Rancho Azul y Oro ~ Surviving the Dream

AyO's 2018 olive harvest began at sunrise on Saturday, November 3, 2018.  While much of the world and California's olive market is suffering from a poor olive crop this year, for whatever reason, that is not the case here.  This should have been our alternate producing year (I was looking forward to a year which included some time off), but even with our ten largest trees not producing, we will eclipse last  year's production.  Of course, the worrier in me is thinking, "OMG, how many olives are we going to have in our big production year, next year???" 😱 We are so fortunate to not only have family and friends and neighbors help us with the sorting, but since olives must be milled within 24 hours to begin the EVOO certification process in the U.S., we do hire crews to come in to pick the olives, so between the crews and the sorters, in our minds, the entire pick was going to get done in one day.  We were even tracking the bins real-time. Our mill...

 We know.  We are very bad on posting updates on our blog, but updates and recipes are posted on our Facebook page daily (https://www.facebook.com/ranchoazulyoro/), and by daily, we mean daily, as well as Instagram and Twitter. So the question remains, what have we been doing?  We started the year attempting to expand to deal with our largest olive harvest ever.  It takes time to get our oils in for EVOO certification, formulation time for the flavored oils, working on approved labels to meet the new Food Management Act, as well as creating our other products, marketing, bottling, as well as all the exterior farm work, pruning of the grapevines, pruning a couple hundred olive trees, racking all of our wines, getting all the olive oil in for competition -- the list is endless.  With two people working on the farm, something usually suffers in attempting to check off all of those items on the To Do List.   Despite resolutions to get out of the b...

Rancho Azul y Oro's Mission Blend Olive Harvest Photo courtesy of Brian de Haaff  Yes, yes, we hear it every year.  Where are your pictures from olive harvest?  Harvesting got in the way, then Thanksgiving, then EVOO certification, the dog ate our homework, Christmas -- and here we are. In order to be certified extra virgin quality olives, the olives must be picked, sorted, and milled within 24 hours and must be of the highest quality. Our olive harvest was split up into two days this year, November 10th and November 17th.  The first olives harvested were the Mission, Pendolino and Leccino olives.  We have a professional crew come in to pick the olives, who arrive at sunrise to pick, and our Day 1 crew consisted of family, including our daughter-in-law, grandchildren and my cousin and her husband, and wonderful friends.  The olives were at the mill, ready for milling by 5:00 p.m.  A wonderful dinner was enjoyed at Paso Terra after d...

There has been quite a lot written about being that girl on the right.  The last few of our blogs have had an underlying theme about vision, being in a class of one's own, and thinking outside the box.  There have been many people throughout history who have been that person on the right that were hugely successful -- Steve Jobs, to mention one name.  However, many people who were that person on the right believed in themselves and never really knew success.  Van Gogh, for instance, only sold one painting during his life. Our ranch is located in a virtual sea of grapevines and wineries.  We, too, make wine -- but only for fun or maybe just to annoy ourselves.  When we decided to do something commercially, we thought, "Let's be different than everyone else.  Let's grow something that no one else on this canyon is growing, olives."  The olive oil soon followed. While there is one winery on our canyon that sells olive oil, their business ...

You might be looking at the above picture and thinking, "Wow, look at that, Gold, Gold, Gold, Best of Class, Best of California." But we are reviewing our 2016 vintage and thinking, "How can we improve?  How can we do this better?"  What do we hope to achieve? For one, we hope to spread the word about our oils and how they can be used daily.  We can emphatically say that they are quality oils.  We work to get every detail right, from growing to harvesting, to selection of our mill, to formulating, to labels, to bottling, and then growing that enthusiasm about using olive oil daily and encouraging our family and fans to spread the word. One of the glaring areas of improvement as the creator of our flavored oils is that one silver medal.  If you know us, you'll know that silver is better than bronze, but we want this oil to have a gold medal -- not because we want medals, but because we want to offer the absolute best that can be offered.  This o...

