Archive for 2008

25 Oct

Californian Olive growers see low crop this year

By Sean Janssen, The fortunes of Californian olive growers are mixed this year. In Jamestown, grower Leslie Hurst said her Hurst Ranch Feeds & Fencing crop looks to be following a statewide trend of light tonnage as weather has taken its toll on this year’s crop. The California Farm Bureau Federation Food and Farm News […]

22 Oct

Family traditions and olive milling

By PJ Bremier, “I’ve got 38 of the most wonderful olive trees and they produce tremendously,” Jim Simon says gleefully as he looks forward to his annual olive-pressing party in November. That’s when Simon, owner of the Building Supply Center in Point Reyes Station, and his wife, Linda, spread out a festive Tuscan feast and […]

22 Oct

New Zealand’s Kapiti Olive oil stays golden

Kapiti olive oil scooped gold for the 4th in a row at the New Zealand Olive Gold Awards held in Wellington. One of the three Raumati and Te Horo growers, Helen Walshaw, said hot days and cool nights on Kapiti Coast helped enhance the robust fruity flavour of the oil. Kapiti Olives sends the fruit […]

21 Oct

Mechanical table olive harvest: ‘We’re close’

Hand-picking can cost growers more than half of their gross returns By Hank Shaw, A clutch of olive growers stood around a machine that looked like a mobile, padded skateboard ramp attached to a conveyor and armed with a massive pair of grippers. The machine’s grippers grabbed the trunk of an olive tree and began […]

15 Oct

Extra-Virgin Maggoty Oil in California

By Alastair Bland, At Bernardo Winery, one of the oldest olive oil producers in California, oil flow has come to a standstill. While the Rancho Bernardo company has historically produced 300 to 400 gallons of olive oil per year from its 1200 trees, the olive fruit fly, an invasive pest that’s native to Mediterranean Europe […]