Olives101.com

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

By Dan Bryant, Mechanical harvesting research in California olives during the 2007 season documented greater efficiency with hedgerows over traditional trees, according to Louise Ferguson, University of California, Davis Extension specialist in pomology. Ferguson explained the 2007 trial results and plans for the 2008 harvest research during a Central California olive day at Exeter recently. […]

By Geoff Johnson, Lucero Olive Oil does just about everything in-house, right down to the label designs. By the end of October, the company will be able to add milling to that list. Using the third Westfalia brand separator to be built in the United States, Lucero will be able to improve the quality of […]