By Mike Hazlip—
For nearly 30 years, a seasonal cherry stand along Sunrise Boulevard in Citrus Heights has been run by a family who calls Arkansas home.
Lisa White started selling fresh cherries and other fruit and dried goods more than three decades ago while living in Washington State when Montey White, her future husband, came through the area with his family selling fresh fruit. The two started dating, and now 31 years later, White continues to operate the business with their son, Jasper, and other family members.
Jasper White, now 21, told The Sentinel in an interview last week that his father started the business after a trip to a grocery store.
“They picked up a box of cherries and they saw where they were sourced from,” Jasper White said. “From then on out, that’s how they started the process. They would go to farmers and talk to farmers and pick their own fruit.”
Now operating in the parking lot of Pastor’s Valero at 7560 Sunrise Blvd., the family offers dried goods such as nuts as well as other small fruits.
The family lives in Arkansas about nine months out of the year, but travels to Citrus Heights and Washington during cherry season to source and sell local produce.
“We can afford a house there,” Lisa White said of living in Arkansas.
Jasper White now manages the stand while his mother sources produce throughout California’s Central Valley. He says regular customers have watched him grow up over the years.
“It’s a different life, really interesting,” Jasper White said. “It’s kind of a gypsy life but once you get used to it; there’s almost no going back.”
Part of that life is sourcing fresh produce from growers, something Lisa White does daily. White says she spends about $300 on gas each day as she travels throughout the San Joaquin Valley and Bay Area to find the best produce.
She says rising fuel prices are making her produce more expensive.
“It’s making me raise my prices, it’s the only thing I can do,” she said pointing to items in her stand. “Last year that was $10, now it’s $15.”
White calls herself “picky” when it comes to cherries, but says it’s what keeps customers coming back year after year.
“My customers know that if they come in, they’re going to consistently get a fresh product,” she said.
She looks for food closets to take any produce she can’t sell, but said it can be difficult to connect with staff given her hours away from the stand.
After California’s cherry season, the family plans to open a stand in Washington state near Anacortes, Lisa White said. They typically stay in Citrus Heights through Father’s Day before moving on, she said.
The family originally operated their Citrus Heights fruit stand at 7424 Sunrise Blvd., a vacant lot at the time. However, once construction started on an apartment complex at the site last year, White said she had to find a new location for the business and credited the owners of Pastor’s Valero Gas Station with providing a new home for the stand.
“Karen and Randy Pastor, who own the Valero here, they were good customers the whole time I sat up the road there,” said Lisa White. “When I lost that spot, I came over here and asked them, really kind people.”
Looking back at the years in business, Lisa White credits her customers with her success.: “Their kindness was our biggest success.”
Now in her 50s, Lisa White says the physical labor of operating the fruit stand is becoming more demanding. She also sees lost opportunities by not taking advantage of current trends in marketing on social media, saying “social media and me just don’t get along.”
Jasper White said he is considering taking the family business further and noted that marketing on social media is one part of the business he would like to improve.
“He really is awesome at this business,” Lisa White said of her son. “If he can take it a step further than we ever did, that would be awesome.”
For nearly 30 years, a seasonal cherry stand along Sunrise Boulevard in Citrus Heights has been run by a family who calls Arkansas home.
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