Solano olive growers, millers say educating consumers is key

Theirs has been a "green" business since 3,500 B.C., and, in the early 21st century, it is part of a growing enterprise in Solano County and California, enhancing -- and quite literally flavoring -- the food-and-wine lifestyle of the Golden State.

A new generation of local olive oil producers say the new-found interest in their products among increasingly health-conscious Americans bodes well for their cottage industries.

"It's part of the good-food and good-for-you-food diet," an allusion to the so-called Mediterranean diet high in unsaturated fats from vegetable oil, nuts and fatty fish such as salmon and tuna, said Albert Katz, co-owner of Katz and Company, who, with business partner Jim Parr, tends nearly 25 acres of olive trees in Suisun Valley. They produce organic, extra virgin olive oil, among other products.

Katz and other olive growers and oil producers, such as Jon and Sylvia Fadhl of Dixon and Mark and Ann Sievers of Fairfield, say the key to expanding their business and bottom lines is consumer education.

Many people have heard and seen the term "extra virgin olive oil" but most do not really know what it means, the local producers, among the more than nearly two dozen in Solano and 250 in California, say.

Fadhl, by day a medical imaging equipment repairmen for Siemens, said that, technically, it means lab tests show the oil to have less than .08 percent free fatty acids.

But generally, extra virgin olive oil means it is fresh and less

than 12 to 18 months old, unlike many of the imported oils from Italy and Spain, which are, typically, a year or more old and fading in flavor by the time they are stocked on store shelves, said Fadhl who does business as Jovia Groves Olive Oil on King Road.

At Il Fiorello Olive Oil Company, a mill and 15-acre olive grove on Mankas Corner Road, Mark Sievers, a financial adviser in Fairfield, said the olive harvest begins in late fall, when the weather turns cool, "setting" the oil in the olives amid maximum ripeness.

Standing inside his small barn-size mill building, which houses a blue, Italian-made Pieralisi mill, he detailed the olive pressing process step by step. The fruit usually must arrive at the mill within 24 hours of picking (the sooner the better). The olives are rinsed in fresh water and the leaves and stems are separated from the fruit. The olives are then ground into paste, which is mixed, to encourage the oil to separate from the surrounding vegetable matter and water. From there, the material passes through two centrifuges, further refining the oil before bottling. It takes about 45 pounds of olives to make one gallon of oil, he said, adding that his oils, Tuscan varieties, have won gold medals at tasting competitions throughout California.

"People bring in tons of olives and we give them 55-gallon drums of oil," he said, pointing to a group of them off to one side of the 1,300-square-foot mill building.

Katz and Parr, who also sell artisanal vinegars, fruit preserves and honey online, said olive oil is a delicate product, sensitive to heat, air and light. It is best used, that is, to taste it at its most pungent and herbaceous, within a few months of milling.

He said his 2010 crop yields were down 30 percent over the previous year, adding that cool fall weather affected the fruit and, at harvest and milling time, resulted in "a soft oil -- rounder, more elegant, less rustic" product.

In the tufa-stone building, aka "the Baldwin barn" built on the former Rock Hill Ranch in the mid-19th century, Katz, a former chef and restaurant owner, showed off two bottles of his oil, dubbed Rock Hill Ranch and KATZ Chef's Pick. He said olive oil can be used on a wide variety of foods, from poached eggs over toast to a steaming plate of pasta.

Katz and Parr also noted that olive oil has, for centuries, been hailed for its health benefits, from its Ibuprofen-like activity (anti-inflammatory properties) to reducing coronary heart disease, as some recent scientific studies show. In trials, soybean and olive oil significantly lowered "bad," or LDL, cholesterol.

Its medicinal qualities are, in part, leading the interest in olive oil, which is enjoying something of a boom, according to officials at the California Olive Oil Council, an industry trade group in Berkeley.

The COOC reported that California accounts for 98 percent of all extra virgin olive oil produced in the United States and growth is averaging 20 percent per year, much of it in the Central Valley, where a handful of growers dominate the market by using high-density planting and mechanized harvesting.

Katz and the Sievers have their crops hand-picked but Fadhl, who farms 20 acres and 9,000 trees, uses a modified grape harvester that shakes the densely planted trees. Using machinery to harvest and tightly planting his low-growing trees, of a Spanish variety, significantly lowers his costs, he said.

"Farming has become difficult because of fuel and labor costs," said Fadhl, whose oils have also fared well in statewide tasting competitions. "All of these costs are going up as we try to compete with adulterated imports that claim to be extra virgin." As a result, California olive oil tends to be more expensive than many imported oils because of its quality and labor-intensive methods to bring it to market. A quart-sized bottle of California extra virgin olive oil can range in cost from $15 to $40.

"All I can say is, buy local," said Fadhl.

Sievers said former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenneger helped California's olive oil producers in 2008 by signing into law some manufacturing and labeling standards meant to help consumers.

Katz offered a few tips to consumers when they go to the market or buy online: Check the label; look for a dark bottle; look for the COOC seal; know your retailer; when buying online, check the harvest date and always buy the most recent harvest; be careful when storing olive oil, away from light, air and heat; and use it up once the bottle is opened.

"You have to treat olive oil carefully," said Sievers, who also showed off a new 3,000-square-foot "olive center" on his property, a house that has been converted to have a teaching and demonstration kitchen, a retail area and community rooms.

"We want people to come here and be educated," about extra virgin olive oil, he said. "We (his wife is a nurse specialist at the UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento) want to make people aware that it is an ancient food. (Ancient Greek historian) Herodotus said modern civilization began with the making of wine and olive oil."