Move over, grapes. In Wine Country, olives are having a moment.

The California State Fair recently announced the results of its 2026 California Commercial Extra Virgin Olive Oil Competition, and two Sonoma County producers emerged with top honors.

McEvoy Ranch, a family-owned operation in Petaluma, and Gold Ridge Organic Farms, based in Sebastopol, collected a slate of awards, including the competition’s most coveted distinctions: Best of Show and Best of California.

Innovation yields top honors

At McEvoy Ranch, recognition has long been part of the story. Over its 36 years, the olive oil and wine producer has been featured in national publications such as The New York Times, Sunset magazine, Forbes and Wine Spectator, and spotlighted by Oprah Winfrey’s annual “Favorite Things” list for its Whipped Body Butter in 2024 and ODE Hand & Body Lotion Discovery Set in 2025.

The ranch earned Best of Show at the California State Fair for its Organic Ginger Turmeric Olive Oil ($14.96), winning in the flavored olive oil category. The olive oil, which also won Best of Class and Best of California in its division, is made by co-milling early-harvest olives with organic ginger root, fresh turmeric and a touch of black pepper, a process that yields a layered, aromatic finish.

In a statement, McEvoy Ranch president Samantha Dorsey described the recognition as “a profound validation of our team’s unwavering dedication to creating innovative, vibrant flavor profiles in olive oil.”

McEvoy Ranch took home a total of 19 awards for its olive oils this year. Other Best of Class honors went to its Jalapeño, Rosemary and Blood Orange olive oils, while additional gold medals recognized the Lemon, Herbes de Provence and the 2025 harvest of its Organic Extra Virgin Olive Oil.

A blend with staying power

In Sebastopol, Gold Ridge Organic Farms secured Best of California and Best of Class for its Picholine Blend ($34) in the competition’s Extra Virgin Olive Oil Blend category.

The farm, also featured in national outlets such as Forbes and The Today Show, has accumulated accolades for its Picholine blend in recent years, including Double Gold at the 2025 California State Fair and both Double Gold and Best of Show at the 2024 Sonoma County Harvest Fair.

This year, Gold Ridge collected 11 awards in total at the state fair, including Gold for its Tuscan, Minerva and Arbequina blends in the Extra Virgin Olive Oil Blend division as well as Gold for its Meyer Lemon olive oil in the Flavored division.

A region expanding its identity

Another west county producer, Husary Olive Oil, received a gold medal for its Tuscan blend, continuing a track record of recognition at both the state and county level.

Together, the results underscore a broader evolution in Northern California agriculture: while wine remains the region’s signature, olive oil producers are increasingly commanding attention — one carefully pressed bottle at a time.

Find the full list of winners from the California State Fair’s Commercial Extra Virgin Olive Oil Competition here.

The post Sonoma County Olive Oil Producers Win California State Fair Awards appeared first on Sonoma Magazine.

Walk into the Union 76 gas station at the corner of Gravenstein Highway and Occidental Road near Sebastopol, and you’ll see the usual convenience store fare: bags of chips, chilled drinks, motor oil. Then you might notice something out of the ordinary: a countertop wine fridge filled with slender, green-glass bottles of locally made olive oil — some of it from a small grove of trees on a gently sloped plot of land just a few dozen yards north of the busy intersection.

The station’s owner, lifelong Sonoma County resident Mousa Husary, comes from a Palestinian family with deep roots in the Middle East. While visiting Jerusalem’s Mount of Olives during a family trip to the Holy Land in 2009, he came across a grove of ancient trees.

“It was just awe-inspiring. Palestinians are all about olives and olive oil, but I wasn’t into olives before. I really wasn’t,” says Husary. “I looked around at these old trees with these big, burly trunks, and I got this vision from God. I was really struck by it. Something told me I had to come home to California and plant as many olive trees as I could.”

That epiphany profoundly changed Husary and altered the course of his family’s life. What began as a passionate hobby has become a business. The Husary family’s extra-virgin olive oil has won gold medals at the California State Fair and Sonoma County Harvest Fair. More important, cultivating olives has deepened the family’s appreciation of their roots.

“Our Palestinian heritage is so special, and olive oil, olives, harvesting, all of that is so big within the Palestinian tradition,” says Mousa’s 20-year-old daughter, Talia Husary. “That’s what ties us to our land.”

Cultivating these traditions in Sonoma County is important to them, and becomes more so with each passing year, she says. “The more we grow, the more we see it.” The “it” is how producing olive oil links the family to their Palestinian identity. Because that work connects the family to their history, Talia says that for her dad, making olive oil is “something he loves to do. It’s not something that feels like work.”

Hard-working and curious, Mousa Husary, 47, began learning about different olive tree varieties after he returned from his transcendent visit to Jerusalem. Olive trees are a symbol of freedom for Palestinians he explains, and “a big part of what gives the Palestinian people their identity.”

