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2012 @ Oregon Olives™ |
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Oregon Olives |
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Think global - buy local. |
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Oregon Olives |
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Oregon Olive Oil |
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Oregon Olive Trees |
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January 31, 2012
First thoughts of the 2012 olive season A cold winter is not good for growing olive trees in Oregon. Fortunately, we are not having one! So far, the winter has reached lows around 23 F, which means we are having a winter within the range of what commercial olive growing regions experience (e.g. Sacramento Valley, CA; Tuscany, Italy). There has only been one period of snow, with a low of about 25 F during that spell.
Reken Estate olive trees, 01/15/12: |
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David Lawrence: David@OregonOlives.com |
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To contact us: |
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Also, La Nina conditions are forecast to extend thru early spring, bringing cooler and wetter weather to our area.
NOAA Forecast 01/20/11: |
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On the other hand, a long cool late winter / spring may just be ideal for getting an orchard of olive trees established, especially in situations where they can't be watered in summer.
So, as is normal, we are recommending April as the best month to plant olive trees in our region. Our sales season for olive trees opens April 7, 2012, see:
for details! |
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Night party in the Reken Estate olive trees! Photo courtesy Marvin Reken.
February 03, 2012
Time to start thinking about the olive harvest Mark W. just sent me a link to a workshop on olive curing that happened last September:
Your Sustainable Backyard - Olives
People interested in curing their own olives will want to read it!
Another question I get asked often is: "Do you sell raw olives?". The answer so far has been "No."; and furthermore I don't know anybody in Oregon who does. The truth is none of us have enough olives to do that yet. So, if you want olives to cure for table use, the best thing is to plant your own trees (which is why it is time to start thinking about harvesting olives - you can’t harvest trees until you choose, buy and plant them).
Olives in the PNW are best harvested for table olive use in October and November. However, this year there are still some useable olives hanging on our trees! I know it has been a mild winter, but even so I was amazed to see perfectly good olives on the trees, here and there.
Arbequina and Moraiolo olives, picked today (note the Arbequina are still "green ripe"!): |
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February 17, 2012
Deer here deer there dear deer everywhere!
For the first time, we have a serious deer problem. Perhaps because there has been a couple of cherry and filbert orchards pulled out on our hill, perhaps because of the mild winter, the deer feeding patterns have changed. The deer are now grazing through the Reken estate, on over to our neighbors, and them back to the ravine on the side of the hill to hide during the day. Carmen and Sara are running nightly commando missions to scare the deer off, but I am afraid they will then discover our other olive grove, which so far (as in the past) has received no deer damage. Deer are very patterned animals, least wise the ones around here are. Not really much is effective against deer, except fences, really tall fences. Based on the damage, if they can't be deterred otherwise, we are going to seriously think about fences or cages for the olive trees. They especially like to strip young trees. Sigh. Just the ones that can take it the least.
A Henry Payne cartoon, from a Michigan site: |
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March 21, 2012
Snowing… must again be Spring in Oregon!
I think it has snowed more here in March than it has the rest of the winter combined. Fortunately, the temperature is right around the freezing point, so I don't think to olive trees are bothered by it at all. |
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March 18, 2012
Sales Posted information about our April Sales Days in Amity Oregon on
Also, for the first time, we are going to start shipping our olive trees across the other lower 48 states! |
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April 16, 2012
The Alpha and the Omega...
Here are the very first olive blossoms I have seen this year! On a Picual tree. Full disclosure: the tree is just up from California. So, this means not much for us Oregon growers, except that blossom time for us cannot be far away! (Can it?) |
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There are also a few perfectly ripe and just beginning to shrivel Picual fruit from last year, still hanging on the trees that have been planted here for years:
Reken Estate, 04/15/12 |
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Notice also how clean the foliage is - no sign of peacock spot!
As you can see, the olive is dead ripe, and purple-black fleshed all the way to the pit. According to the Californians, olives (the fruit) can only take about 28 F before they freeze and rot. Since I think the winter low here was around 24 F, this is somewhat of a puzzlement. But hey! Looking at it optimistically, we may actually have a little bit more "headroom" here On The Edge than might at first be thought!
I did taste the fruit - I have heard tell that some cultivars loose their bitterness and pungency as they get dead ripe. I can say for sure this is not true for Picual! |
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April 19, 2012
Speaking of Picual...
Richard Gawel is an Australian olive oil taster of some note, and has long lead taste test panels and extra virgin olive oil judging competitions. He has also recommended that Americans plant more Picual (well, he actually said Californians, but does he know we all are growing olives in Oregon?). Here is a recent tweet of his that got me thinking of Picual again: |
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See his twitter feed: oliveoilguy
Yesterday, I was looking at the results of the 2012 Yolo County Fair Olive Oil Competition, and lo and behold a Picual extra virgin olive oil from The Olive Press won a Gold Medal, a "Best of Class" and a "Best of Show" award!
Of course, we here at Oregon Olive Trees have a field blend of olives that we put together with another master olive oil taster, Alexandra Devarenne. See our "Premium Dark Horse Field Blend", that I personally believe has the best chance for an Oregonian to make a gold medal winning extra virgin olive oil (but not at the Yolo County Fair, which is a bit parochial and only allows Californians to participate). The LA International Olive Oil Competition is the most prestigious olive oil competition in the U.S. and where we Oregonians should be.
So far, I have been unable to convince anybody to plant this field blend. Perhaps it is a bit too outré, or perhaps we Oregonians just have to work up through the tried and true Arbequina - Tuscan Blends - Exotic Blends curve of learning; after all, most people here probably don't really know what a true Tuscan style olive oil tastes like.
Premium Dark Horse Field Blend For ~ One Half Acre Planting
Picual 30 trees Leccino 60 " Pendolino 10 "
"An unexpected combination of a delicate early harvest Italian variety and a very distinctive early harvest Spanish variety. The Leccino will contribute a soft spicy base with some pepper on the finish; the Picual will add a dark, bittersweet chocolate / coffee note."
So, you ask, why aren't more people, including out good friends the Californians, doing something like this? Well, they may well be! But this blend is highly tuned to and developed especially for Oregon's "On the Edge" climate, in the same way that Pinot Noir is attuned to the local upper west side Willamette Valley climate. It is fairly well agreed that cooler growing zones should produce a fresher fruity olive oil, and that should be our key advantage to a gold medal award winning olive oil. Especially with our shorter growing seasons, bitterness and pungency are going to be easier to achieve. And while oils must be well balanced (fruity, bitter and pungent) to win gold medals, with this blend we should have a good chance of producing a truly unusual extra virgin olive oil.
And you know what? If nobody else buys these trees (I can sell you this grove today!), I just may well plant this myself… Ah, running out of land... |