Olive Oil Adventure

It’s here…

The latest release (and first of this harvest season) is now available. Beth just returned from a Marin farmer’s market and sold nearly every bottle that she had! If you’ve tried Verde, you know why people are crazy for it. I mean, it’s the SOLE reason that I wanted to become an olive oil baron. If you’ve never tried an olive oil that is fresh from the mill, you haven’t yet lived. It’s spicy, hot, green, fruity and oh so freakin’ delicious.  Liquid Gold.

Check it out on our website, you’ll love it.

Did I mention that it is reeeeeally good for you too?

On the 15th and 16th of November, we completed our Arbequina harvest in Sutter county. These tiny olives pack an awesome and very unique flavor. To make them even better, they’re quite easy to harvest! The branches tend to hang down, so you just wrap your fingers around the branch (loosely) and pull towards your belly bucket. The olives rain down into the bucket (causing much delight).

Our crew was a little slow and the fruit was only in spots, here and there. The weather was gorgeous, albeit a little warm for this time of year. Once again, a t-shirt and shorts would have been appropriate apparel for the day.  So, now to the totals: 1075 pounds.

On Saturday and Sunday, we took a small crew to Sutter county to harvest the tiny and ultra-flavorful Arbequina olives. We pulled more than 1100 pounds of fruit off of the trees while the sun shone brightly. The weather was per-fect and allowed for us to harvest in our t-shirts! It’s a rare occasion when that happens.  Typically, it’s cold, windy and very wet. Not a bad start for the 2008-2009 harvest!

Verde will be available in small quantities starting 11/17!

On Saturday, November 8, our harvest season will officially begin. We’ll be harvesting Arbequina olives from orchards in Sutter county. These tiny olives are about 3/8″ in diameter (tiny) but pack a flavor that is unlike any other. Just awesome.

I usually look forward to this time of the year, but not so much this year… After harvesting the entire crop last year without a working crew, I have a stark realization of all of the back-breaking work that lies ahead. It’s an ugly process for us, but, if we can focus on that delicious olive oil, we’ll be OK.

Olive Bins Clean… Check.
Harvester Ready… Check.

Tarps Clean… Check.

Truck Loaded… Check.

Here we go. It’s ON.

After much gnashing of teeth, our latest issue of the Sylverleaf Press is now available. If you’re a regular customer, you’ll see a copy in the mail or in your e-mail Inbox. If you’re not on the list, what are you waiting for?! You can grab a copy from our website too.

Enjoy!

Our chicken population is now down to 3. These will be the last of their kind, since we don’t plan to let the hens sit any more eggs (If I’ve learned one thing though, it’s that hens are very crafty). The last one to be born was the lovely and very shy, Teresita Chiquita. Also in this picture (soon to be uploaded here) is the old girl, Brewster and the coolest rooster on Earth, Leroy. This rooster doesn’t take everything for himself. If he finds some lovely treat in the yard (like a grape or a worm), he’ll call the girls over and let them have it.

We did it! We are now officially certified organic.

Woo-Hoooooo!

Clink.

Clink.

Clink.

Clink.

Fill 'Er Up

It’s the happy sound of our bottles being cleaned. I’m always happy to hear the sound because it means that our next bottling run is very near. To keep our inventory ready, we are bottling Estate 250s and 500s, more than 40 cases in this run.

Just a couple of years ago, there’s no way that I would have been happy to bottle that much oil. It just took too long and was one heckuva grind (12 hours). Now, the process is much easier and a relief from the heat (the bottling room is the ONLY room on the farm that is actually air conditioned!). I’m looking forward to it.