As he prepared to plant his orchards, he wondered: “What kind of olives do we have in Palestine?” He learned about the Nabali and Souri varieties and called nurseries across the United States to try to find them. They only had trees that originated in Greece, Spain, or Italy.

His search culminated at UC Davis; through the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the university had access to trees that originated in the Middle East and agreed to send a few cuttings to Husary. When they arrived, he wasn’t sure how to plant them, so he called a gardener he’d employed who cultivated them and soon learned how to do this himself.

Meanwhile, he planted nearly 60 Italian, Greek, and Spanish olive-tree varieties next to his gas station. Within a couple of years, the trees began bearing fruit. His sisters and three children helped pick the olives. His wife, Yara, would brine them in jars, sometimes with lemon or jalapeños. “That’s all we did,” he says, suggesting he hadn’t thought about making olive oil.

In 2021, Husary, who has served as a football coach at local high schools and at Santa Rosa Junior College, was hosting a barbecue for his son’s football team and spoke with a coach who’d also planted olive trees. The coach said he took his olives to the Figone Olive Oil mill in Sonoma. It was a lightbulb moment for Husary. “Oh my God, maybe I should do that,” he recalls thinking.

That autumn, he and his family picked the organic olives while they were still green — a tactic to avoid damage from fruit flies — and took 1,500 pounds of the hard fruit to Figone’s. Because of the early harvest, they didn’t end up with much oil — only about 10 gallons, as Husary recalls, but what they got was intensely concentrated with a piquant, grassy flavor.

“People loved it. What’s not to love? It’s super-potent olive oil,” he says.

Husary bought cases of empty bottles for the 2021 harvest, made labels on his computer, and shared that first batch of olive oil with friends and family. By 2022, Husary says, “I was kind of on a mission.” He sought to produce a few cases of oil to sell. “That’s how it started.”

When he began making olive oil, Husary would share it with his uncle, a brother to his late father. One day, after pouring some of the golden oil onto his plate, Husary recalls his uncle looking him in the eye and telling him something about the family that floored him: “You know, we had olive trees in Palestine — we had an orchard in Lidd.” The city, now known as Lod, is in Israel between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. Husary confirmed this with another uncle who told him the family had indeed cultivated olive orchards in Palestine for generations.

“I felt like, ‘God, this is meant to be.’ Obviously, those properties… they lost them,” says Husary, referring to Palestinians who were forced to leave their homes and land in the late 1940s, when Israel became an independent state and prevailed in the first Arab-Israeli war. “But that was cool for me to find out; it’s coming full circle.”

Husary, who was born in Santa Rosa, says he and his family are “super proud” to be Palestinian Christians, a minority within a minority. “Our orthodox church goes back to the beginning. We’re Antiochian. All of our bishops trace back to one of the apostles from Jesus’ time,” says Husary, who serves as president of Rohnert Park’s All Saints Antiochian Orthodox Christian Church.

It’s a faith handed down to him by his late father, Khader Husary. A barber by trade, Khader emigrated to the U.S. during the late 1960s when he was in his early 20s. During his first years in the U.S., he cut hair and worked in grocery stores and as a janitor to support his wife and five children. He later opened a small store of his own, sending money back to Palestine to help support family members left behind.

After saving for years, he built the gas station at Gravenstein Highway and Occidental Road, Husary 76, and opened it in 1997. As Khader’s only son, Mousa was enlisted to work alongside his father at the station, first part time while in high school, then full time after graduation while his friends attended college.

“I put in a lot of time at the station as a young man while a lot of kids were out partying, but I wouldn’t do it any different way. My life’s turned out pretty good,” he says. Mousa credits his father with teaching him about business, “So he’s a big part of this, whether he saw it or not.”

Husary now works with his three children, ages 17 to 20. Continuing the family tradition with them “means everything,” he says. “That’s the best part of the whole business, having the boys help me, because that’s what I did with my dad.”

His daughter, Talia, a senior at San Jose State, manages social media for the company and staffs booths at events such as the annual Palestine Day in Redwood City. She plans to go to law school after graduating from San Jose State. “The family needs a lawyer,” she says.

Her brother, George, a 19-year-old electrical engineering student at Sonoma State, describes himself as his dad’s right-hand man, helping to mill, bottle, ship, and deliver oil to local stores. His younger brother, Jake, 17, an Analy High School student, helps out, too, and has even learned how to operate a forklift when most kids his age are just learning how to drive.

Mousa Husary plans to pass the business on to his children. George seems especially ready to carry on the tradition, proudly wearing his Husary Olive Oil T-shirt while working at the family gas station. He loves it when people tell him how much they enjoy the oil and believes his father was meant to make olive oil.

“It took him so long to start, but now that he’s got this thing going, man, he really, really loves it,” says George.

Husary’s wife, Yara, a native Palestinian, is a key player in the business too, suggesting ideas and bringing everyone lunch during the long workdays of autumn when the olives are being milled.

