Driving along Cochrane Road near Anderson Reservoir, I saw several acres of a fruit orchard that had been cleared with the dead trees pushed into piles awaiting removal. With the development of massive housing tracts, industrial campuses and shopping centers, the orchard heritage we have inherited is slowly eroding away.

Two French brothers, Louis and Pierre Pellier, recognized the economic potential of growing fruit in the Santa Clara Valley. During the Gold Rush of the 1850’s gold miners were paying exorbitant amounts for fresh plums, apricots, pears, apples and cherries. In 1856, Pierre Pellier returned to France on a mission to bring back cuttings from French orchards and to begin a nursery business with his brother in San Jose. One of the cuttings was from a variety of plum tree known as the Petit Prune d’Agen and prune orchards would soon dominate the Santa Clara Valley landscape.

The completion of the transcontinental railroad in 1869 opened brand-new markets for the region’s fruit especially as the population of the East Coast swelled with European immigrants. And processing innovations in drying, packing and canning fresh fruit were developed by local entrepreneurs to provide markets with fruit year round. The fruit industry became increasingly consolidated and mechanized with businesses, such as Orchard Supply and FMC, rapidly expanding to benefit from the demand for Santa Clara Valley fruit.

New organizations such as the Farmers Union Cooperative and Sunsweet were formed by valley growers to combine their small farms into more powerful marketing groups. Grapes were sold to the California Wine Association facility on Monterey Road from the vineyards of Henry Miller. Stone fruit such as prunes, apricots and peaches were grown at the Glen Ranch for the Sunsweet packing house near the railroad tracks at Leavesley Road.

Numerous articles and books have been written about the Valley’s agricultural economy – now a slowly fading history. Still, traditions remain such as the annual football game between the high school teams of Gilroy and Hollister. The game became known as the “Prune Bowl”. The games have been played since the 1930’s and give us pause to remember.