Horticulturalist Andy
Mariani is an innovator in one of the oldest fields in the world. Through
creative marketing and researching, Mariani has made a name for himself in
California: Cherry Man of the Year, an honor awarded by the state's Cherry
Growers and Industries Foundation.
Not only are his growing techniques
innovative, so is his marketing. Looking around at nearby vineyards and their
popular wine tastings, Mariani thought he'd bring some direct marketing to his
orchard.
"I tell (visitors) we get to the fruit before it ferments,"
Mariani said jokingly.
Andy's Orchard attracts visitors from the region
and even across the country, to taste his hundreds of unique varieties of stone
fruits and, yes, cherries. Capitalizing on the ever increasing suburban areas
around him and the "buy local" movement, Mariani offers tours, "Harvest Walks"
where patrons can pick their own fruit in the summer, and opened a store to
sell his specialty fruits.
Unlike some of his vineyard counterparts,
whom he affectionately calls "gentlemen farmers" for their hobbyist nature,
Mariani's a man of the land. He drives a well-worn brown and tan Ford, with a
"Buy Fresh, Buy Local" bumper sticker as old as his vintage blue California
license plate.
Sporting a dark blue nondescript baseball cap with tufts
of white curly hair peaking underneath, Mariani, a tall, thin, laid-back man,
gestures towards his fruit trees and enthusiastically describes the process of
pruning, thinning, irrigating and harvesting the fruit, year after year - a
timeless process that suits him.
"To me, this is relaxing. You don't
have to worry about dealing with the public. It's like not working, it's doing
what I feel like," he explained. "It's visceral. It's elemental, growing
things. DaVinci said, 'Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.'"
No
one can wax poetic like Mariani, who sees his 40 acres of orchards as part of a
bigger picture, combining old-world methods, recent history and new
techniques.
But Mariani's career would look very different if it weren't
for Prohibition. When his father Joseph Mariani arrived in the Santa Clara
Valley in the 1930s, it was high dry time. Santa Clara Valley had before been
wine country. A vineyardist, Mariani noted the fertile land's possibilities for
growing fruits and set about planting fruit trees.
Andy Mariani grew up
on an orchard in Cupertino before his family purchased the 40 acres on Half
Road in 1957. Mariani operates these acres now.
He remembers distinctly
one of his first "ah ha" moments, when he recognized the whimsy and wonder of
agriculture.
Amid his father's apricot orchard was one tree that was
grafted with branches from two different types of peaches, so that it grew all
three fruits on the single tree.
"All around were apricot trees, but
here was a peach, and it was just, wow, a peach!" Mariani said fondly, with all
the excitement of his 6-year-old self, recalling the seemingly magical
tree.
Mariani is still searching for the next great fruit. Hedging his
bets, he plants a few acres of specialty stone fruits along with his 35 acres
of cherries and boasts one of the most extensive collections of heirloom fruits
on the West Coast. He's traveled to Asia and Russia searching for unique fruit
varietals. Much heralded fruits found at Andy's include the green gage plum,
the Baby Crawford peach, and the Moorpark apricot.
"Life's a journey,
you're always seeking what's better," he explained. "I'm always reading,
finding stuff that's new."
Mariani ambles through his orchard pointing
out different varieties of apricots, plums, peaches and prunes, noting proudly
the difference between farm-fresh produce and the produce at the
supermarket.
"(Some fruits) come from Chile and they were picked three
months ago," he said. "Ours are tree ripened. The last several days (on the
vine), the fruit grows tremendously in flavor."
Mariani's exuberance has
served him well. During the Feb. 20 annual luncheon in Stockton in celebration
of Cherry Day, Jim Culbertson, manager of the California Cherry Advisory Board,
presented Mariani with a plaque designating him Cherry Man, in honor of his
devoted service to the state's cherry industry. He beat out 600 industry
insiders across the state.
"The group felt that Andy had always done a
lot of outreach," Culbertson said. "That's kind of one of the things we expect
out of a Cherry Man of the Year. He's been a great member of the industry and
has been a good participant."
Mariani sits on the California Cherry
Advisory Board's research committee, and was instrumental in a key development
in cherry growing. While reading through research papers from the 1930s and
'40s, Mariani noticed that people were trying to figure out what to do to make
cherry crops more productive despite ever-warmer winters. Cherry trees need a
long, cold winter. He kept reading about nitrogen being used in South Africa
and Asia to kick-start cherry blooms, but the fertilizer wasn't used for this
purpose by California's farmers. When used as a fertilizer, nitrogen acts as a
sort of coffee for the trees, waking them up and keeping them producing
steadily and consistently despite the lack of a good, dormant winter. The "Old
Guard," as Mariani calls longtime, traditional farmers in the region, were
skeptical of the method - at first. But after much research and testing,
nitrogen fertilization became a common practice in
California.
Curiously, despite his early love for the field, Mariani
left the pastoral life for some time. The youngest brother of three, Mariani
left the farm to his two older brothers, since the acres they owned couldn't
support three families. After graduating from Live Oak High School in the '60s,
Mariani earned a master's degree in public administration, and spent a year
serving as Saratoga's assistant city manager. But that was all he could take of
pushing papers, and a stroke of bad luck with a life-threatening skin disease
landed Mariani back at home to recover. He said coming back to the farm was one
of the best things that could have happened to him.
While many
traditional farmers were skeptical of Mariani and his new ideas at first,
Mariani is now a well-respected grower - thanks in part to his grand
title.
"You would never believe that someone from around here could win
Cherry Man," Mariani said. "It's quite an honor."
Culbertson said a
Santa Clara Valley cherry grower winning the title was unusual, and couldn't
recall another cherry industry insider here having won the honor. Coming close
to it is Gilroy resident Greg Costa, who works out of Lodi and was named Cherry
Man several years ago. Costa, who has packed Mariani's cherries in Lodi and has
worked with him for 10 years, was on the Cherry Man selection committee this
year.
"He's a tremendous local resource," Costa said. "He's very
generous with his time, for people who are just backyard gardeners and
growers."
Costa serves on the research committee with Mariani.
"He's just naturally very curious. He likes people, he loves to
exchange ideas and observations," Costa said.
Farming isn't a job for Mariani, it's a way of life - just as it was for his ancestors.
But it won't always be this way. Mariani acknowledges that he doesn't know what will
happen with his 40 or so acres once he's gone. A 62-year-old bachelor, he's not
sure who will inherit his acres. And with suburbs closing in, he's not entirely
optimistic that his orchard will last much longer.
"Each urban use that comes here makes it incrementally harder to make it," he said.
But, for as long as he can, Mariani will be on these acres, planting, pruning, thinning,
irrigating and harvesting cherries that are celebrated not only this year, but
every season, by fellow fruit enthusiasts around the world as well as novice
fruit aficionados in South County.
