California Olive Oil
News^©
A Publication of The Olive Oil Source  

Volume 4 Issue 2

February 2001

January Fancy Food Show
San Francisco 2001

San Francisco - Olive Oil producers and resellers were well represented at this year’s NASFT show at Moscone Center in San Francisco. Current trends: Tuscan Sun and Paula’s were two of several specialty/flavored oil producers who have switched from California to Italian or Spanish olive oil because of price and availability considerations; bread dippers, citrus and other flavored oils appeared as part of most lines, organic is big, and specialty cured olives seemed to be everywhere. 

Citrus flavored oils have been popping up in every line since O Olive Oil won the NASFT Outstanding new product award last year for their ruby grapefruit olive oil. O founder Greg Hinson presided over their chic minimalist booth. O crushes the fruit with the olives to get their intense, fresh flavor. Supremo takes a different tact, they infuse fresh citrus rind with the oil after it had been pressed to make lemon, lime and orange oils. They claim that just as their olives are pressed without their pits to remove any bitterness, using pip-free citrus peel gives a smoother taste. Another option would be to use citrus oil offered by Boyajian. At their booth they were displaying their tangerine, lime, lemon, orange and grapefruit citrus oils suitable for blending with everything from olive oil to chocolate (www.boyajianinc.com).

Extra virgin olive oil mixed with grapeseed oil to raise the smoke point was on display at Rising Sun Farm.  Napa Valley Naturals showed a stunning new frosted bottle for their Reserve blend of Mission, Manzanillo and Ascolano and new labels for all their products. Their new First Press premium line was on display in a classic claret bottle. Calio Groves had their V.G. Buck line of oils and tapenades on display.

Many companies presented new bread dippers. Bari offered tastings of their extra virgin organic olive oil from the Lindsay area. Like all their products it is kosher (they also have Passover kosher products).  A beautiful new grape leaf motif label graced Private Harvest’s extensive line of bread dippers. They also offered tastings of their new garlic and Merlot blends. Their Tuscan Hills line introduced garlic rosemary and garlic oregano flavored oils

Wine Country Kitchens exhibited their private label customers’ products, including Cakebread Cellars and Sutter Home. 

John Somes of B.R.Cohn/Kalm offered tastings of their new oils. Their new 250 acres of organic olives in Calaveras county are now producing after extensive renovation. Their extensive Mexican orchards have also been renovated and are now contributing to their Sonoran oil blend. U.S. consumers will buy $8 billion dollars worth of organically grown produce this year, $1 billion of which will come from California.  Mexican farms also help satisfy this demand. New gift products included a small cruet set and visually stunning corrugated look packaging. Their fusti program is making headway in the local market.


Maurice Penna of M&CP Farms / Penna Olives / Loam Ridge was one of many olive producers showing new stuffed olives. He had a tasty display of new olive pates and tapenades and several new cheese stuffed olives. His Extra Virgin olive oil, a blend of Ascolano, Sevillano, and Manzanillo was one of the most memorable of the show . 

Santa Barbara Olive Company had their extensive line of olives with several new stuffed varieties. Owner Cindy Makela had pictures on display of the filming of a special episode of Wolfgang Puck’s cooking show featuring her new olive ranch. It's due to air on February 16th at 6:00pm. She described their partly successful attempt to make olive oil with a grape press for the show.  She also reported strong sales of her olive leaf extract health capsules which were introduced last year; herbal antioxidant, cold and flu formula, daily multiformula and olive leaf extract.

Supremo founder Dr. Roberta Crea introduced his entry in the health food arena; Olivenol. This patented olive water extract pill is high in polyphenols and other antioxidants, and incidentally takes care of the olive water disposal problem many olive presses have. Because the pits are removed before the olives are pressed, the extract doesn’t have any of the "undesirable chemicals" that they contain.

McEvoy Ranch has already sold out of their unfiltered Olio Nuovo. Orchard manager Shari DeJoseph reported that the rest of their new crop oil will be available starting April 2001 and that the orchard tree count is up to 14,000. She also mentioned that 2 weeks ago there was a lengthy article in the San Jose Mercury News about Nan McEvoy's efforts to create her Ranch.  Joe Harms at Sun Olive Oil was introducing the Don Vito line of oils from associates Dominic and Vito DeLeonardis of D. & V. Nursery. Joe was also offering tastes of his new “varietals”, each blended with a small amount of mission to enhance shelf life. 

While promoting his line of chocolate sauces,  Narsai David, long time California gourmand and food critic put in a plug for the Barouni oil made by friend Dan Sciabica.

St Helena Olive Oil touted their EVO in a new 500 ml size bottle. Los Olivos displayed their California olive oil. Harrison Napa Valley’s Olio D'Oro Extra Virgin Olive Oil had a fruity Middle Eastern flavor like Barouni but is made from various olives grown in the Napa Valley: Mission, Manzanillo, Lucques, Frantoio, Picholine, Nevadillo and Ascolano. They also had on display a blended California and Spanish oil, and their Estate oil pressed at their ranch in its signature thin necked bottle.

Les Moulins Dores, an importer of AOC appellation French olive oils from the Provence region introduced an extensive line of delicious and intriguing oils blended from ripe picked olives. French oils are not something seen often on the specialty olive oil rack at the market.  Growers such as Lila Jaeger are hoping consumers develop a taste for these sweet and subtle oils as they are planting many French varieties.  

Olive Fly Seminar and Update

Corning – Dr. Robert Dowell, primary state entomologist at the California Department of food and Agriculture introduced the speakers at the olive fly informational seminar in Tehama County. Sponsored by the CDFA, Tehama County Agricultural Commissioner and the California Olive Committee, the seminar featured informative speakers from Greece and Spain as well as insect control industry representatives. 

