Olive Oil Adventure

Yesterday, we went through our initial inspection to become certified organic. After completing the rafts of paperwork to create our Organic System Plan, (It seems odd to me that I needed to print so many pages… Not quite a sustainable activity.), having that reviewed, then revising the paperwork for the third time, the big day arrived. The inspector spent about 4 and a half hours with us, going over all of the tiniest details. We walked the orchard, looking for any place where pesticides or herbicides might drift onto our property from the neighboring homes and ranches. We discussed our plans for inter-planting the orchard and how we would tend the trees, old and new. Then, we traced a single bottle of olive oil backwards; from our bottle to bottling machine to bulk storage to the orchard to the very day those olives were picked and finally to the tree and how that tree was tended. It really was quite amazing to see how the inspector put all of the pieces into their respective places.

After this experience, I can (sorta) see why it is so expensive to produce an organic product. The detail that is required, along with the paperwork, is very daunting. I’m skimming over the fact that we can use none of the nasty chemicals that make farming an easier chore. Those that we are allowed to use are two to three times more expensive than conventional, man-made chemicals. Add to that the fact that organic farming requires more manual labor. All in all, the equation is difficult to solve.

So, pending some unforeseen problem, the 2009 release of our Sylverleaf Estate will be 100% certified organic! We’re very excited by this prospect and hope that you are too.

It certainly looks that way. All of the downed limbs are due to recent pruning activities around Sylverleaf. We are aiming for a very heavy pruning of all 9 rows in Block 2 of the orchard, consisting of about 230 trees and a light pruning of another 300.  So far, we have moved through three of the 9 rows (51 trees). Our efforts to prune have been severely dampened by two completely uncontrollable factors this year; wildfires and heat.

The wildfires are somewhat nearby and we’re completely covered by a dense layer of smoke. It’s great if you like that “campfire” smell, but after two weeks, I think that it’s getting a little old… If we stay outside for too long, or if we are working hard physically, that little itch starts in the back of the throat. Soon, the itch turns into a little cough here and another there. The chest tightens. The nose and eyes water. That’s all fine with me, but it’s the following day that I truly feel the effects. The cough is gone, but the back of the throat is a bit raw and there seems to be a hand around my upper chest and lungs. It doesn’t go away either…

The second problem is the heat that we have experienced lately. The daytime temperatures have hovered at or above 100F for more than a week. It’s quite unusual to have that kind of heat this early in the summer. We expect it in August or September, but June and July?! All physical work must be finished by 1PM or 1:30PM or heat stroke becomes a real possibility.

After much gnashing of teeth and the near destruction of one keyboard, the new site design is ready to go. We have a few database issues to work out before we transition the entire Sylverleaf site over to the new look, but that’ll happen this weekend. There might be a hiccup or two over the next week, but the change is long overdue.

So, what do you think? Love it? Hate it? Couldn’t care less?

Enjoy.

We haven’t yet planted our latest batch of 100 trees, but we’re moving in that direction. We picked the trees up from our favorite nursery in 2″ pots. They were woefully rootbound and nearing their end… We transplanted all of them into larger 4″ pots where they will now grow for a month or so. Then, it’s on to 8″ pots and finally into the ground. That should happen late in the summer when the weather is a bit less, uhm, HOT. This set of trees is made up of more Picual, more Arbequina and some lovely Hojiblanca (thanks to Jaime!) varieties. All of these varieties are tasty and should blend in just fine (Southern Spain Style, Yeah!).

It’s true.

I can hardly believe it, but Paradise is currently being evacuated… I don’t mean to make light of the situation, but this must be the end of the world.

The tiny town of Paradise, CA was evacuated a few days ago due to raging wild fires. It is a small, hip town, located in the center of olive country. We would like to wish everyone up there the best and hope that losses are minimal. Stay safe.

We finally received the results from the Olive Oils of the World competition, held in conjunction with the LA County Fair. This is one of the premier olive oil competitions in the entire world. For 2008, more than 500 olive oils from all around the globe were entered into the blind tasting. We are proud to announce that our Foothills Blend won Best of Class, baby. In truth, fewer than 3 olive oils (3!) were better than ours this year… Not too shabby for a small company from a small town in the US. We have consistently been awarded a Gold, Silver or Bronze medal in the blind competition, so we are very happy to have made it to the next level.

I can hear that Champagne cork popping RIGHT NOW.

We have been running non-stop lately. With the warmer weather comes the daily grind of chores in and around the orchard. Everything is growing quickly and profusely and we struggle just to keep up.

The olive bloom is finished for this year. The bloom was very strong with large bunches of flowers on the end of each twig on the tree. I don’t recall any previous flower set that could compare with this year’s. (Well, two years ago, the bloom was very nearly as good, but the weather took that bloom far too quickly.) There are already tiny olives developing on the trees as I write this. Many are about 2mm in diameter and growing quickly.

The weather, especially the harsh wind, has been rather unpredictable this year. The timing for the recent rains and our mini heat wave were right in the middle of the bloom, so we’ll see how the crop set goes. If I had to guess, I’d say that we’re in for another small harvest…

Mother Nature sure is making this difficult.

It seems like we have been working on the bottling room project for, oh, about a year…  Finally, the state inspector came to check out our new room and we passed the rigorous inspection with flying colors. Sylverleaf is now one step closer to being fully self-sufficient!

Now that the bottling room is all done, we’re on to start construction on our new tasting room.