Lost Orchards | Preserving Cherry History
A TASTE | Pacific Northwest "Crumb"
Unable to resist another opportunity…
Gifting my readers with a TASTE | Pacific Northwest “Crumb” is to distill an event, a person, a family, an ingredient to its essence, like Mop Sauce in “Bing, the Cherry Whisperer”, or the Kiyokawa orchardist family’s reclamation of its Oregon heritage in “Mamora & Michiko Kiyokawa.”
“Crumbs” are little gifts.
“Crumbs” posts make no requests of our readers: no Likes (unless you wish, in which case, thank you), no subscription or donation requests. Comments are highly prized!
Poetic Irony
Post WW I, California’s Santa Clara Valley is said to have been home to 79,000 acres of fruit orchards of apricots, prunes and cherries. Lovingly, it was known as The Valley of Heart’s Delight. We know the Santa Clara Valley today as Silicon Valley.
Robin Chapman, author of the book California Apricots, writes: “If Silicon Valley ever invents a time machine…it would be fascinating to set the dial for the top of Mount Hamilton in the spring of 1950. Six hundred thousand of the valley’s acres, or almost two-thirds of the land, was in agriculture. The traveler would see millions of fruit trees blooming in the valley below.”
There is poetic, poignant, even sad irony in the evolution from agriculture to tech in the Santa Clara Valley. Without the availability of those orchards’ cheap land and already flourishing business environment, Silicon Valley would not have evolved into the world’s tech powerhouse it is today.
With the exception of three “heritage orchards” protected by communities such as Sunnyvale, Los Altos and San Jose, those orchards are gone.
The 10-acre Sunnyvale Heritage Orchard, protected by the Sunnyvale Historical Society, contains 800 Blenheim apricot trees.
The Los Altos Heritage Orchard, now only two acres and managed by the Los Altos History Museum, was planted in 1901 and later preserved as a working orchard when the city purchased the land in 1954.
The Emma Prusch Farm Park in San Jose is a living collection of rare and heirloom fruit trees, maintained as a germplasm repository - a genetic bank of historic varieties. It also features rare fruit trees from around the world, curated by the California Rare Fruit Growers Association.
In Oregon and Washington, the Lineage Continues
The historically mild Mediterranean climate of the Santa Clara Valley is the climate Oregonians and Washingtonians cherish today.
Prior to our trip to Silicon Valley, Paul and I were, again, gifted with the opportunity to pick cherries; this time: exquisite little Oregon red tart cherries.
Red Tart Cherry Galette
Headnotes
Keep in mind that the use of GRAS (Generally Recognized as Safe by the FDA) essential oils is always optional. In the galette recipe they blend easily into the tiny pieces of soft butter added just before baking. Get a quick reminder of our essential oil discussion and the remarkable number of flavor affinities for cherries in The Numinous Oregon Cherry Double-Chocolate Cookie post.
“Crumbs”, the last best taste, extend the final experience in Red Tart Cherry Galette with subtle citrus aromatics. Bright, tart-sweet, relishful.
My thanks for your continued support of TASTE | Pacific Northwest and the TASTE Flavor Lab. Special thanks to our paid subscribers, our TASTE Buds, whose generosity makes our work accessible to everyone.
An invitation from a friend to pick fresh figs this afternoon!! Candied figs are in our future!
Next week: our first TASTE Calendar Cook-Around.
Thanks for sharing this, Linda, I didn’t know. Can people visit the three heritage orchards? PS I’d love a slice or two of that galette
Thanks for sharing. I love PYO experiences. I didn't know you could pick cherries and this is added to a travel wish list. And thanks for the galette recipe.