Figueroa Farms, LLC Puts in Genius System

Shawn and Antoinette Addison figured it was time that the Southern California coast had a top quality olive oil mill. They needed the mill for their own olives; they have planted over four thousand trees in the Santa Ynez Valley in Santa Barbara County at the foot of Figueroa Mountain. Without a local mill, growers in the area have been trucking olives for hours to mills in the central valley or the Napa region.

The Addisons are not new to the olive business. They already own an established orchard in Provence. They wanted a professional system where the emphasis would be on organoleptic quality. After much shopping, they settled on the Pieralisi Genius system.

The system has several improvements on traditional mills. A computer console is programmed to control almost all aspects of oil making letting a single operator manage the plant. Motors and pumps have sensors so that they won't run dry and burn up. The double grind mill decreases oxidation and heating of the paste while increasing oil extraction. A pneumatic robot arm loads the malaxation tanks which have a self contained wash system. The tanks are covered to limit oxidation and can even be charged with inert gas.
 

Genius system covered malaxation tanks

The equipment was ordered in June through the local Pieralisi representative. Planners at the factory sent designs for the building and slab. Antoinette related that most of the construction time involved waiting for permits and licenses. Equipment arrived via containership in September and was lifted by crane onto the waiting concrete foundation. The foundation must be poured with troughs and wells for the equipment, pomace and clarifier waste.

Covered malaxation tanks

A factory technician spent 5 days along with a local journeyman plumber and electrician installing and testing the equipment.  The first ton of olives (which had sat for 3 days after picking) was used mostly for training Shawn and the other operators.  Despite this it came out with a very respectable .13 acidity level.

The Addisons also plant and manage olive tree orchards, rejuvenate old overgrown orchards, and harvest olive trees. They are currently interested in buying quality olives.

 For information on Figueroa Farms, please call 805-686-4890 or send an e-mail to info@FigueroaFarms.com.  For information about Pieralisi equipment in the US. call the Olive Oil Source at 805-688-1014 or email zoil@oliveoilsource.com

Arts and Olives at Cañada College

Beautiful weather graced the 6th annual Arts and Olive Festival at Cañada College in Redwood City, south of San Francisco.  BR Cohn and Olivas de Oro welcomed tasters of their oils and associated products.

Gil of Gil's Gourmet had a busy time keeping samples of his hand stuffed olives served up. At times tasters were three deep at the booth for the blue cheese and garlic stuffed olives.  They were also offering a Garlic and Herb olive oil.  Bonita Ranch and Aeolia gave tastings of their California olive oils.  Tony Pennisi of Big Paw guided olive oil tasters through the largest selection of olive oils at the show including such exotica as a pungent porcini mushroom oil.

The Olive Oil Source gave demonstrations of pneumatic olive harvesting rakes and pruners.  Demonstrations of the First Press home olive press let many festival attendees see how olive oil was made. Several larger growers came to the show to exchange retailing ideas and to discuss the new Pieralisi olive oil pressing equipment offered by The Olive Oil Source.

Don gave demonstrations of no-lye olive curing and generous hand-outs of his home made olives.

Many visitors left with small olive trees from Olive Grove Nursery.  Proprietor Wendell Davis had posters displaying some of the mature tree installations his company had done for homes and businesses.  Table olive growers hurting from cheap imports are a great source of large trees for landscaping which would otherwise be bull-dozed.

Several vendors with full condiment product lines were also offering olive oil: Napas Tapas, Hare Hollow, and Spenger's Bistro Blends.

Smoke Point of Olive Oil
by John Deane

Pumpkin seed oil, avocado oil, borage and camellia oil; it used to be that a choice of oil for cooking was simple. You used a liquid canola or corn oil for frying or sautéing and a hardened oil such as Crisco for baking.

We now live in the age of boutique oils.  All seeds have oil in them as the energy source for the growing seedling.  Man's ingenuity and desire to create a niche market has led to the extraction of many unusual oils. 

The marketing angles on these oils are manifold.  Some claim to have health benefits, others to have flavor.  Buyers of argan and shea butter oils may be supporting women's cooperatives in developing nations. Hemp seed oil diehards are "sticking it to the man".  Grapeseed oil has the romance of the vine.  JoJoba oil is a earth friendly alternative oil.  While it is hard to compare or argue some of these points there is one point which should be easy for comparison: the smoke point. 

A high smoke point is desirable for a cooking oil.  When frying, best results occur when the oil is very hot.  The food is placed into the hot oil and the natural sugars caramelize and proteins denature into a thin shell which protects the food from soaking up the oil.  The outside is crisp and the interior is just cooked.  One of the bibles of cooking, Irma Rombauer's "The Joy of Cooking" recommends frying at 365 degrees F for best results. 

Smoking oil is not just a nuisance. Besides coating your home interior with a varnish like substance, where there's smoke there's fire.  An oil at its smoke point is closer to its flash point - the point where it will burst into flame.

So a high smoke point is one yardstick for a "good oil".  If you go the internet or the market to look for smoke points you will see something interesting. Every oil claims to have the highest smoke point. One website for macadamia nut oil puts their oil at the top of the list with a smoke point of 410 degrees F.  On their chart olive oil comes in at a measly 190 degrees F.  Avocado oil sites say their oil has the highest smoke point and claim nut oils are terrible for frying.  

The smoke point for a vegetable oil will vary according to the variety and growing conditions, and how the oil was produced.  The smoke you see may be impurities in the oil which are burning.   Unfiltered olive oil has small bits of olive in it.  When the oil is heated these bits will burn and smoke before the oil itself.  A well filtered or clarified oil will have a higher smoke point generally. 

Oil which has oxidized because of exposure to air, heat and light will have a lower smoke point.  Using oil repeatedly will also make it smoke sooner. When looking for the smoke point of an oil you should expect a range of values.

The Olive Oil Source claims that extra virgin olive oil smokes from 400 to 365 degrees F according to it's free fatty acid content. But the macadamia nut folk say that olive oil smokes at the temperature of hot water out of the tap; 190 degrees.  When I suggested to the macadamia people that it seemed unlikely that olive oil smokes at a  temperature lower than boiling water and that maybe they were confusing centigrade with Fahrenheit they insisted they were right.

So who do you trust for the real smoke point? The industry group which is advertising and promoting the oil, a random website or a food chemistry text?  Here is what some research yielded:

The International Olive Oil Council: 410˚
Institute of Shortening and Edible Oils: 420˚

Or why not get some olive oil off the shelf and heat it up in a saucepan with a frying thermometer.  This is properly done in a lab with special lighting which shows the first hint of smoke.  My stovetop experiment yielded 350 degrees for a jug of discount store oil which had been sitting open in the garage for a few years and 380 for a premium fresh extra virgin oil.

It is annoying to counter these conflicting claims when most people would not fry with olive oil anyway.  A cheap, flavorless oil with a high smoke point is usually recommended - something like canola, soy or peanut oil.  Avocado, macadamia and premium olive oils can cost up to a dollar per ounce.  It is unlikely that you are going to deep fry that Thanksgiving turkey in 5 gallons of oil at that price.

Besides, if we are so worried about our health, why fry at all?  Better to talk up the flavor qualities of olive oil, an area where it shines compared to bland seed oils.