The whole endeavor began with a love for olives, she says. “We gave it (the olive oil) to friends and family, and everybody was telling us, ‘Oh my God, your oil is so good. And not just because of the oil, because of you, too.’”

To Yara, cultivating olives is about “being rooted in the land.” The message she and her husband hope to impart to their children: “This tree is part of your roots.”

Husary has planted 4 acres of Palestinian Souri and Nabali olive trees on a property he owns in Santa Rosa and intends to plant another 4 acres for a total of about 1,500 trees. It will take time, typically three to five years, but up to 10 years, for the trees to mature and come into full production.

“When I have my own bottle of (Sonoma-grown) Nabali olive oil, that’s going to be unique because it’s one variety that you won’t see on any other shelf. I’m excited about that,” Husary says. “Sonoma County is home. This is where we work, where we were born, where we have our future. So, it means a lot.”

While waiting for his Palestinian trees to mature, Husary uses olives from other sources, such as Keller Estate a few miles southeast of Petaluma, where, on a morning last autumn, he watched a crew of pickers whack trees using long sticks to harvest the fruit. They collected the olives in big, blue tarps spread under the trees, then poured them into large crates to be hauled in pickup trucks to a mill at Husary’s home. The olives are milled within 24 hours of being harvested, which is essential for freshness and taste.

The family imported the $190,000 state-of-the-art mill, made in Italy by Mori-Tem, two years ago and spent another $150,000 on the building to house it. Having his own mill enables Husary to control the process to his exacting standards. He keenly monitors the temperature in the milling room, and once the oil is bottled, he makes sure it stays cool. Talia, his daughter, says her father has an “eye for precision,” which ensures a quality oil.

One of Yara’s great joys is seeing people’s reactions when they first taste her family’s olive oil, which she uses in her family’s treasured recipe for za’atar, a spice blend that’s an important link to the Palestinian culture. She cherishes the smiles of delight, even surprise; the exclamations about how delicious it is; and for some, how it reminds them of home. “That’s what we’re waiting for,” she says.

The company’s olive oil production has grown from approximately 1,000 liters in 2022 to about 5,000 liters in 2024. The 2025 harvest was expected to produce about 12,000 liters — most of the oil is bottled, but some goes in large tins to restaurants such as Mazra in Redwood City, which buys hundreds of gallons each year.

Husary Olive Oil produces three main oils: Sonoma Grown, California Grown, and a California-grown Tuscan blend. The company also imports Holy Land olive oil from Palestine, which it sells in 750-milliliter bottles, 3-liter boxes, and 15-liter tins, but was unable to import any this year due to a scarcity of oil amid the ongoing Israel-Palestine conflict. Once his Palestinian trees mature, Husary says he’ll use those to make Palestinian oil rather than importing it.

The Husary family also share their rich heritage through a nursery business, propagating and selling Palestinian Souri and Nabali varieties of olive trees in 1- and 2-gallon pots, shipping them throughout the U.S.

“A lot of people jump at the opportunity to buy one,” says Talia. The Nabali trees are widely cultivated in the part of Palestine where her family originated. “The fact that we’re able to propagate and successfully grow (those trees) is just so cool.”

Mousa Husary has been amazed at how olive trees evoke Palestinians’ sense of home. “Everybody we talked to that’s Palestinian or even Middle Eastern has a connection to olive trees,” he says. “I don’t know anybody else that’s Palestinian (who) has a mill and makes their own olive oil around here. It makes us feel good, like we’re doing something unique.”

The Husary family recently started the Husary Family Foundation in honor of Mousa’s late father, who died in 2020, and donates 25% of profits from the olive oil business to local organizations, such as the Boys & Girls Clubs and Redwood Gospel Mission. They also donate to groups providing aid in Palestine, though not through the olive oil company.

“The goal is to give back,” explains Yara. “There’s a lot of people there in need. We’re trying to help people to survive.”

For Mousa, it all goes back to his father. “The whole business was inspired by the old man,” he says. “We’re close to a nice profitability, but this is never a business we’re going to get rich from. It’s just a cool way to honor him. I’m just trying to spread a little bit of joy.”

The post Cultivating Olives Deepens Sebastopol Family’s Palestinian Roots appeared first on Sonoma Magazine.

Plenty of Sonoma County wineries make their own olive oil, but it’s not so common for an olive oil producer to make its own wine. That’s the setup at McEvoy Ranch. Set in the Petaluma hills near the Sonoma-Marin border, the ranch provides an idyllic backdrop for tasting wine and extra-virgin olive oil.

The story

Nan McEvoy, the granddaughter of San Francisco Chronicle founder M.H. de Young, could have just kicked back and enjoyed a cushy, work-free life. She was a newspaper heiress, after all. Instead, she convinced her father to let her work for the family paper as a reporter, and she eventually became the company’s board chairman.

