Shawn's Blog — Olive Oil

This spring and summer have brought several changes to The Olive Oil Source, including a new website.

Long ago and far away I was doing these blog posts pretty regularly, and then came mid-March 2020.  Covid 19 and all the chaos it brought with it really threw a wrench into the gears for us as I’m sure it did for just about every business out there.  It has been a remarkably time consuming event due to the uncertainties of what business was going to be like, incredibly varying levels of sales, fundamental changes in the way business was conducted, and of course the unavoidable regulatory elements that came with it. Almost six months into it, things have...

A meeting of the Olive Oil Commission of California (OOCC) was held on May 3 in Woodland. There are several committees within the commission including the Grades and Standards Committee and I attended as a member of that panel. This is not a particularly pleasant undertaking as, to attend, I have a 6 hour trip each way but it is worth it to be part of the valuable work the commission is doing. I should probably give a little background into the commission as surprisingly few people in the industry are aware of it and what role it plays. Unlike...

One task I have that I wish I had more time for is getting out and talking to our customers. I enjoy seeing their olive oil stores, hearing what is and what is not working for them, and most of all, what new products they'd like to see. When The Olive Oil Source started, it was all about selling hard-to-find equipment for producing olive oil to the fledgling olive oil industry in California. Starting in about 2009, however, we began to get a lot of inquiries from tasting bars, gourmet shops, and private labelers to start offering a broader array of...