The orchards lining the flat country lanes of San Benito County have performed a vanishing act in recent decades. But every year, a tree cultivated for more than six millennia around the Mediterranean Sea can be seen here closing that gap.
Olive trees have enjoyed a recent renaissance in California in the form of gourmet oil and have a history in the state dating to the 1700s. The Spanish missionaries planted them up and down the coast, even here in San Benito County.
Until this year, the agency that accounts for the county's varied crops didn't bother asking olive growers for their yields. The county now has more than 9,000 olive trees, and in 2007 the crop report for San Benito County should have its first description of local yields.
"Most of them had what they call non-bearing trees," San Benito County Agricultural Commissioner Paul Matulich said, "until the last year or so."
It takes the trees five years to produce olives suitable for making oil.
Several local estates with more than 1,000 trees had an inaugural press in 2006, and growers expect more oil from this year's harvest, which is just getting under way.
San Juan Oaks Golf Club planted 1,800 Tuscan variety olive trees on the entrance of its property.
"A lot of it for us was aesthetics," said Scott Fuller, the club's manager.
In 2006, those trees produced 53 gallons of olive oil, Fuller said. The olive oil was used in-house at the course.
"We're expecting more this year," Fuller said of the course's second harvest.
And as young trees begin bearing their first useable fruit in the hills of San Benito County, a Tuscan native is creating new products from an 8-year-old orchard on Cienega Road.
Alessio Carli, the head olive oil and winemaker at Pietra Santa Winery, was pressing lemon-infused extra virgin olive oil Friday from Coratina olives, a pungent and spicy variety from the Italian state of Apulia. Carli is also making rosemary-infused oil.
"It's like a sponge, olive oil, and it sucks in the aroma," Carli said.
Carli said Pietra Santa's olive crop was down about 10 percent this fall - similar to the winery's grape yield - because of drought. Pietra Santa grows 5,000 olive trees in total and four other olive varieties - frantoio, leccino, pendolino and itrana - all from Tuscany.
Pietra Santa boasts a state-of-the-art Pieralisi crushing system, which uses large stone mills and two powerful centrifuges to produce its extra virgin olive oil. About 50 other small olive growers use the winery's facilities and Carli's knowledge to press their oils.
South of Hollister, Barbara Rever has been producing olive oil for six years from 1,200 mission olive trees that descended from those planted here about 200 years ago.
Her company, Oils of Paicines, won't begin its harvest until December, when its olives turn black and produce a more butter-like flavor. Green olives, which Pietra Santa harvests, produce a stronger, often spicier flavor.
California olive oil has a relatively small share of the market because imports from Greece, Turkey, Spain and even Italy are much cheaper. Olive oil production is subsidized in Europe - much in the way that corn, cotton and other large crops are in the United States.
But many California olive oil producers already believe their product can hang with their Old World counterparts.
"We are as good, if not superior, to what's coming in from Europe," Rever said.
Research coming out of the University of California, Davis in the 1960s and 1970s helped put California on the world wine map and helped vintages here challenge the famed terroirs of France. A group of olive oil producers and researchers are hoping olive oil can enjoy a similar renaissance with the establishment of the UCD Olive Center.
The proposed center would seek to expand California olive oil producers' market share, expand research, develop a standard for judging the quality of olive oil and educate consumers throughout the country.
For several years, students and faculty at Davis have produced oil from campus-grown olives - an effort undertaken to keep the fruit from splattering on bike paths.
Besides bringing some flavor to the party, researchers believe olive oil has health benefits.
Olive oil has monosaturated fat, considered healthier than saturated fat found in products such as butter; and polyphenols, which are antioxidants that researchers believe reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease and cancer.
Michael Van Cassell Michael Van Cassell covers public safety for the Free Lance. He can be reached at 831-637-5566 ext. 335.
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