After retiring in her early 70s, McEvoy purchased a 550-acre property in Petaluma, thinking it would be a nice place for her city-dwelling grandchildren to run and play. The property’s zoning meant it also needed an agricultural purpose, so she planted 3,000 imported Tuscan olive trees on the ranch in 1990 and created a nursery to supply trees to growers across the region.

McEvoy’s business grew to become one of the nation’s largest producers of organic olive oil. In 2006, she added vineyards to complement the estate’s 50 acres of olive groves — though the grapes were later removed during California’s multiyear drought to prioritize water for the olive trees. Today, the late McEvoy’s son Nion and his adult children run the family operation.

The vibe

No matter how many times I’ve driven from my home to the ranch, I still have to watch closely for the McEvoy sign on Point Reyes-Petaluma Road. Pass through the Bunny Gate — named for the whimsical bronze rabbit perched at the top — and you may spot some real live jackrabbits hopping amid the olive orchards.

Tastings happen on a stone patio set with tables and lounge chairs, overlooking a lovely pond and acres of rolling hills dotted with olive trees. This is the kind of place that makes you go “ahhhhhhhhh.”

On the palate

Winemaker Byron Kosuge sources French and Italian grape varieties from growers in the Petaluma Gap and beyond, creating friendly and accessible wines. The 2024 Rosebud Rosé ($24), made from Potter Valley Pinot Noir, is pale and floral, showing off aromas and flavors of ripe strawberries. McEvoy’s 2023 Under the Willow Vermentino ($36) from Sonoma County’s celebrated Las Brisas Vineyard is a summer pleasure layered with intriguing mineral notes and citrus zestiness. Fans of lighter-style Pinot Noir will find a kindred spirit in the 2021 Evening Standard Pinot Noir ($45) from the Sun Chase Vineyard in the Petaluma Gap. Aged in neutral oak for a subtle profile, the wine is all about red berries and soft tannins. Tastings range from $38 to $48.

Beyond the bottle

There’s lots to sample at McEvoy, even if wine isn’t your thing. The ranch offers a guided olive oil flight ($35) featuring five varieties — from classic extra-virgin olive oil to “agrumato” oils made by crushing olives with whole fresh fruits and herbs. Seasonal culinary tastings ($45) include small bites made with McEvoy olive oils and condiments.

To truly have your mind blown, opt for the Olive Oil and Gelato Tasting ($35), which pairs three flavors of Fiorello’s Artisan Gelato with three olive oils. (Don’t knock it ‘till you’ve tried drizzling the Chai Spice olive oil over vanilla bean ice cream.)

If you’d like to explore more of the property — including the vegetable gardens, olive oil presses and Nan McEvoy’s incredible Chinese-style pavilion — reserve a ranch tour ($55-$95).

McEvoy Ranch, 5935 Red Hill Road, Petaluma. 707-769-4138, mcevoyranch.com. Open daily, reservations encouraged.

Tina Caputo is a wine, food, and travel journalist who contributes to Sonoma magazine, SevenFifty Daily, Visit California, Northern California Public Media, KQED, and more. Follow her on Bluesky at @winebroad.bsky.social, view her website at tinacaputo.com, and email her story ideas at tina@caputocontent.com.

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Olio nuovo (“new oil” in Italian) is the olive oil bottled and released immediately after the annual harvest, before the oil begins to mellow.

With a bright, lean, freshness, olio nuovo can range from robust to more mellow in flavor. The strongest are often described jokingly as “two-cough” selections, with a peppery bite that is highly prized.

Sonoma County’s olive harvest kicked off early this year, with the first of the season’s olives heading to the mill in early October. Harvest typically continues through early December. Two primary mills, McEvoy Ranch and Olivino, process olives for many of the county’s local farms, and there are also public mills in Sebastopol, Glen Ellen, Sonoma and Healdsburg. With a number of places to taste local olive oil, here are eight picks for the season.

Baker Lane Estate

Stephen Singer’s 2024 Occidental Blend is not labeled “olio nuovo” but will be available soon enough after pressing that it is a de facto nuovo, with vivid flavors of artichoke, freshly mown hay and green apple. Online sales only. singer.wine

DaVero

The benchmark estate olio nuovo is sassy and elegant, with complex bitter and pepper flavors. 766 Westside Road, Healdsburg. 707-431-8000, davero.com

Figone Olive Co.

