As the sun rises this time of year, fruit vendor Brandon Gomez is already in his white van and driving to Watsonville to pick up fresh batches of bright red strawberries. His van fills with boxes of the fruity tang of the berries. Later Gomez takes the boxes back to his family’s strawberry stand, situated at 12625 Saratoga Avenue in preparation for the busy day ahead of customers picking the exact ones they want.
Rodrigues Berry Stand, run by generations of Gomez’s family, has been around since 1946.
Aside from strawberries, which are their specialty, the family business also sells kettle corn, various breads and other seasonal produce including cherries in late May, plums in early June and peaches and corn later in the year.
With a strong customer base of 50-100 customers daily, the stand operates from about 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. from early April through Labor Day.
A history stained with strawberries
Gomez’s uncle, Douglas Rodrigues, who still lives on the property where the stand is today, used to grow the strawberries fresh in his backyard when the stand was founded. Currently, the family business is in its second generation of owners. Gomez has been running the stand with Rodrigues and his cousin Scott Cleveland for about a decade.
He hopes the stand will be passed down to one of his kids or grandkids. While Rodrigues is the manager of the stand, Gomez runs the stand on weekdays while Cleveland mostly runs the stand on weekends.
“[Running the stand] takes up most of my time since we’re open about 50 hours a week, so when I’m not here, I’m resting,” Gomez said.
Ever since its founding, the family’s main form of advertisement has been their vibrant display of strawberries lined up along Saratoga-Sunnyvale Road. The stand became popular within the Saratoga community, who have been drawn in by the small-town charm of the stall, and then hooked on the quality strawberries. Now, close to 70% of the daily customers are regulars, he said.
“Both the stand and the customers are multi-generational,” Gomez said. “We’ve been here in the same location for so long that people who’ve lived here in this community know about us and keep coming back.”
A photo tacked to the side of the stand, drawn by the daughter of one of their regular customers in 2016, still hangs nearly a decade later — a testament to the strong community formed around Gomez’s business.
“The girl did a great job; the drawing really encapsulates the stand perfectly and folks always love seeing it,” Gomez said. “When she came back and saw that we put the drawing up, she was amazed that we still had it.”
Generational customers like these have been what has kept the fruit stand thriving.
“Returning customers remember us and enjoy the berries,” Gomez said. “A lot of the adult customers used to come here as kids, and they remembered it when they were kids, and they’re still customers as adults.”
Today’s offerings and logistics of the stand
For a long time, the family grew their strawberries fresh in the backyard of their home that contained 70 acres of orchards. Twelve of those acres were filled with strawberries, while the rest had cherries and prunes.
After almost four decades, the family had to start growing their strawberries in Gilroy and driving there daily to pick up the strawberries due to their expanding customer base. However, the hot climate in Gilroy was not ideal for the strawberries, and forced them to cut their selling season short to compensate.
A decade ago, they began sourcing their strawberries from Watsonville. With Watsonville’s prime climate, soil and overall sweeter strawberries, the selling season for the strawberries was extended. Now, Gomez usually picks up 30-40 flats of strawberries a day.
Cherries and plums — fruits that come later in the year — are imported from Morgan Hill, the Central Valley and Washington. The stock of peaches and corn depend on the conditions during the harvest season.
Along with the strawberries, they added snacks such as kettle corn and bread four or five years ago.
“Both of [the snacks] were [added] because of our customers,” Gomez said. “The owners of the kettle corn and bread companies would separately stop here to buy strawberries and they asked us if we’d like to sell their products here as well, so we started carrying them.”
There are, of course, many challenges inherent to running a family business. One challenge, Gomez explained, is selling the strawberries in bad weather conditions.
“When it rains, it is dangerous to pick strawberries and people don’t want to get out of their car when the weather is bad,” Gomez said. “If it gets too hot, though, the strawberries can get damaged from the sun.”
Nevertheless, most days the stand is packed with customers eager to grab the best they can find, pay for it and go.
The strawberries are sold at $7 for a single pack, $15 for a 3-pack, $25 for a half flat (6 baskets) and $40 for a full flat (12 baskets).
The family business also offers a punchcard with a buy 10 and get one free deal when purchasing items of the same size.
The most popular days for the fruit to be sold out are on holiday weekends, especially the Saturday before Mother’s Day, when Gomez said there is often a line and they need to call in extra help to run the stand.
Gomez foresees a future where the stand continues as it has in the past.
“Every year when we reopen, people say they weren’t sure if we were going to come back, but we plan to come back and keep going for as long as we can,” Gomez said.
