While it only takes a day or two for Lodi Bloom cherries to arrive at your doorstep, this year’s harvest is over a century in the making.
In 1912, the Chinchiolo family immigrated from Sicily, Italy to Boston through Ellis Island. In 1918, Chinchiolo Fruit Company was born, producing grapes, figs, celery, pears and cherries.
“They started in the grape industry, making wine, and over time, as smart business people would do, they sent family members out to California to grow grapes to export from California, import into Boston, and make wine there with their own grapes,” James P. Chinchiolo, pictured left, a fourth generation farmer in Lodi, said.
Chinchiolo’s grandfather Francis James Chinchiolo was a pioneer in the cherry industry and flew with a group of entrepreneurs to Japan in the 1980s. They began exporting fresh California cherries to Japan via plane…