Dr. Alfonso Bueno of the Agricultural Department of Spain at Jaen started with a recounting of Spanish efforts to control the fly. He reminded us that the fly affects most of the world’s 9 million hectares (ha) of olive trees. Europe, Asia, South Africa and the Americas all have the fly which is considered the number one olive pest. In Spain about $14 million is spent annually to improve olive quality. Fully half of this is spent to control the fly on the 2 million ha of olive orchards there. The program monitors the development of the fly, alerts farmers to necessary control measures then monitors the effectiveness of these measures. The program is one third funded by a 5% levy on growers, one third by the Spanish government and one third by matching funds from the EU. 

The measuring program consists of one experienced control officer for every 10,000 ha of olives. This block is further subdivided into 1,000 and 5 ha plots for sampling purposes. The officer monitors traps in the field and examines olives for larvae presence and maturity. Data is collated in a hand-held device along with meteorological data from a weather station on each block and sent weekly to regional computers for analysis. Control recommendations are sent back to growers and the provincial data goes on to minicomputers in Madrid and Jaen. A well scrutinized 15,000 ha test plot has proved that modeling software can accurately predict fly populations 15 days into the future. Cost – benefit models take into consideration materials, environmental degradation and cost of olive damage as well as olive prices, etc. before making spray or bait recommendations. 

In Spain because of the immense area cultivated, aerial spraying is used extensively. A protein hydrolyzate bait is mixed with dimetoate – 40, an organophosphate insecticide, and aerial sprayed in 25 meter swaths in large droplets, alternating with untreated 75 meter swaths. Many national parks contain olive trees so must be sprayed. The protein bait is considered unacceptable in these areas so micronized Spiroketal, a pheromone attractant is mixed with the insecticide. 

Dr. Owens Jones of AgriSense then spoke about the efficacy of mass trapping using products like his lure and kill device. The use of pheromones requires knowledge of the fly’s life culture. The fly lives all of its life stages solely in the olive fruit and emerges as a winged adult in the early spring from unpicked or dropped fruit. There may be a sharp peak in flies caught in pheromone traps if fruit is available for egg-laying. By May there are no longer any acceptable host fruit so the fly becomes an asexual creature and is no longer interested or caught in pheromone traps. At this time and others, the fly can be found and trapped on plants other than the olive, although they do not molest them. When the new olive crop reaches a stage where the pit begins to harden it gives off chemicals which trigger the development of eggs in the female. The male flies are again attracted to pheromone attractants and mate with females. The ovipositor scar where the egg is laid is often the first evidence of infestation. Dr. Jones stressed the need to be able to recognize this damage for various subsequent control decisions. The larvae create galleries in the fruit which is quickly infected with fungus. Between the mold and galleries, oxidative damage occurs. Infestation of greater than 1% of olives in a grove render them unusable for table olives and if greater than 10%, unusable for oil. (A representative of the canning industry commented later during a question period that one larvae in every other can of olives would be considered unacceptable by U.S. consumers.) There may be time for several reproductive cycles in a single year. Temperatures greater than 104 degrees for more than several hours and low relative humidity (less than 35%) will discourage the fly. Water stress resulting in shriveled fruit will impede fly infestation. Eventually lack of fruit or cold weather causes populations to decline in the late winter. A few of the insects find a home in unpicked or dropped fruit and over winter.

Dr. George Haniotakis of the National Agricultural Research Foundation in Athens spoke of Greece’s pioneering work in olive fly abatement. Flies were found to be visually attracted to green or yellow sticky traps. Sticky traps alone couldn’t control the fly unless an uneconomical two to three were used per tree and had the side effect of killing beneficial insects and getting clogged with orchard debris. Various disposable and reusable kill and lure traps were described. Lure and kill packets depend on a visual, pheromone and ammonia salt lure and have organophosphate soaked cardboard/wood or cloth kill areas. The packets are considered compatible with organic designation because the insecticide is not directly applied to the leaves or fruit of the tree. The packet does not become clogged as there is no sticky surface; after several seconds of contact the fly goes elsewhere to die. 

The state of the art control method in Greece is currently considered one lure and kill trap for every other tree and spot or aerial treatments of bait spray depending on infestation flares. According to Dr. Haniotakis insecticide cover sprays are used more commonly in Italy.

During a question and answer session Glenn County agricultural commissioner Ed Romano described pending California state assembly bill AB11 which would include olives in the existing Stone and Pome Fruit Pest District Control Law.  It would allow creation of olive fly control districts. The districts would allow more economical purchase of control chemicals and permit spraying of non-orchard trees which may harbor the olive fly. It is estimated that there are over 10,000 olive trees in Tehama county outside commercial orchards. Failure to treat non-orchard trees in Baja California, Visalia and Los Angeles led to uncontrolled fly populations.  Growers were urged to contact their state representatives to push for this measure.

General recommendations by the above speakers for monitoring and control are summarized on our olive fly page

Dr. Deane Replies:  Heating food will break down its nutritional value.  High heat such as frying is worse than moderate heat such as steaming, which is worse than eating vegetables raw. It is not the cooking oil per se, but the high heat of frying. I am not aware of any edible cooking oil which of itself diminishes the nutritional value of the food cooked in it.  Even heating olive oil will decrease its nutrient value, it is after all just another vegetable product.  Most nutritionists recommend lightly steaming vegetables or eating them raw.  A touch of a flavorsome olive oil added at the table will add taste and healthful anti-oxidants.  Such is the "Mediterranean diet" which has been shown to help prevent coronary disease and have other health benefits. 

 4th Annual FarmTech Conference, Feb. 4-6, 2001, Santa Barbara, CA. (800) 678-GROW or willard@rinconpublishing.com