Judging Lodi’s olive harvest
Not all local growers hurt by state’s olive oil crisis
Despite a recent report from the California Olive Oil Council that the state’s olive harvest is down by approximately 25 percent due to weather conditions earlier this year, at least one Lodi olive oil producer seems to be safe from the shortage.
“It’s been going really well,” said Julie Coldani, co-founder and director of marketing for Lodi-based Coldani Olive Ranch, which produces Calivirgin olive oil.
Calivirgin won 87 medals in various olive oil competitions this year and a total of 513 awards in the past seven years, Julie said, and she is confident that this year’s harvest will be fruitful enough to continue their record of success into the future.
“We haven’t harvested yet, but our crop is looking good and we’re hoping for a good yield,” Julie said.
Michael Coldani, Julie’s husband and co-owner of Coldani Olive Ranch, who also works as an olive oil miller, said an average yield can be anywhere from 4.5 to 7.5 tons of olives per acre.
“A good yield will be on the higher end of that,” Michael said. “When we’re milling olives into oil, we like to get around 35 gallons to the ton.”
Although harvest season will not begin until November, Michael plans to begin preliminary inspections of their Arbequina olive trees soon to get a better idea of what this year’s yield will look like.
“In the next couple of weeks, I’ll be taking fruit samples and testing them for their oil content,” Michael said. “For this variety, we want the olives to have about an 18 percent oil content.”
Not all of Lodi’s olive growers were as fortunate as Coldani Olive Ranch, however.
Jeff Colombini, president of Lodi Farming Inc., said that abnormally warm weather in the beginning of February caused his olive trees to start growing prematurely, followed by temperatures below 25 degrees that froze the fruit buds.
Harvesting approximately 2,000 tons of olives per season, Colombini said the fruit accounts for roughly 20 percent of his revenue, which he fears will be reduced by the crop damage, although he also grows apples, cherries and walnuts.
“It’s pretty bad, we’re seeing a 50 to 75 percent crop reduction,” Colombini said. “I think we’re going to be down to around 500 tons this season.”