CJ Olson Cherries is still owned by the same family, Deborah Olson, is the 4th generation. The land it’s on & where the Border’s & other other stores are owned by them.

Inside the small shop they have cherries. They grow Rainier & Bing so it’s a good idea to buy from them. The season is short, from May-July 4 is the best time to get them. Martha Stewart loves their cherries & orders them for her show & magazine.

You can get Bing’s: small basket for $5; a bigger $10 basket, or $20 flat that 5lb. Rainiers are more expensive: same pricing $5/$10/$20, but the $20 is just a larger basket not a flat.

They have some fruit fruits, dried Blenheim apricots, cherry conserve, cherry blossom honey.

They also carry local products such as Preston’s candies in Burlingame. A new product they have is: Chocolate cherries & almond candy bar for $5.99. I also got a bag of Dark Chocolate honey comb from Preston’s candies that I really like, it’s $5.49 for 6 pcs.

There’s also Marshall Farm honey from American Canyon, CA, Frog Hollow Farm’s conserves from Brentwood, CA, and Diana maraschino cherries – bottled in Sunnyvale.

Items aren’t cheap, but they are good quality.
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10th Annual Cherry Festival:
We went to the CJ Olson Cherries 10th Anniversary Cherry Festival. It’s a small event since it’s held at the store on the corner of W. El Camino Real & Mathilda Ave.

It was held Sat 5/31/08 and Sun 6/1/08 from 9:30a-5p. We got there on Sun. by 9:30am and they had some FREE cherry pancakes ready. The girl was only giving one pancake to each person, but later the husband went back for 2nd and she gave him 2 small pancakes. They also had some cherry conserve & maple syrup to eat the small pancake with.

Tea was also available, and latter some samples of Rainier cherries.

At 10:30am there was an Orchard Tour given by Deborah Olson, 4th generation owner. She’s very nice and will tell you all about the history of Olson’s farms and plans for the future. Deborah will be doing Orchard tours for the next 3 weeks, don’t miss it.

We didn’t walk too far. We stopped at the 1st obelisk and she told us it’s public art w/ pictures of cherry blossoms. It’s very pretty. There are 2 in the shopping area. Then we walk to their orchards which is on Mathilda, by the tennis center.

This yr is a Great yr for Rainier & Bing cherries! They are big, juicy, and sweet.

There was also a cherry pit spitting contest that was silly but fun.

The resident band The Hot Rods were playing at 12 noon.