Domestic Oil
If you think wine is the only hobby farm Californian's are nurturing, think again because California is rediscovering the olive.
When Deborah Rogers went on a California Olive Oil Council trip to France in 1996, she was already a passionate supporter of the fruit product. She and 29 other olive oil aficionados visited the centuries' old mills surrounded by orchards. They found that during the late fall harvest season in rural France, villagers bring their olives to local mills for pressing.
"Most people there grow enough olives to produce enough oil for their own consumption," says Rogers. "The community involvement in the mills is inspiring."
So upon her return home to the Sonoma County town of Glen Ellen, Rogers and her Oil Council cohort Ed Stolman started The Olive Press Cooperative. Five years later, the co-op sells a variety of olive oil from a well stocked shop. One weekend per year the community is invited to bring their bags and buckets of ripe olive to be milled at the facility, much like what Rogers witnessed in France. The date of the annual community press coincides with the Blessing of Olives at the nearby Santa Rosa Mission, commemorating the planting of California's first olive trees at the mission more than 200 years ago.
California leads the nation in olive production and the yield of olive oil has exploded over the last decade, with much of the increase in production coming from people with more passion than land.
People who have 20 or more acres and want to sell a little oil in a quasi-hobby/quasi-business situation are what's driving the interest, says nurseryman Bruce Golino.
"They are creating a culture based on a healthy diet and the visual impact of the trees on the landscape," Golino says. "Their success is encouraging farmers, who tend to be more skeptical, to take a look at olive oil's commercial potential."
From his Santa Cruz County ranch, Golino sells young olive trees he propagated from mature trees imported from all over the Mediterranean region. He says that his customers include commercial farmers as well as people who want a few backyard trees to produce some oil for their own table.
One of the pioneers in the rebirth of the California olive is 82-year-old Nan Tucker McEvoy, heiress to the San Francisco Chronicle publishing dynasty.
Ten years ago, McEvoy was looking to buy a peaceful country place where she could enjoy time with her grandchildren. She happened on a 550-acre parcel in northern Marin County, once part of a Mexican land grant. She planted olive trees in accordance with the agricultural zoning of the land. She enlisted the counsel of Tuscan olive oil expert Mauritzio Castelli and McEvoy put in Italian trees, as well as a sophisticated irrigation system and top-of-the-line Rapanelli extraction equipment.
Her 11,000 olive trees on 74 acres produces about 1,500 gallons of Tuscan-style extra virgin oil annually, making McEvoy the largest producer of estate grown olive oil in the state. Her award-winning product, which costs $24 per 375-milliliter bottle, sells out every year.
Shari DeJoseph, McEvoy's orchard manager, sells trees in one-gallon pots for between $6.50 and $15 each. DeJoseph also provides pressing services for growers who have a minimum of one ton of olives, the yield of 24 to 30 trees.
While growing olives can be a fun hobby, the competition from the Mediterranean growers makes it difficult to sustain a profitable business with a backyard orchard.
Roberto Zecca, an international banker for 25 years, is president of the nine-year-old California Olive Oil Council. Zecca estimates that the Napa-based organization has 400 members, 200 of which are growers mostly ranging from small to miniscule in production size. A major problem, says Zecca, is that the United States is not a member of the United Nations-sanctioned International Olive Oil Council which lays down rules governing product labeling for its 17 members.
Zecca feels that imports are often inferior products with misleading labels. To insure freshness and quality, Zecca advises consumers to buy California oils authorized by the California Olive Oil Council, an indication the products meet the same standards as those that the International Olive Oil Council authorizes.
Zecca's story is similar to those of many other California olive oil devotees. After taking an early retirement from banking, Zecca returned to Tuscany and bought 16 hectares (or 10,000 square meters) of olive trees, complete with a 1,000-year-old castle turned abbey. He expanded his operations to include a California olive orchard.
"Olive production alone kept me busy only three or four months a year," says Zecca. "The banker in me said I needed more than one profit center, so I opened a restaurant."
The centerpiece of his upscale Mill Valley restaurant, Frantoio, the Italian word for "olive press," is the Pieralisi crushing equipment visible behind the glass at the back of the dining room. The extra virgin oil he produces, also called Frantoio, flows freely in the kitchen and at the tables.
A CALIFORNIA PREMIUM?
Even with California's olive oil's apparent success the big question remains. Can the state come up with a premium product that will rival those from Europe?
Some California oils are beginning to hold their own in blind tastings. Last year, British cookbook author and publisher Anne Delamore was so impressed with California's Prato Lungo that she praised it in her book, A Buyer's Guide to Olive Oil.
Ted Hall and his wife Laddie produce Prato Lungo, $45 per 500-milliliter bottle on their Napa Valley Long Meadow Ranch. Hall, formerly a partner in the management consulting firm McKinsey and Co., bought the property 12 years ago.
When the couple began clearing the land, they found 120-year-old olive trees. They kept the olive orchard and have added some more trees from Italy. They make their own pressing equipment, allowing them to process the olives within a couple of hours of harvest, an essential element for obtaining excellent oil.
"I would have been willing to wager a vast sum that I was tasting the finest example of Tuscan oil," says Delamore of Prato Lungo. "What a surprise to discover that it came from not more than five miles away in Napa."
Although many Californians have probably never bought a bottle of premium oil, they are, in general, buying and using more of the product. Paul Vossen, Sonoma County farm advisor and co-leader of the California Olive Oil Council tasting panel, estimates that olive oil consumption in California has increased 88% in the past four years.
As cholesterol-conscious Californians become informed about the health benefits of the olive oil rich Mediterranean diet, more of them may want to produce their own oil, he says.
So, Deborah Roger's dream of entire California communities coming together to press their own olives for the family table could become a reality.
Mary Altier is a writer and photographer from the Santa Cruz area. Check out her writing and images at www.maryaltier.com.