At their small shop on the plaza in the town of Sonoma, Figone releases an olio nuovo shortly after milling their blend of Spanish and Italian varieties. 483 First St. W., Sonoma. 707-2829092, figoneoliveoil.com

Gold Ridge Organic Farms

Grower Brooke Hazen offers four olio nuovos: the classic Tuscan blend plus Picholine, Minerva and Arbequina single-variety oils. Hazen picks a bit later in the season, producing oils with a voluptuous, buttery texture. 3387 Canfield Road, Sebastopol. 707-823-3110, goldridgeorganicfarms.com

McEvoy Ranch

This olio nuovo evokes the subtle flavors of winter greens — think cardoons, chicories and dandelions — with a trail of peppery heat, a signature quality of the estate’s seven Tuscan cultivars. 5935 Red Hill Road, Petaluma. 707-778-2307, mcevoyranch.com

Olivino

The olio nuovo is a blend of five Tuscan cultivars from a 2,500-tree orchard that straddles the border of Sonoma and Mendocino counties and is milled with a traditional grinding stone and gravity press. 14160 Mountain House Road, Hopland. 707-7441114, olivino.com

Preston Farm & Winery

Chaste Maiden Early Release Organic Olive Oil is a blend of 10 Italian and Spanish cultivars. Even in its youth, it is a delicate oil, with less of the peppery heat that defines many other oils. 9282 West Dry Creek Road, Healdsburg. 707433-3372, prestonfarmandwinery.com

The Olive Press

The olio nuovo is made from the Spanish cultivar Arbequina, which hints of freshly mown grass, artichoke, apple and banana. 24724 Arnold Drive, Sonoma. 707-939-8900, theolivepress.com

The post 8 Local Places to Taste Freshly Pressed Olive Oil appeared first on Sonoma Magazine.

Oprah Winfrey recently released her hotly-anticipated annual list of “Favorite Things.” Among them is a body butter from Petaluma’s McEvoy Ranch and a cheese from a Point Reyes company.

With over 100 items on her list, Oprah highlights several small businesses with items that make great gifts and stocking stuffers for the holiday season.

McEvoy Ranch Whipped Body Butter, $39

The family-owned McEvoy Ranch, located in rural south Petaluma, produces award-winning olive oils — and now its beauty products are in the national spotlight. Oprah called McEvoy Ranch’s Whipped Body Butter “a rich and luxurious moisturizer.”

The body butter is made with the ranch’s organic extra virgin olive oil — as well as rosehip fruit oil, hyaluronic acid and shea and cocoa butters — for a skin-nourishing, hydrating cream. Scents include citrus, lavender, unscented and an herbaceous verde. The whipped body butter is currently on sale for $39 on McEvoy Ranch’s website.

5935 Red Hill Road, Petaluma, 707-778-2307, mcevoyranch.com

Point Reyes Cheese & Thank You Gift Set, $95

Among Oprah’s favorite food gifts is a cheese gift basket from Marin-based Point Reyes Farmstead Cheese Co. The Cheese & Thank You gift set is filled with a selection of handcrafted cheeses to pair with crackers and a spread.

“Thanks to four artisanal cheeses — TomaRashi, Gouda, Bay Blue and a just-so-good Truffle Brie — sweet olive oil crackers and a sour cherry spread,” Oprah stated, “the lucky recipients of this gift box (created just for us) will use the enclosed cheese knife to dive right in.”

This is the second year in a row Point Reyes Farmstead Cheese Co. landed on Oprah’s coveted favorites list. Last year, Oprah featured the company’s Cheese Celebration Collection.

14700 Highway 1, Point Reyes Station, 800-591-6878, pointreyescheese.com

Past Oprah-approved local products

This isn’t the first time Sonoma County products fell into Oprah’s good graces. In 2016, she selected Guerneville’s Big Bottom Market biscuits among her favorites. The market changed its name to Piknik Town Market last year, following the departure of co-owner Michael Volpatt. New owner Margaret van der Veen confirmed the market still offers the famous biscuits.

In 2021, Santa Rosa-based Sonoma Lavender Co. made it on Oprah’s list for its lineup of scented stuffed animals. The heatable plushies contain a pouch of fragrant, soothing local lavender or eucalyptus.

In Napa Valley, Model Bakery’s English muffins made it on Oprah’s favorites list four times, in 2016, 2017, 2020 and 2021. The Napa County bakery opened a location in the East Bay in 2022.

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There is something indescribably regal about olive oil. From its golden hue and luxurious texture to its revered usage through millennia, the oil of this humble Mediterranean fruit has anointed a thousand kings and lit the lamps of humanity.

It also happens to be pretty great on a salad.

Taking into mind both of those things, Sonoma’s Olive Queen gives the noble olive its due with a lineup of terroir-based blends that include a gently perfumed French Picholine, a zesty Spanish blend of Arbequina and Arbosana, and the bold but dignified Estate Reserve Queen’s Blend with Puglian Coratina olives.

“Olives are truly the queen of fruits,” says Rob Akins, co-owner of Olive Queen, of the inspiration for the company name. He and partner Mark Berry say they fell in love with olive oil on trips to France, Spain, Greece, and Italy where they learned to appreciate the different regional styles — peppery, astringent, delicate, spicy. The couple also really wanted to revive their Forestville home’s history as a working orchard, and olive trees seemed a perfect crop.

