Richard Angelino , Fred Angelino , Angelo Benassi , Joe Rizzuto , Al Gagliardi , Don Manzo
prunes off the ground , raking the roads smooth to ensure the delicate fruit wasn ’ t damaged as it was trucked from the fields to the drying area to be sun dried — was being automated using modern mechanical harvesting machines .
Natural sun drying was accelerated with dehydrators , which altered the farmer ’ s workload ; but didn ’ t lessen it .
“ My dad used to sleep in the barn , to pull the cars out of the dehydration tunnel . Every hour he had to get up , and pull the car out , and put another one in . Basically , my dad went without sleep and he went to work the next morning , every other day he wouldn ’ t sleep ,” Stan Perino said .
Fred Angelino , 99 years young , believes the mechanization process was one reason for Gilroy ’ s decline in the industry . “ Here , we had to do it by hand , and our crop was long and spread out , where it would be four or five pickings , and it was all hand harvest .”
Bellezza believes the decline was also due to the San Joaquin Valley . “ What happened was the Valley kind of took over , just like everything else .”
By the 1960s and ‘ 70s , high tech companies began populating the area and Santa Clara Valley transitioned from the Prune Capital of the World to Silicon Valley . It wasn ’ t until the mid 1980s that society ’ s concerns about healthy eating and lowering cholesterol rekindled interest in the California dried plum . The “ High Fiber Fruit Campaign ” of the ‘ 80s resulted in a four-year growth in domestic shipments of the fruit .
In 2000 , with FDA approval , the California Prune Board was granted permission to use “ dried plums ” as an alternative name to prunes . This name change has been credited with an upswing of sales over the next 10 years . With continued interest in healthy eating habits , the dried plum is destined to remain a staple for many years to come .
For the local families who experienced the prune industry ’ s peak , their memories continue to provide an emotional connection to an era when work was hard , money was tight , and everything relied on the family business .
“ My fondest memory is , I learned to drive in the orchard , I was about 10 or 11 . I drove the truck , but I had one condition , I had to clear the road up ahead , don ’ t dare step on a prune ,” Filice said .
Kickham Wolfe ’ s favorite memory is the prune boxes . “ I loved to make forts with those boxes , when the work was done .”
For Al Gagliardi , who grew up in
the prune business and became a Deputy Sheriff after returning from the war , his pursuit of those prune boxes , and the memories they preserve , resulted in an impressive collection .
“ Al ’ s got over 150 unique prune boxes ,” Benassi , said . Gagliardi , with the help of Benassi and Phil Laursen , created a book entitled “ Preserving Gilroy ’ s Prune Heritage ” that showcases his collection . It ’ s available at the Gilroy Museum .
For Al Ciacco , it ’ s the olfactory sense that triggers his memories . “ I used to love the smell of the prunes from the dehydrators , you know that smell in the air ,” he said with a smile . “ Ten years or so ago they used to [ dry prunes ] in Morgan Hill , and I used to drive up there just to smell it .”
Don Manzo said prune farming literally changed his life . “ Well , when I was raising prunes I was still a bachelor , and we had this family that came [ to help us pick ], from Texas . They had three girls , they were adults , and I finally married one of them .”
Richard Perino said he appreciated moving beyond traditional harvesting to using machinery : “ The memory I have is when we were 14 , we actually helped with the processing of the prunes ... we would load the trucks and then we would dump them into the hopper , and dip them . It was good .”
GILROY • MORGAN HILL • SAN MARTIN JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2017 gmhtoday . com
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