How NOT to Store your EVOO I was recently asked by a friend what the best way to store olive oil is.  Of course, my eyes wandered over to the sight above, the numerous bottles of EVOO filling our counter top.  Pretending I was not seeing what was across from me, I proceeded to provide her with the following information about what can diminish the quality of the olive oil: LIGHT:  Keep your olive oil away from light (natural or otherwise).  Store in a dark cabinet or closet to prevent exposure;  You will notice that in the worst case scenario above, the olive oil is directly in the light. HEAT :  Keep your olive oil away from any source of heat.   Again, you will notice that in the worst case scenario above, the olive oil is directly next to the stove. COLD:   Do not refrigerate or freeze. AIR :  Seal your bottles of olive oil tightly.  Do not store your oil with pourers left in the bottle.  Air can get in even mor...

Can You See Our Vision or Does Smoke Get in Your Eyes? In the olive oil business, we are always looking for innovative ways olive oil can be used, which leads to creative thinking as to what type of olive oil to create in the first place.  Many producers offer the basics, an EVOO, a citrus olive oil, and an herbed olive oil. A few blog posts ago, I quoted George Patton, who said, "If everybody is thinking alike, then someone isn't thinking." We are one of the smallest olive oil producers amidst a sea of large olive oil producers, so we need to distinguish ourselves from the rest of the producers, try harder, work faster, and visualize concepts others have not yet tried.  Many times, customers ask what can be made with our oils.  We provide suggestions on our Facebook Page  as well under "Mealtime Inspiration" on our blog page, but there are times when some just do not understand our concept. Such is the case with our smoked olive oil.  We beg...

We're pleased to share that Rancho Azul y Oro has been honored with three medals in the Napa Valley Olive Oil Competition: A Silver Medal for our Estate Extra Virgin Olive Oil, a Silver Medal for our Orange-Infused Olive Oil, and a Bronze Medal for our Lemon-Infused Olive Oil. With this announcement comes the end of our competition year, a full-court press to finish bottling and labeling, taking advantage of every opportunity to market and share the oil with you (Translation: Buy Olive Oil). This stage also causes us to review and reflect upon how we can improve things next year, call it our New Year's in May: Avoid rookie mistakes:  Review established procedures each year and follow them to avoid errors we made when we were newbies that shouldn't be happening.  Most mistakes happen when we're in a hurry and there is a price to be paid for haste. Refine and Rework:  Crafting recipes to infuse olive oil is rocket science, combined with art, as are many bus...

We got word late last week that we received four awards from the Central Coast Olive Oil Competition.  We were awarded a Silver Medal for our Estate Extra Virgin Olive Oil, a Silver Medal for our Lemon-Infused Olive Oil, a Bronze Medal for our Orange-Infused Olive Oil, and a Bronze Medal for our Smoked Olive Oil. We are attempting, ourselves, to make sense out of the inconsistencies between the different judging panels.  The O/C member of our team reviews results with the plan of doing things better each year, and scrutinizes every fact provided but just cannot reconcile the results.  Some might suggest we ought to just celebrate the 12 awards we've received this year, with an additional two Best of Class Awards, but yet, we are left SOH (shaking our heads), as they say.  There are producers who submitted and did not win awards, so we are thrilled that, on the whole, all of our oils are award-winning. So, what mountain is left to scale this year?  One of the...

It was announced today by the Yolo County Olive Oil Competition that Rancho Azul y Oro won a Gold Medal for it's Estate Extra Virgin Olive Oil and a Best of Class Medal for our Arbequina Blend, Robust Intensity.  AyO was also awarded a Silver Medal for both its Lemon-Infused Olive Oil and its Orange-Infused Olive Oil. The Yolo County Olive Oil Competition is the second largest olive oil competition in the U.S., second only to the L.A. Cunty Fair Wine and Olive Oil Competition.   Discover California's newest gold for yourself, why not try some of our award-winning olive oil?

It was announced on March 24th that Rancho Azul y Oro won a Silver Medal for its Estate Extra Virgin Olive Oil, and a Gold Medal for it's Orange-Infused Olive oil, which was also awarded Best of Class for Infused Olive Oils and Best of California Flavored Olive Oil.  We were also awarded a Gold Medal for our Smoked Olive Oil. As if that wasn't plenty, today, our Estate Extra Virgin Olive Oil was awarded a Silver Medal from the San Joaquin Valley Olive Oil Competition. Why not reward yourself and discover California's new gold and try our olive oil? Thanks for the recognition, it is all quite an honor.  Now, back to bottling and getting all that farm work done!

