Shawn's Blog

It has been awhile since I have posted anything as we have been in the period where we are mainly waiting to see how the crop is developing. This time is always a bit stressful and this year did not let us down. Just as we started to have bud break, there were several rain storms predicted but fortunately none of them amounted to much. The time was not spent sitting idly however. A lot of labor is used for weed control and irrigation maintenance at this time of year. We are certified organic so you won't find Roundup or...

I've digressed a bit in the last few postings and gotten away from what I had originally intended to cover in my blog. I really wanted to write about some of the day to day elements that differentiate The Olive Oil Source from some of our competitors that are strictly merchants. I think the biggest differentiation is that we actually farm and mill olives. The most basic element of this part of the business is producing fruit and this is the time of year when the crop load is decided. There has been a lot of coverage of just how...

This is the third part of what was supposed to be a two part post.  I feel that this third section is important because it gets to the very core of what, in my mind, the O.O.C.C. should be about and if you are going to participate, what your business should be about. Not for one minute is anyone going to accuse me of being starry eyed or idealistic, but, to me, the whole point of this exercise is to produce good oil marketed in a bottle that tells the truth about the contents. It is a pretty straightforward concept...

This is the second part of what was supposed to be a two part post. As I suspected, it will be longer than just two posts in order to vent all my frustrations adequately. My previous post in this series described my involvement in a meeting of the Grades and Standards Committee of the Olive Oil Commission of California on February 27, 2019. The goal was to adopt Health and Safety Code language into the Grade and Labeling Standards for California Olive Oil, which was done. I would like to give a brief history of what has gone on in...

This is the first part of a two part post. In fact I will probably have to make it longer than just two posts to vent all my frustrations adequately. The intent of this first section is to report on my involvement in a meeting of the Grades and Standards Committee of the Olive Oil Commission of California on Wednesday, February 27, 2019. This was a meeting open to the public so don't expect anything too interesting or controversial. The second part of the post is to address some of the history behind the events which led up to the...