2014 Olive Harvest!

 Our harvest this year was a little like the folk tale about stone soup.  A tired traveler makes small talk with a woman at a farmhouse.  After striking up a convivial conversation, the traveler offers to make stone soup out of virtually nothing but rocks if he was lent a pot.  The stone soup story always ends on a happy note.


After bringing in a beautiful crop last autumn, issues beyond our control affected our oil.  The new year brought new blossoms to the trees -- hope springs eternal, and all of that.  Just as soon as that phrase was spoken, one of the only rain storms hit our area and threw in some hail for good measure.  Just in case there were a few blossoms left on the trees, the area suffered hot, dry and sustained high winds for a month or two.

Dejected and discouraged, we vowed that we would try again next spring.  We expected nothing from our trees, but as the year wore on and the olives changed from green to black, it became clear there were more olives than we thought.  Hope began to creep back in.  Could we pull it off?  We then decided that we were going to do whatever we needed to bring in a crop this year.  We would make something from our olives

We called the mill we used the last two years and were told we needed 700 pounds of olives to run the equipment and that due to substantial crop losses by growers this year, they would only be milling on Mondays, which wasn't going to work for us.  I thought, perhaps we could brine the olives if we didn't have 700 pounds.  The pragmatist in the team began to question that plan saying, "Really?  You're going to brine 650 pounds of olives?"  This author could not be swayed.  We were staying focused and we were going to make something from this crop this year.  Of course, I'd need a Plan B if we didn't have the minimum.

Numerous phone calls later, the plan was to schedule the picking crew for Friday, November 7.  If we didn't have 700 pounds but had more than we could reasonably brine, we would try a mill that could take us with less yield.  As the olives began to be picked and the crew brought us the bins for sorting, there was a great deal of jaw clenching and stress among the team, with the reality facing us that there is no way we would have the 700 pounds, there was going to be substantially less -- and maybe the other mill wouldn't even take us.  I began envisioning myself spending every waking moment of 2015 washing and brining olives.  It grew very quiet in the sorting area.

We decided to load them up, take them to the new mill and have them look at the yield and determine if they could be milled.  Maybe we would look so sad, they couldn't turn us away.  The bin was loaded, tied, and we traveled the 19 miles, had the olives there by 3:00 p.m. and we left with our oil by 5:00 p.m.

It has been a difficult growing year.  Last year, we had 100 gallons of finished wine.  This year, 10 gallons.  For every year that we've been at the ranch, cattle have been grazing here.  This year, no cattle.  Last year, we had 1100 pounds of olives.  This year?  Okay, we didn't have our 700 pounds, but we did make the acquaintance of some really nice people who have a mill and who have been very helpful, understanding, flexible and have guided us patiently.  Because of them, we have olive oil.  I consider it something akin to a Hail Mary pass -- or better yet, stone soup, something from virtually nothing.

The next step was to submit a sample for the chemical analysis portion of the EVOO certification.  We did that on November 8th, and we passed.  Of course there are still hurdles, the tasting panel evaluation in January, and always the big question, where will a small producer find bottles.  That will be another stone soup story for another day.

For now, though, we are very pleased with our stone soup and the fact that remaining focused and persistent, combined with an expert miller's patience and guidance, has brought in a crop from a very dismal growing year, and now, we have turned our attention to and are looking forward to celebrating a very big day with a very special young man in two weeks and enjoying the ranch with family and friends over the holidays. With this report, we end our 2014 growing season.  We are not sorry to say goodbye to it.

Cheers!