“Our climate here turned out to be perfect for olives, with hot days and cool nights,” says Akins.

The couple obsessively studied olive farming and olive oil production, replanting their former apple orchard with dwarf olive trees. They also enlisted their neighbors to get involved. “We were the Johnny Appleseeds of our neighborhood,” says Akins, as we sit under a wood pergola overlooking his grove of olive trees just a few months from harvest.

After 15 years, Akins and Berry have 400 trees spread over three properties, resulting in about 1,000 bottles of estate-grown olive oil each year. They also source olives from nearby farms to make their blended oils.

“We treat every olive like a precious baby,” he says. Within 24 hours of harvest, the olives are cold-pressed and their oil ready to bottle.

“The Greek Yayas had it right. It’s an essential ingredient in daily life,” says Akins, who puts olive oil on pretty much everything he eats, including morning oatmeal. He prefers a lighter blend on that one. “Olive oil elevates everything you do.”

Olive Queen oils are available at local farmers markets, gourmet food shops, specialty stores, and many wineries. olivequeen.com

The post The Queen of Fruits Gets the Royal Treatment at Forestville Farm appeared first on Sonoma Magazine.

With Sonoma olive oils increasingly in the spotlight, producers are promoting their premium goods with experiences similar to wine-tasting adventures. For a special holiday experience, check out these local tasting rooms: 

TASTING ROOMS

The Olive Press, Sonoma

The Cline family cultivates 45 estate acres of Italian and Spanish olive orchards, and also presses olives for wineries, estates such as Beltane, and home growers. In 2015, the mill cold-pressed more than 500 tons of olives, and visitors can watch the mechanical grinding stones, steel blades and centrifugal spinning chambers transform the hard green and softer blackish fruit to silky gold liquid. Year-round, taste dozens of oils at the tasting bar at Jacuzzi Family Vineyards. 24724 Arnold Drive, Sonoma, 707-939-8900, theolivepress.com

Beltane Ranch, Glen Ellen

Vacation in the ranch’s 1892 bed-and-breakfast and enjoy an olive oil-accented breakfast. Once fortified, wander the estate’s Mission, Sevillano, Manzanillo, Lucca, Arbequino, Frantoio and Piqual orchards to watch the workers knock fruit off the trees. 11775 Sonoma Highway, Glen Ellen, 707-833-4233, beltaneranch.com

McEvoy Ranch, Petaluma

McEvoy offers olive-themed tours, including an orchard and mill walk, followed by oil and wine tastings. During harvest, visitors can see the milling, which is done using McEvoy’s state-of-the-art Rapanelli frantoio, what Dorsey calls the “Maserati of olive oil mills.” Visitors learn that it takes an average of 80 pounds of olives to yield 1 gallon of extra virgin oil, and that greener fruit yields oil that is peppery, pungent and herbaceous in character, while dark olives produce milder, buttery characteristics. The prized product is olio nuovo, or unfiltered “new oil,” made from fruit harvested during the first few weeks of the season. 5935 Red Hill Road, Petaluma, 707-769-4100, mcevoyranch.com

Figone’s California Olive Oil Co.. Sonoma

The orchards are in the San Joaquin Valley, but the fruit is milled, blended and bottled in Sonoma Valley. During harvest, olive-tree owners can drop off their fruit and watch the milling process at Figone. Year-round, visitors to the retail shop in downtown Sonoma can taste multiple olive and olive oil varieties. 483 First St. W., Sonoma, 707-282-9092, figoneoliveoil.com

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When you can count Chefs Tyler Florence, Michael Chiarello, Emeril Lagasse, John Ash, Ming Tsai, and a certain President of the United States among your culinary fan-base, you know you’re onto something. But the owners of The Smoked Olive in Petaluma still say they often have to get people to stop and taste their pungent olive oils before they fully understand — and appreciate — the unique flavor.

Sitting in the smoke-scented warehouse where she and partner Al Hartman produce and bottle their oils, co-owner Brenda Chatelain explains their unusual smoke-infused extra-virgin olive oil as “a marriage of two primal things: Smoke and oil. It just creates a taste that’s a combination that I think strikes something from our cave days.”

The couple make three different oils, the most popular of which is the Sonoma Smoked Olive Oil using premium California extra-virgin olive oils. Unlike imitation “smoke” flavors that can turn acrid or have a fake barbecue flavor (or worse make you feel like you just licked an ashtray), the proprietary process of smoking gives Hartman’s oils an intense, focused wood and smoke flavor that plays with both your tastebuds and your sense memory — for me campfires and burning autumn leaves. The mellow mix of olive oils blankets the tongue for a creamy, buttery finish.

