11 Jun

McEvoy Ranch in northern Marin unveils windmill

By Rob Rogers,
Photo Frankie Frost,
Publishing heiress Nan McEvoy hopes a once-controversial 98-foot-tall windmill on her northern Marin ranch will become an inspiration for farmers and others interested in leaving fossil fuels behind.
“I know there is nothing my mother is prouder of,” said Nion McEvoy, who spoke on his mother’s behalf during a dedication ceremony [...]

22 May

California: The Olive Press earns top awards

Already known as the most highly-awarded producer of California extra virgin olive oil, The Olive Press once again earned high accolades and awards at the prestigious 2009 Yolo County Fair Olive Oil Competition held in April, with an impressive 15 medals in all.
Gold medals were awarded to an additional seven of the Sonoma-based company’s extra [...]

19 May

Lindsay Olives seeks sales in snack aisle, too

By David Morrill,
Walk down the snack aisle of a local grocery store and you’ll find the usual canisters of peanuts, bags of chips and jars of salsa. If Lindsay Olives has its way, you’ll see their cans of olives as well.
Owned by Bell-Carter Foods Inc. of Lafayette, Lindsay Olives is in the process of trying [...]

23 Apr

Expert praises California olive oil

Going green can mean picking the right olive oil and one expert on the oil says California’s premium olive oils are often worth the extra money.
University of California Cooperative Extension farm advisor Paul Vossen, an olive oil expert, says the state’s olive oil has a promising future if word of its many benefits is effectively [...]

22 Apr

CIA-UC Davis World Olive Oil Conference

Take part in one of the top flavor-discovery experiences of the year, Beyond Extra Virgin 2009: An International Conference on Excellence in Olive Oil.
This unique event, scheduled for June 21 to 23, will be held at the University of California at Davis and the California campus of The Culinary Institute of America.
Conference highlights include extensive [...]

12 Mar

$450,000 Embezzled From SB Olive Co

Sheriff deputies arrested 39-year-old Cathy Latou who, reportedly admitted to embezzling over $360,000 from the Santa Barbara Olive Company.
The owners of the company contacted the sheriff’s department on Monday, after Latou reportedly confessed to the theft.
After a further investigation, sheriff officials discovered Latou may have taken an additional $90,000. Investigators believe the majority of funds [...]

12 Mar

Gold and Silver Medals Awarded to California Olive Ranch Extra Virgin Olive Oils

Arbequina, Arbosana, and Koroneiki Recognized at the First Annual California Olive Oil Council Competition
California Olive Ranch (COR), North America’s largest olive oil producer, received three medals from The California Olive Oil Council (COOC) for their 2008 harvest extra virgin olive oils: Both the single varieties Arbequina and Arbosana earned gold and COR’s single variety [...]

18 Feb

Olives May Be Rescued By Helpful Wasp

By Marcia Wood,
Olives basking in sunny California groves might find that their new best friend is a small brown wasp. Known to scientists as Psyttalia cf. concolor, the little wasp can help foil the olive fruit fly, a powerful natural enemy of olives.
Agricultural Research Service (ARS) entomologist Victoria Y. Yokoyama and colleagues have imported and [...]

04 Dec

Table olives losing favor on California farms

Small harvest being reported
Groves cut, making way for more profitable crops

Central Valley olive growers are reporting one of the smallest harvests in years – 51,000 tons, well under the USDA’s initial estimate of 65,000 tons.
One reason: Fewer olive trees.
Growers, disappointed with the money to be made growing table olives, have been ripping out many of [...]

29 Nov

Harvest brings gourmet McEvoy olive oil

By Rob Rogers,

At the McEvoy Ranch, the end of the harvest season comes not with the arrival of turkey, cranberry sauce or stuffing, but with the bottling of “olio nuovo” - a bright-green, strong-tasting oil made from the 550-acre ranch’s freshest olives.
Like almost all of the olive oil produced at the northern Marin ranch - [...]

28 Nov

It’s olive time again in Sonoma Valley

By Robbi Pengelly,

With the grape harvest wrapped up, the focus has turned to Sonoma Valley’s other crop  - olives. Here workers at B.R. Cohn Winery flail at olive trees with long poles like acolytes in some ancient Druid ritual. Next month will mark the launch of the Valley’s annual Olive Festival, complete with the blessing [...]

25 Nov

Olive thieves make off with 4,000-pound harvest

A Corning couple is out around $1,200 after thieves stole 4,000 pounds of freshly harvested olives Sunday night.
By Ryan Sabalow,
Katherine Woodson, who owns a 20-acre plantation with her husband Marshall, said that an olive harvesting contractor had worked all day Saturday and Sunday getting the harvest ready to take the fruit to wholesalers on Monday.
The [...]

25 Nov

California, Lodi’s latest fruit

By Marc Lutz,
Grapes may always be king, but olive crops could hold steady second.
A lumbering beast crawls along the ground in the olive orchards near Kingdon and Thornton roads, gobbling up the green-black fruit from hundreds of trees. The grape-sized olives are then spit into a large plastic bin to be transported to their final [...]

08 Nov

Caltech presses on with annual olive harvest

Article by Janette Williams,
Photo by Walt Mancini,
There were many people volunteering to pick olives at Caltech’s second Olive Festival Friday, November 7, 2008. Harvesters will transfer the olives to crates for commerial processing.
For the second year, Caltech turned what was a major annoyance on campus - olives underfoot from the 130 trees on campus - [...]

07 Nov

California, Tehama County olive crop falls short

By Geoff Johmson,

The local olive oil industry is expected to boom over the coming years, but California has seen better olive harvests than 2008.
As the state’s olive crop comes in, it appears an April frost and a May heat wave have knocked California’s olive crop to less than half of that of 2007.
As late as [...]