Fans of fresh, ripe and local fruit will want to venture to Andy’s Orchard in east Morgan Hill before the short stone fruit harvest is complete in a few weeks.
Owned and operated by renowned grower Andy Mariani, the orchard off Half Road features many unique, rare and boutique varieties—many developed by Mariani himself—of plums, peaches, nectarines and pluots. Earlier this summer, Mariani’s tree-ripened cherries and apricots flew off the shelves at the farm’s fruit stand at 1615 Half Road.
As of July 22, the farm was in the midst of their peach and nectarine harvest. Mariani took a moment to talk about what’s fresh while a steady stream of customers moved through the fruit stand, whose tables were filled with more than a dozen varieties of stone fruit.
“This is when our sun shines bright and we have a tremendous selection of peaches and nectarines,” Mariani said.
Andy’s Orchard also offers an “ugly fruit program,” which consists of windfalls and other “cosmetically challenged” fruit that is sold at a discount, Mariani said. “They have the same eating quality as the premium fruit, but for only half price.”
The Mariani family settled in Santa Clara Valley in the 1930s, and in 1957 began growing fruit trees on the current site of Andy’s Orchard. Today, Andy Mariani prides himself on the reliably premium quality of the farm’s cherries, and maintaining one of the largest collections of stone fruits on the west coast.