Chef Florence, an early fan of The Smoked Olive, describes their product more succinctly as, “the sexiest new flavor I’ve tasted in years.” He’s included their olive oil in his recent cookbook and served it at a $20,000 per plate fundraising dinner for the President. Reportedly, when Barack Obama got a drizzle of it on Florence’s squash and quail egg ravioli he didn’t just ask for seconds. He asked for thirds. The couple said they were also were asked to Fedex a shipment to Washington for the Inauguration. “But that’s about all we can tell you,” said Chatelain.

The idea for smoking olive oil came to Hartman in a dream, he said. The grandson of a chef, Hartman said he’s been fascinated since his teens with smoking meats and fish, building his own smoking contraptions that aren’t as much about fire (“That’s barbecuing,” he insists) but a slow, sustained infusion of wood and smoke into foods. His passion earned him the moniker “Smoke Whisperer” among his friends. So, after years of working in the real estate business, one day he just knew that smoking olive oil was his destiny. Chatelain, however, wasn’t so sure.

“Some of those first batches? Yuck.” she laughs.

Over several years of testing he got the flavors right, making sure that the oils weren’t exposed to extreme heat and light during the smoking process. “We were standing in the kitchen,” said Chatelain. “I just remember we both looked at each other and said, ‘Yes. This is it!’”. The couple began selling it at the Santa Rosa farmers’ market at the Veteran’s Hall, and found they were regularly selling out. A stint at San Francisco’s Fancy Food Show drew buyers like Michael Chiarello’s Napa Style, Williams-Sonoma and Sur La Table, who all carry the oil.

Like many small business owners, Chatelain and Hartman have put in 14-plus hour days over the last five years to get their new company off the ground. But they don’t plan on letting the recent national attention go to their head. “It’s been timing, luck and hard work. We keep thinking all this is going to stop and then someone else writes about us,” Chatelain said, pointing to a stack of magazines and even a Washington Post article that gush about the oils as the “It” food product of the moment and a “new pantry essential”.

Why? Chatelain and Hartman think its a combination of a trend in food for smoked flavors, and the product being a simple luxury in a struggling economy. “There’s a curiosity factor, but then they taste it,” said Chatelain. “They are hooked.”

Another local fan, Chef John Ash, like many, were skeptical about the oil at first, but soon became a believer. “The two great enemies of fine oils are heat and light and I couldn’t imagine that one or both of those hadn’t been used. When I tasted the oils I was amazed.  Lovely olive oil flavor with an interesting smokiness that those of us who like to grill are always searching for,” he said. Ash added that he recommends the oil to students of his healthy cooking classes as a way to add a grilled flavor without adding carbon to your food.

Hartman, who jumps up during the interview to check on his smoking operation, keeps a tight lid on his proprietary process and research and development. Suffice to say his smoking lab is as unconventional as his oils and there are a number of other smoked foods in the works (his smoked brown sugar is currently available). Saying anything else, well, might end us up in a whole lot of heat.

Currently the oils, which also include a stronger Napa Smoked Olive Oil and a spicy version, Santa Fe Smoked Chili Olive Oil are in approximately 600 stores nationwide and has begun shipping to far-flung places like Dubai and Australia. Locally you can find them at the Saturday Veteran’s Hall market, Sur La Table, The Olive Press, Big John’s Market and the Oakville Grocery in Healdsburg and online at thesmokedolive.com.

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Road Trip: Sunday night red-eye from SFO to JFK; mythical quantities of food and booze; a cumulative loss of sleep bordering on some chapter in FM 34-52, the field manual of interrogation techniques. Many of my best and oldest friends and much personal history remain rooted in the concrete canyons of Manhattan, so normally I’d say I get to go to NYC this week, but instead I’ll limp into this post with I have to be there, because – as I kvetched in last week’s post – I really do need to extricate myself from the ranks of the marginally attached worker; and, while I may live here in the 707 area code, Gotham City remains the undisputed mecca for my line of work, or at least for the line of work for which I may conceivably be paid.

By definition, I won’t be in my kitchen, but what are mere time and space to the dorky home cook? No, I’ll be cooking in absentia, using my downtime from the cooktop to preserve a big-ass batch of Meyer lemon confit, the acid, sugar and salt gently breaking down the fruit of its own accord, all while I suffer the indignity of 6+ hours in a middle seat. At least I’ll have something to come home to.

But the main reason to make this stuff is that it requires almost no effort, lasts for weeks, and tastes really good: I’ve served it as a garnish to Red Lentil Soup, chopped it into a Mediterranean Tuna Salad, layered it under Grilled Chicken w/ Lemons & Rosemary from My Garden, and I can’t wait to try this lemony-garlicky concoction with roasted fish, probably something baked whole in a salt crust; it’s also nice that the Meyers are in season right now, because my garden has far too many ever to eat, I know I’ll be missing them like a child gone to college once they’ve dropped to the ground.

