Shawn's Blog

It's that time of year. Every year at about this time we start to get inquiries about olive milling. It is too early to be worrying about harvest and milling but it is hard getting this message to resonate with people very excited about their first or second crop. Like every year, this year I have already heard, "Well last year we started harvesting on October 25th, so we'd like to schedule based on that timing". And, "We'd rather book a time and make sure we have something scheduled than risk not getting a milling time".  There is no way...

There's been a long break from any posts here because I've been on vacation in the French Alps. I decided it was going to be as work free a vacation as possible, in an effort to rejuvenate my enthusiasm for The Olive Oil Source, to come up with some new ideas, and to leave behind the inevitable day-to-day frustrations. Here is how I did. I did forget the frustrating aspects for the most part, at least during the trip. Just before I left, however, I saw an article in a publication that was essentially the blog post I wrote on...

I am involved with The Olive Oil Source as the owner, I farm 4,300 trees and I mill that fruit in our own mill. In addition, we mill olives commercially for a lot of small producers totaling somewhere around 20,000 - 40,000 trees worth of fruit depending on the year. As written earlier, much of my time is taken up with consulting work. The only way all that could possibly get done is with really good employees (and my wife's help). I thought I'd write a bit about some of the great people who work here. At The Olive Oil...

Young blossoms   It is an interesting time in the orchard right now as we monitor the trees for what we can expect for a crop.  The rumor is that the crop may be quite light statewide which is not good news given the rapidly growing popularity of Californian olive oil and the price hikes and shortages we've been seeing the last few years.  Usually by this time of year in our orchard, we have had bloom and sometimes even fruit set, although that is pretty rare this early. This year, the trees seem confused.  Many have already bloomed and...

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...