Region's Olive Oil Boom

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Region's Olive Oil Boom

Olive Oil As Liquid Gold

By Jennifer Teel Wolter

There’s an old saying among Italian farmers: “Uva della pianta per lei; olivo della pianta per i vostri nipote.” Plant grapes for yourself; plant olives for your grandchildren. It’s a nod both to the length of time and the investment required to plant and mature olive trees. But judging by the number of olive orchards sprouting around the Sacramento Valley and Sierra Foothills, it may be time to revisit the wisdom.
    Buoyed by the continued growth of the gourmet-food industry and new agricultural technologies, local olive oil producers are defying odds by establishing fruitful orchards and turning profits in record time.
    In the last three years alone, California has seen a 70 percent increase in acreage of olive trees devoted to oil production, with most of them growing in Northern California. With boutique oil producers in towns such as Oroville and Loma Rica, foodies across the nation are watching to see if the region’s olive oil industry could follow in the famed footsteps of the Napa Valley’s wineries.
    “Olive oil is incredibly hot right now. We’ve been surprised, ourselves,” says John Segale, president of Precision Public Relations in Roseville, which represents California Olive Ranch and Apollo Olive Oil
    “It’s amazing how quickly things are maturing for the market. Olive oil can cast a much larger shadow than the wine industry could at the same point in time, simply because consumers can easily find the product online.”
    California olive oil producers also benefit from an already-established gourmet economy built upon the shoulders of products such as wine and coffee. Napa wineries, which once struggled to contend with their more-established counterparts in Europe, have cemented the state’s venerable reputation. And boutique coffee shops have triumphantly weaned Americans off instant coffee, replacing consumer indifference with an appreciation, if not an addiction, for finely brewed java.
    The combined success has left an educated consumer base with a palate for gourmet goods, primed and waiting for the next big taste adventure.

The Flavor Experience
“I never thought people would pay $3 for a cup of coffee; boy, was I wrong,” says Alan Greene, vice president of California Olive Ranch in Oroville. “It’s the same for olive oil. Once you use really good extra virgin olive oil, you appreciate the flavor experience and start looking for places to use it. It changes the way you look at food.”
    In the gourmet crowd, California olive oil sells itself. Most small producers simply rely upon farmer’s markets, entering tasting competitions and old-fashioned word of mouth to build their reputation and bolster sales.
    For Michael Calolea, owner of Calolea Olive Oil in Loma Rica, it’s all that’s necessary. On the heels of his recent “Best in Class” award at the Olive Oils of the World competition at the Los Angeles County Fair, Fine Cooking magazine ran a spread on the company. Orders from around the country began pouring in, adding to an already-faithful local following that snatches up Calolea oils at farmer’s markets in Lincoln, Auburn and Granite Bay.
    Likewise, Bariani Olive Oil of Sacramento has benefited from a strong reputation and a savvy consumer base. “We do no advertising at all,” says Emanuele Bariani, one of three brothers involved in the family-run business. “It’s all word of mouth. We figure if people are really interested in olive oil, they’ll find us eventually.”
    But for the California olive oil industry to take off, local producers will have to achieve mass-market appeal, which means lowering prices. Because of high land and labor costs in the state, olive oil is expensive to make. Good California oil will easily lighten your wallet by $20 to $60 per bottle, prompting some producers to turn to innovative technologies in hopes of finding a competitive edge.

Super Premium
California Olive Ranch is counting on super-high-density planting to lower costs. Developed in Spain, the super-high-density method involves planting the trees much closer together — 600 to 900 trees per acre, as opposed to the traditional 100 per acre. They’re trellised much like grape vines, pruned to remain smaller and harvested mechanically. The system has reduced California Olive Ranch’s capital costs by 85 percent and hand-picking labor costs by 95 percent. It has also increased production, which is the key if California hopes to catch up with Europe, which currently produces 97 percent of all olive oil consumed in the United States.
    As for smaller olive oil producers, a combination of geography and tradition has kept planting and pressing methodologies largely unchanged over the past century. Most foothill olive orchards still harvest fruit by hand from 100-year-old trees and extract the olive oil using massive, old stone presses. Yet, little by little, even those who typically shun modern advances are weaving technology into their time-honored techniques.
    Apollo Olive Oil, based in Oregon House, Calif., has replaced its traditional stone mill with a vacuum press, in hopes of increasing the purity of its oil. The only such mill in the nation, and one of only four in the world, it keeps the oil from being exposed to oxygen while the olives are crushed, which preserves more of the polyphenol antioxidants and prevents rancidity.
    “We’re able to get flavors like never before,” says Steven Dambeck, a grower/miller at Apollo Olive Oil. “It really protects the purity and aromas of the oil.
    “With the foothills’ geography, we could never do super-high-density planting or use mechanical-harvesting equipment,” continues Dambeck. “We do all hand harvesting, and we do very well. We make a super-premium oil.”
    There is some debate as to whether consumers who’ve come to prize authenticity will embrace a product that uses modern innovations, but Paul Vossen, a farm adviser with the University of California Cooperative Extension, sees it as a natural fit.
    “Americans are used to technology,” says Vossen. “If you do it right, it doesn’t have to impact quality. It can even improve it.”

No More Foreign Oil
Vossen thinks agricultural innovations could be just the boost the California olive oil industry needs to take on European imports. He also notes that an erosion of foreign subsidies for Italian and Spanish oils, which have long given imports an edge on price, may further level the playing field.
    That’s a prospect Michael Calolea welcomes. “I always tell people that we’re trying to decrease our dependence on foreign oil,” he jokes. “We produce more petroleum at home than we do olive oil.”
    In the end, the biggest thing California olive oil has going for it is its origin. “Look at wine,” says Vossen. “Americans trust California wine; they’re buying into a California brand. We just have to do the same thing with olive oil. The potential is definitely there.”  

Sniff, Sip, Swirl

Don’t be surprised if you find yourself at a local olive oil tasting; it’s a growing trend. Here’s how to do it:

Choose Your Oils: Pick no more than three or four. Taste the mildest oils first, moving on to the most robust.
Note Aroma: Pour about a tablespoon of each oil into a small tasting glass. Warm the glass with your hands and inhale deeply two or three time, noting the aromas.
Taste: Take a few tiny sips, swirl the oil around your mouth. Inhale quickly a few times through semi-parted lips; this sprays the oil over your tongue. Note the flavors, then spit out.
If sipping doesn’t appeal to you, you can also taste oils spread on plain, unsalted bread.

Know Your Virgins

Extra virgin, virgin, imported pure, light. When it comes to types of olive oil, what’s the difference? The golden rule of olive oil is, the lower the oil’s acidity, the better the quality.

What’s in a label
Extra virgin has been extracted using no chemicals or excessive heat. It has a superior taste and the lowest acidity, less than 0.5 percent.

•Virgin olive oil is of a lesser quality. It has a good taste, but a higher acidity, less than 2 percent.
•Pure olive oil is often the lowest quality on the shelf. It’s a bit of extra virgin oil mixed with low-quality olive oil.

Sneaky tactics
• “Imported from Italy” simply means the oil was bottled there. The olives can be grown anywhere.
• “Light olive oil” doesn’t refer to the fat content at all. It just refers to the color and sometimes the taste.
• “Blended olive oil” sounds fancy, but read the fine print. It could be blended with cheaper hazelnut oil.
In California, there isn’t a legal definition of extra virgin olive oil. So to be sure you’re getting the good stuff, look for the Certified Extra Virgin Seal from the California Olive Oil Council (COOC).

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