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Olio del Le Colline di Santa Cruz
Recent News Articles & Publicity about Olio del Le Colline 2 June 2004 Santa Cruz Sentinel article by Peggy Townsend Striking Gold Aptos Olive Oil Poised For Success As Popularity Grows 
Banthien’s 20 acres was home to flowers that she grew and sold at farmers markets, and a crumbling apple orchard that had been planted in 1908. "I think you might have room for these," Galino said and unloaded the trees from his car. Since her garden was already filled with Mediterranean plants, Banthien guessed olives would probably do well on her land, with its thin topsoil and sandstone base. She planted the trees. Then, she planted more. It turned out the area was prime olive-growing land. The cooler temperatures of Aptos give olives a longer growing season, which makes for a richer-tasting, more complex fruit, says Golino, who regularly serves as a judge at the Los Angeles County Fair, the largest olive oil competition in the world. Fruitiness, bitterness and pungency are the flavors a person should taste in an olive oil, says Golino. "You want the three components to be balanced," he says. But of the trio of flavors, fruitiness is the most valued. It comes, he says, when olives spend a lot of time on the tree. Traditional Tuscan Banthien and Golino stroll into the sloping orchard where the trees manage to look squat and elegant at the same time. They planted a mix of the four varieties — Leccino next to Pendolino next to Fratoio next to Ascolano. The quilt of trees are planted in a traditional Tuscan style and makes for an easier harvest — which they do with pneumatic rakes to avoid bruising the fruit. But it is the soil and the climate that makes their olive oil different from the rest, Golino says. "Forty percent of the flavor is varietal, 40 percent is the time you pick the fruit and 20 percent is soil and climate," Golino says. Olives, he says, are a lot like wine grapes. They have terroir, or a taste of the land on which they grow. Le Colline di Santa Cruz’s extra virgin olive oil won a best in show award the first year it was entered in the Los Angeles County Fair (Golino did not judge the category) and has won gold medals ever since. It’s why their product sells for between $24 and $27 for a 500 ml bottle — and why people happily buy it. Hot oils The olive oil business has had its ups and downs. After the 1880 olive-oil boom, there was a mini-boom in the ’20s, said Golino. But soon, seed oils pushed olive oil to a back burner. By the late ’70s and early ’80s, there was only one California olive oil producer, Golino says. It was the Sciabicca family in Modesto. But an interest in Mediterranean cuisine put the spotlight back on olive oil. By the ’90s, California farmers were starting to grow olives for olive oil again. There are about 150 producers in California now, Golino says, and the Golden State is the central supplier of the golden oil. The market is also ripe for expansion. According to Golino, the U.S. consumes 60 million gallons of olive oil a year. U.S. growers only supply 400,000 gallons of that. On their way In their business partnership, Banthien is the grower and spokeswoman. Golino is the olive oil expert. So far, business is good. Because of the availability of water, their olive output has doubled every year, according to Golino. The partnership expects to turn out 3,000 gallons of oil from this year’s crop. Five outlets stock their wares from Shopper’s Corner to Gayle’s Bakery to Bonny Doon Winery. Their olive oil, Banthien says standing in her Sunset-magazine-worthy garden, is great for dipping or dressing vegetables or salad greens. Banthien is out in the orchard every day. She prunes, fertilizes and sprays an organic mixture to kill the olive flies that threaten every olive crop. It’s hard work, but she hasn’t grown tired of the growing olives. "Look," she says and lifts up a branch where caviar-sized olives nestle in tiny white blooms. "Aren’t they beautiful," she says. To contact Le Colline di Santa Cruz, call 662-2345 or e-mail to cbanthien@hotmail.com Contact Peggy Townsend at ptownsend@santacruzsentinel.com. |
Back when Grover Cleveland was president, olive trees thrived in Santa Cruz County. There were 200 acres of the trees then, the product of a late-19th century olive-oil fever.