At Garza Family Farms in Gilroy , you can always find this local family busily operating their family-owned apricot orchard . For 47 years , the Garza family has been passionately in the business of working hard all year to make the very best apricots , and more importantly , making special memories .
Garza Family Farms :
Apricots and memories made here
At Garza Family Farms in Gilroy , you can always find this local family busily operating their family-owned apricot orchard . For 47 years , the Garza family has been passionately in the business of working hard all year to make the very best apricots , and more importantly , making special memories .
How it All Started
Story and images by Joy Garza
Eddie Garza Sr ., the family ’ s patriarch , has been working in farming and with apricots all his life . At age eleven , he left school to work full time in the orchard , picking fruit like apricots , pears , and prunes .
“ As a child , I made $ 9 a day . In those days , Santa Clara Valley was all orchards , from Cupertino to Alum Rock Park to Steven ’ s Creek Road .” Eddie Sr . recalls .
When the family acquired the Gilroy orchard in 1977 there were only 500 apricot trees . The remainder of the acreage was covered with prune trees . Since then , the Garza family has transformed the orchard , now home to 900 California Blenheim apricot trees , a variety famous for its natural sweetness . The orchard spans ten and a half acres and is managed by Eddie Garza Sr . and his children , Eddie Jr . and Michelle .
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