ATTACHMENT C

Charlie Olson

Long-Time Area Orchardist

November 2003

Charlie Olson’s life work has been orchards. An iconic individual, with “cherries in his blood,” Charlie began picking fruit as a young child in his family’s orchards, and he never stopped. The Olson family’s connection to orchards dates back to 1899, when Charlie’s Swedish immigrant grandparents Carl and Hannah purchased their first orchard at Taaffe and McKinley Avenues in Sunnyvale. Charlie’s parents, Ruel Charles and Rose Olson, continued the family business of growing and selling fruit, passing it on to Charlie, who in turn enlisted his oldest daughter Deborah to work with him in the business.

The Olsons purchased a second orchard in 1919 at El Camino and Mathilda Avenues in Sunnyvale, which was farmed continuously until being leased to developers in 1999. Only the C. J. Olson cherries fruit stand remains as a visible reminder of the family’s long orchard tradition in Sunnyvale. Through the years, the Olsons grew cherries, apricots and prunes. The family had its own packing shed, since it was not profitable to sell the fruit to the local canneries. Instead, the family sold the fruit wholesale bypassing the middle man, and the fruit stand was also built at that time for Charlie’s mother Rose to sell directly to the consumer. During the Olson orchards’ heyday, Charlie had almost 100 pickers, harvesting up to 100 tons of cherries per acre on 30 acres.

Charlie has been tending the 10-acre apricot orchard here at Orchard Heritage Park since 1977, when he entered into an agreement to replant and maintain the heritage orchard on behalf of the City of Sunnyvale. He also maintains the City’s 3-acre cherry orchard adjacent to the Tennis Center, in what is a labor of love, receiving only the crop from both orchards in payment.

Charlie Olson has donated funds to construct this shed, valued at $30,000. The shed will be used to store equipment and supplies as long as this remains a working orchard, a tribute to our rich agricultural past.