California is much more than wine country
The state’s abundant olive groves have created a boom in extra-virgin olive oil
Twelve-hour shifts, 40 days and 40 nights. Picking olives, transporting them, milling the oil.
That was the scale of this year’s harvest that came into California Olive Ranch’s milling plant near Willows (Glenn County), 2½ hours north of San Francisco. The company is the largest producer of extra-virgin olive oil in the United States, but was just one of the many producers in the state working overtime to turn the state’s olives into high-quality oil.
It’s indicative of the boom in California extra-virgin olive oil. This year’s harvest of olives destined for oil was the largest ever, expected to produce more than two million gallons of high-quality oil. That’s great news for consumers, who can expect more California extra-virgin olive oils on store shelves, with styles ranging from delicate to robust.
California produces less than three per cent of the world’s olive oil. But the local producers are setting the bar high, aiming for fresh oil that is often bottled on demand and quickly transported to markets.
The number of mills now numbers about 40, scattered throughout the state. More mills translate to higher quality, because the time between harvest and milling is a key factor in making extra-virgin olive oil.
Olive growers
in other countries, such as Spain and Italy, tend to choose varieties of olives that have been traditionally cultivated for centuries. But California growers, unhampered by tradition, grow varieties that suit their microclimates and blend varieties that they think will produce interesting oil.
The olives processed at the California Olive Ranch
Trucks, each pulling two gondolas, transport the olives from the orchards to the mill. A hammer mill crushes the olives into a paste that is pumped into tanks and stirred slowly until the oil separates from the solid.
Next the mass is centrifuged twice, which removes solid particles and water from the oil. As the oil spills
This year’s harvest of olives destined for oil was the largest ever, expected to produce more than two million
gallons of high-quality oil.
include Arbequina (70 per cent of the plantings), Arbosana and Koroneiki, a Greek olive. Much of the oil is a blend, delicate and buttery, without much bitterness or pungency. But the ranch has a test plot of trees that are crosses of varieties that might eventually produce a more robust oil. from the last centrifuge into lines that pump it into storage tanks, it looks more like fruit juice than oil.
Deborah Rogers of the Olive Press in Sonoma runs a smaller-scale operation. Her single mill, chugging along at a half ton per hour, produces oil for her retail stores and for farmers’ markets. She also mills oil for about 100 small producers who don’t have their own mills.
Her harvest wasn’t as plentiful as 2010, but the fruit is sound and will make excellent oil. Olive varieties of every description pass through the mill, including two French varieties, Aglandau and Bouteillan, which are not often seen in California. Those oils will go into the Jaeger family’s estate extravirgin olive oil.
Rogers likes to use the Mission and Sevillano olives — some of the first olives planted in California — both for their taste and for their historical significance. She bottles them as single varieties, as well as Arbequina, Ascolano, Arbosana, Koroneiki and, when she has enough, Picual. Each has a special profile: Sevillano is delicate; Ascolano fruity with tropical notes; and Arbosana more robust.
The word about California extra-virgin oil is spreading. In September, Rogers represented the California olive growers and olive oil producers in Washington at the launch of the U.S. State Department’s Diplomatic Culinary Partnership Initiative.
Four years ago, Thom Curry, co-owner of Temecula Olive Oil Co., purchased a mobile mill and started roving the state, setting up near orchards and milling olive oil. He calls his enterprise Olive to Bottle.
His clients are small growers with modest amounts of fruit — many are wineries with a patch of olive trees. Curry described this year’s harvest as “awesome. Delightful after last year. The quality is great and there are a lot more olives.”
California olive oil has come a long way. The push to quality that began in the 1980s is coming to fruition, with many producers rivalling the best in the world.