricots and other stone fruits
July 29 10 a.m. peaches, nectarines and plums
August 5, 10 a.m. Stone fruit
August 6, 10 a.m. Stone fruit
August 12, 10 a.m. Stone fruit
August 13, 10 a.m. Stone fruit