Meyer Lemon Confit

There are endless variations on confit, but I love the simplicity of this version from Tom Colicchio’s Think Like a Chef (reprinted here in the Denver Post and below, with my notes), which gets extra kick from garlic and shallots, requires no cooking, and lets the fruit shine through. The original recipe uses standard lemons, but I especially like the Meyers because I find their thinner skins and less aggressive flavor so much more pleasant to eat; and, of course, Meyers are in season right now, while their local Eureka cousins won’t be around for another couple of months.

Ingredients: 12 lemons (NOTE: Use Meyers, if possible);  5 shallots, peeled and minced; 6 garlic cloves, peeled and minced; 2/3 cup kosher salt; 1/3 cup sugar; Extra-virgin olive oil

Directions: Plunge the lemons into boiling water (this softens the outer layer of wax). Drain, rinse, then wipe the lemons clean. Dry the lemons, then slice them very thin. Discard the ends and remove and discard the seeds. (NOTE: If you’re using your own lemons or others fresh from a tree, you shouldn’t have to bother with the boiling and wiping.) Combine the shallots with the garlic. Mix the salt with the sugar. Arrange a layer of lemon slices in the bottom of a midsized container with a lid. Sprinkle the lemons first with a little of the shallot mixture, then with some of the salt mixture. Repeat, layering lemons and sprinkling them with the shallot and salt mixtures until the final lemon slices are topped with the last of the salt and shallot mixtures. Cover the container and refrigerate the confit for 3 days. The confit can be used immediately or covered with olive oil and stored in the refrigerator for about a month. (NOTE: My last batch has been in the fridge for weeks, and it just gets better and better – vastly so, after a week or two, in fact. I don’t know how long it will last, but I suspect well over a month.)

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Of the many things not to like about a crappy job market, working longer hours for less money has to be near the top of the list; worse still, however, are the all-too-inevitable hours spent working for nothing, the hours spent trying to secure employment instead of actually doing something productive, like riding your bike or cooking. I say this because neither cooks, writers, nor economists of merely mortal stature obtain any special immunity to recessions, which means I’ve spent more time at the margin fretting about paychecks than I have perusing roadside farm stands. It also means that I’ve had to do some thinking about faster, easier ways to serve good food to my family, and what’s faster and easier than the humble tuna sandwich?

Personally, I love the classic deli-style preparation, with properly-chunked tuna and lots of finely chopped celery suspended in a bed of real mayonnaise. But it can get a bit boring – even oppressive to the palate – eating mayo by the bucketful, especially to my eldest daughter, who still regards the invention of mayonnaise as a greasy, evil plot to force otherwise attractive proteins into masquerading as “salads”. My favorite alternative is to make tuna salad in what I think of as the “Mediterranean style”, using olive oil in place of mayo, adorned simply with roughly chopped olives, some of those gorgeous Meyer lemons, still bursting from their branches this time of year, and maybe a little minced red onion. The salty cure of the olives makes a good friend to the mildly bitter and orange-y Meyers, whose citrus-y tang balances out the tuna flavors nicely; add your favorite green for color and texture. And, while I hate to waste bread, I have to admit that I like the crusts cut off…

Mediterranean Style Tuna Salad with Olives & Lemons

1. Flake a 6oz can of tuna with a fork in a medium-sized mixing bowl (see the note on health & sustainability of canned tuna at bottom). If the tuna is water-packed, drain it well, and then add enough olive oil to make the texture coherent enough for a sandwich; if it’s packed in olive oil, just go with it, or adjust the amount of oil to taste.
2. Coarsely chop a small handful of Kalamata or oil-cured Provencal olives (regular or oil cured, pits removed) and several slices of Meyer lemon confit. (I realize that you probably don’t have Meyer lemon confit lying around, but that’s only because I haven’t convinced you to make it yet. With Meyers exploding off the trees, I made a huge batch, and I’ve been cooking the stuff into soups, chopping it into Nicoise-esque salads, and serving it with roasted fish and grilled chicken at every turn. It’s a great way to preserve a seasonal crop, and it makes a kick-ass condiment for all sorts of things. In any case, absent the confit, just squeeze some fresh lemon juice into the tuna.) If you like – I’ve done it both ways, it just depends on your predilection for raw onion – finely mince a tablespoon or two of red onion as well.
3. Mix all the ingredients together and serve on toasted whole wheat, preferably with a nice green, like wild arugula (very tasty and available right now, pre-washed, from Trader Joe’s). I’m quite sure the sandwich would be just as successful on your favorite sourdough bread, and/or with spinach. If you want to be cute, and why wouldn’t you, cut off the crusts before assembly, then spear both halves of the assembled sando with toothpicks, and slice it on the diagonal (see picture inset above).

Footnote: Issues w/ Canned Tuna

Mercury poisoning and sustainable fishing are critically important issues as they relate to tuna, but they’re also well beyond the scope of this post. For those that care, however, I can recommend the excellent website for sustainable seafood published by the Monterey Bay Aquarium, and the series of pieces by Consumer Reports discussing toxicity levels in tuna.

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