It’s a long-held belief by many Vacavillians that all of the cherries eaten on the Titanic were grown right here in Vacaville. To some, this is as true as the sun rising in the east and setting in the west. To others, it’s purely fiction. What’s with all the fuss?
We posed this question to our Facebook Fans, and then to Shawn Lum, our resident Vacaville historian and executive director of the Vacaville Museum. With a little digging, Shawn had things cleared up in no time.
An article in the Vacaville Reporter on May 10, 1912 reads:
“Cherries Sold for Titanic Fund”
“A ten-pound box of Vacaville cherries, auctioned off last week on one of the North river freight piers in New York for the benefit of the Titanic survivors, realized $648.88. The fruit was sold eighty-five times during the course of the auction. It was donated for the purpose by a San Francisco firm of produce dealers.”
“Cool,” you say. “But why did 10 pounds of cherries sell for so much?” We’re glad you asked! You see, Vacaville cherries were highly prized produce, in part because they were the first fruit to ripen each season. Vacaville was known as ‘The Early Fruit District’ of America, due in large part to the soil and climate of the Vaca valley. Don’t believe us? We have proof!
Another clipping from the Vacaville Reporter on April 19, 1912 records:
“Fruit Ripens Earliest Here”
“Vaca Valley, celebrated as the earliest fruit district of the United States, is charmingly located in the northern part of Solano County, between two ranges of high hills, which protect it from fogs and high winds and exercise a potent influence on the rainfall. No portion of California is better known in eastern fruit markets and none more worthy of the high reputation it has attained.”
Vacaville farmers kept records of the date each year when the first box was harvested, and often had a friendly rivalry around whose fruit would be picked first. Vacaville Cherries were generally picked in mid-late April, far earlier than the national cherry harvest in June. In 1912, the first two boxes of Vacaville cherries was shipped on Monday, April 22, 1912.
This explains why cherries were such a treasured commodity in New York in May of 1912. Fun fact: $648.88 in 1912 amounts to more than $15,000 in 2012.
Would you have paid that much?
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