fruit notes

This week, we squeezed in a farm visit to see Steve Chinchiolo of Chinchiolo Family Farms in Escalon and Ripon. Every year, we tell ourselves not to book any farm visits during the summer because it’s nearly impossible for us to pull off. But when cherry season is as rough as this one and only three weeks long, we couldn’t miss the last week of harvest. When I asked to come out and see the pack, Steve said, “We’re just a little shade-tree operation here. Nothing fancy. It’s very basic.” And yes, it’s the sweetest little cherry packing line we’ve ever seen.

Steve Chinchiolo is a third-generation farmer, and his adult children — the fourth generation — are all involved in the family business. The Chinchiolo family has farmed this land for almost 100 years. Steve’s grandfather immigrated from Italy to Boston when he was four years old and started out in Massachusetts as a fruit vendor, selling from a little fruit cart. Eventually, he moved to California to begin farming in the Escalon and Ripon area, where he grew just about everything: grapes, cherries, almonds, plums, peaches — you name it. At one point, the family farmed more than 500 acres. Today, Steve farms roughly 180 acres, 35 of which are planted in cherries.

You wouldn’t guess that most of those cherry trees are Bing cherries. Given how small the crop was this season due to the compressed bloom period and a late-spring rain and hail event, he barely had a crop this year. Steve’s cherry varieties, in the order they ripen, are Corals, Bings, Lapins, Regina, Summit, and Utah Giants. When we walked the orchard with him this week, there were maybe only a handful of Regina cherries left on the trees and almost no Summit cherries in sight. And whenever I ask Steve about his Utah Giants, he chuckles and says that if you drink a glass of water next to them, they’ll crack. They’re that susceptible to water damage. This year, there wasn’t a single cherry on the Utah Giant trees.

Being a cherry farmer is risky business, let alone doing it organically. Steve transitioned to organic farming around 2001, and he says our friend John Lagier had something to do with it. Steve Chinchiolo and John Lagier go way back — all the way to third grade at River School on River Road in Ripon, where they first met. For the last 14 years or so, Steve has packed out of what used to be the Lagier packing shed in Escalon on Murphy Road. Now that John has retired and passed the farm and packing shed on to a new owner, Steve still packs his cherries there on a little line made up of John’s conveyor belt and Steve’s elevator. Simple but deeply charming pieces of machinery, joined together by two farmers who have worked and lived alongside each other for nearly their entire lives. It’s hard not to feel warm and fuzzy about this basic little packing line.

While visiting Steve’s orchard, he kindly stopped by some of John’s old cherry trees so we could check out some the Bing and Rainier cherries. Smaller cherries, but packed with flavor! If all goes as planned (it’s currently raining this Thursday morning), John will be back at the orchard and shed with the new owner, Srikant Nandamuri, harvesting Bing and Rainier cherries for us next week. They’ll be sold under the new farm name, Nandamuri Farms. And with the mentorship of John and Casey, Nandamuri Farms will have organic cherries for us this season and, hopefully, some Bronx grapes this fall, too.

It truly takes a village, and we’re in awe of — and deeply grateful for — this one.

Last call for NorCal cherries next week. It’ll be a good one.