Sonoma Valley’s olive season is off to a great start, according to Daniel Cohn of B.R. Cohn Winery. Cohn called this year’s olive harvest “a significant crop” that “looks amazing.”
“We started Monday morning and we expect to be harvesting all through next week,” said Cohn.
According to the California Olive Committee, California produces over 95 percent of all of the olives grown in the United States. Olives and olive oil production represent a significant industry to the Sonoma Valley – second only to wine.
Though this year’s harvest has started earlier then expected, the Sonoma Valley Visitors Bureau is already planning its annual “Blessing of the Olives” ceremony for Jan. 3, 2015. The blessing takes place at the historic Mission San Francisco Solano de Sonoma, located on the northwest corner of First Street East and Spain Streets.
Cohn, whose father Bruce started the family winery in 1984 and their olive business in 1990, said more than four tons of olives would be harvested this year. Out of that, the winery would produce approximately 100 gallons of Picholine extra-virgin olive oil.
[caption id="attachment_17773" align="alignnone" width="300"] Workers sort olives during the harvest this week at B.R. Cohn. Robbi Pengelly/Index-Tribune[/caption]
“Our 140-year-old Picholine olive trees are considered to be the finest olives used to press into oil,” said Cohn. “We can get about 25 gallons of olive oil for every ton of olives picked. That’s a low yield, compared to some of the larger growers who might produce 48 gallons per ton, but our olive oil is completely hand-made and has an acidity level of 0.18 percent, which makes it far purer then the average level of 0.53 percent.
The International Olive Oil Council defines “extra-virgin olive oil” as oil extracted from olives that contain “no more than 0.8 percent acidity”
“During the extraction process, no chemicals should be used. Extra-virgin olive oil should be cold-pressed, which means that no heat over a certain temperature was used during processing,” states the IOOC.
Ron Chapman, a local preservationist of Sonoma Valley’s living history, said there has been a lot of recent activity to determine what constitutes genuine extra-virgin olive oil, from blends and products which falsely advertise.
“We’re learning more and more that a lot of the imported olive oils labeled extra-virgin are actually blends of canola oil and other types that are not pure,” said Chapman.
“Seventy-percent of the imported olive oils are bad for you,” added Cohn. “Most of the imports are shipped through Spain and produced in Italy. The olive oils produced here in Sonoma are far superior and at least you know what you’re getting.”
A January 2014 New York Times article by food author Nicholas Blechman, said that most of the imported olive oil was “neither extra-virgin nor made in Italy.”
“Instead, Spanish and North African olive oil is shipped to Italy, cut with soybean oil and beta carotene, and nefariously mislabeled,” wrote Blechman. “The ‘olive oil’ is shipped around the world, to countries like the U.S., where approximately 69 percent of the olive oil for sale is doctored.”
The California Olive Committee notes that olive trees are an alternate bearing fruit, producing large crops one year and a smaller ones the next. Cohn said this was the case with his trees producing a smaller harvest last year, but a much larger harvest this year. He was joined in his observations by Benziger Winery viticulturist Jeffery Landolt.
“The quality is up this year. Our harvest is three weeks early,” said Landolt, who moved to Sonoma recently from the San Diego suburb of Fallbrook. “While there were some problems with pests for some of the farms, we managed things well and did not have problems.”
Chapman said an infestation of the olive-fly migrated up from Southern California into Sonoma, resulting in many smaller harvests destroyed as a result. But Landolt noted that Benziger Winery has been employing bio-diversity techniques in their groves and vineyards, which have largely stemmed the threat of diseases or infestations.
“Olive groves and wine-grape vineyards are complimentary crops that can balance out a property’s biodiversity,” said Landolt. “Benziger has been studying this issue for 30-years and our production design has been in process for 15-years.”
Landolt said Benziger’s bio-diversity procedures employed principles discovered by UC Berkeley scientists, who concluded that if a strong enough variety of plants were growing in a location, the variety of animals and insects attracted to those plants would act as natural exterminators.
“I always think of the Irish potato famine as an example. If the Irish farmers had planted more then one type of crop, there would have been no famine,” said Landolt. “It’s similar to a forest. A forest is self-sustaining due to the variety of plant and animal life, which is why they can last thousands of years.”
Various olive-harvesting festivities and events will be taking place throughout Sonoma in the next few months. For more information on those events, go to the Sonoma Visitors Bureau’s website at olivefestival.com.
For more photos, see http://tinyurl.com/kp4gr7n
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