The California Olive Oil Council announced the winners of its 2017 Olive Oil Competition ( 2017 COOC Competition Winners ).  We were thrilled to be among the producers who were awarded a silver medal for our 2017 Estate Extra Virgin Olive Oil. Since this is the governing professional organization for olive oil producers in California, they only accept entries that are EVOO, which eliminates any flavored oils.  Once an oil is either co-milled with or infused with anything, it is no longer EVOO. We have entered our EVOO and our flavored oils in additional competitions but were pleased to start off 2017 with this announcement. Congratulations to all of the winners!

Banana-Dark Chocolate Olive-Oil Muffins We were preparing for a tasting of our olive oil today, and as we always do, we create food with our olive oil using recipes that either we create or that we believe will pair well with our oils.  The goal?  To demonstrate how EVOO can be integrated into everyone's daily meals without too much difficulty. On the whole, we were pleased with these muffins, although I will be making a few tweaks in the future, at which time, we'll print up recipe cards, which we always provide with our oils. Here is a picture of the finished product: Banana-Dark Chocolate Olive Oil Muffins Do you have a favorite muffin recipe that you'd like us to try to convert using EVOO?  Let us know!

2016 EVOO We are very pleased to announce that our 2016 olive oil was awarded its extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) certification from the California Olive Oil Council on December 1, 2016.  This year's oil has been identified with strong robust flavors and high astringency, with positive flavor descriptors being identified as artichoke, cinnamon, and green almond.  I know, don't even say it. Receiving our certification is one of the best Christmas presents we could receive and we are off and running, now, for 2017. Happy Holidays to you all!

2016 EVOO Olive harvest began at sunrise on November 5th, 2016 and was our largest harvest.  In order to be certified EVOO, the olives must be picked, sorted, and milled within 24 hours, and then pass a chemical test and then a sensory evaluation in a blind tasting by an expert panel.  Our goal is to get them in and milled within 12 hours. Our olive oil passed its chemical test on November 7th, 2016 and is being prepared to be submitted to the tasting panel for evaluation.  In the meantime, our olio nuovo will be released in the next two weeks, and then the balance of the oil will be allowed to rest and the oil will then be filtered and bottled in January.   This was our largest harvest, and unfortunately, circumstances precluded many family members from participating this year.  Had it not been for the very generous donation of time and effort on the part of our friends, Bing and Karla Seid, we may not have been able to complete this very daunt...

Rancho Azul y Oro's 2015-16 Olive Harvest As we near our 2016 olive harvest, we are often asked, what is olio nuovo and why is there the rush to get that oil? Olio nuovo, simply put, means new oil.  It is literally the oil which was just an olive a week or two before, pressed and bottled.  It is nearly a neon green/gold color and it will be much more grassy, zesty, pungent, and spicy. Customarily, the olives are picked, milled, and returned to the grower in large stainless steel tanks called fustis.  The olive oil will then rest for approximately a month (as will the grower and bottler), and then, the sediment, is filtered out, leaving a brilliantly clear, beautifully finished oil.   The olio nuovo should be enjoyed more quickly than the finished olive oils because it is unfiltered.  The up side of the unfiltered oil is that it is the most fresh and pungent, the down side is that the sediment that is still in the olio nuovo can reduce its shelf li...

As we near our 2016 olive harvest, we are often asked, what is olio nuovo and why is there the rush to get that oil? Olio nuovo, simply put, means new oil.  It is literally the oil which was just an olive a week or two before, pressed and bottled.  It is nearly a neon green/gold color and it will be much more grassy, zesty, pungent, and spicy. Customarily, the olives are picked, milled, and returned to the grower in large stainless steel tanks called fustis.  The olive oil will then rest for approximately a month (as will the grower and bottler), and then, the sediment, is filtered out, leaving a brilliantly clear, beautifully finished oil.   The olio nuovo should be enjoyed more quickly than the finished olive oils because it is unfiltered.  The up side of the unfiltered oil is that it is the most fresh and pungent, the down side is that the sediment that is still in the olio nuovo can reduce its shelf life, unlike the more polished, final version ...