WIDESPREAD OLIVE APPEAL
While Spain, Italy, and Greece are known as the front-runners of olive oil production, other countries around the world are not ignoring the world of olive oil. From China to Northern California, olive oil producers are showing enthusiasm with their orchards, mills, and olive oil.
Northern California is also becoming a popular olive oil industry for olive oil estates, tours, and tastings.
It is a competitive olive oil world, I learned. As a devout and serious dog person who used to breed Labrador retrievers, and is now owned by two purebred Brittanys, I understand the ranking of and awards for dogs. It is similar in the world of olive oils. There are award-winning oils, judges, tastings, and well, olive oils can be ranked just like show dogs in a national or international show ring.
OLIVE OIL TOUR DIARY:
FORCES OF NATURE IN THE
GOLDEN STATE
DAY ONE
As luck would have it, Murphy’s law is haunting me on November 28. As a resident of South Lake Tahoe, I shouldn’t be surprised that Mother Nature would hinder our planned trip to “oliveland”—just three and a half hours away. A snowstorm is on its way and its wreaking havoc on our schedule to go to The Olive Press, Round Pond, B&K Kohn, and Frantoio’s. Well, we will visit all four hot olive oil spots—but not on the designated time table.
One day late, at 4:10 P.M., my best friend Kim Barrow, younger brother, Bruce, two Brittanys, Seth, 5 months old and Simon, 3 ½, arrived intact near Round Pond in Rutherford, California. No snow in sight. I see a breathtaking Mediterranean type of terrain. The temperature is mild outdoors at the olive mill where oil is extracted from picked olives for Round Pond, a family-owned business that also makes vinegar and wines.
Amid the olive trees and European landscape, this mill sitting in Napa Valley is picture-perfect to me, a native of the Bay Area and still trying to adapt to cold, mountain weather, I think as I introduce myself to Jill Jackson, Round Pond’s gracious tour director who gives us a tour of the Rutherford oil mill.
She explains that Miles and Ryan MacDonnell, the owners, live on the premises with some 2,100 trees in their 12-acre orchard. I am envious. It is so different than the mountain lifestyle with pine trees surrounding my cabin, a few blocks away from Lake Tahoe. I feel like I am in another country—a European place.
Jackson shows us two of the mills: One has granite wheels to crush the olives, best to play up the mellow Spanish-style oils. The other is a hammer mill to mince the olives into a pulp, best for Italian-style oils.Also, it is emphasized by our tour guide, that time is of essence—48 hours is the time for picking and crushing. No longer. This isn’t vinegar, it’s artisan olive oil.
Inside a small room, Kim and I follow Jackson, who has an elegant table spread laid out for us, her two olive oil tasting guests. A variety of olive oils were sitting in front of us surrounded by good-for-you edibles such as leafy lettuce, cheese, French bread, and red wine vinegar. Kim is bold and tastes each and every olive oil—the way it’s supposed to be done. I made myself a salad and splashed vinegar and olive oil on it. Not the right way to taste and judge but it works for me. We thank our hostess and leave realizing that olive oil is a serious business and there is a time to harvest and a time to reap. And our tour would have been longer if we had been on time, I think to myself.
It is back on the road, to Mill Valley. I have a 7:30 P.M. interview with Dr. Roberto Zecca, owner of Frantoio’s Restaurant, and the former president of the California Olive Oil Council. Once at the location, and next to our chosen hotel for its convenience and pet-friendly policy we check into the Holiday Inn Express (in Rome, Italy they also have a pooch-friendly Holiday Inn, I recall).
I choose to go solo for my interview. As I walk toward the restaurant which boasts terra cotta-toned exterior, I fantasize I am in Italy, a place I will go to one day. Inside, at first, I am told by the hostess that Dr. Zecca had a family emergency and therefore wasn’t able to make our interview date. Disappointed, I gaze around me and admire the high ceilings, stone floors, and built-in booths. I don’t want to leave. Then, the general manager comes to my rescue.
I am whisked off to my own booth with a full view of the oakwood-fired oven. To the left of me I also get to view Frantoio’s state-of-the-art olive press—behind a gigantic glass at the back of the busy restaurant. It has huge granite wheels used to grind olives to paste. This particular night, the press is down. (The olive press has since been replaced by a horizontal decanter centrifuge.) Still, I get a tour (you can get a virtual one at www.frantoio.com ) and am impressed that the restaurant makes and serves its own extra virgin olive oil on site. Plus, I later discover that Frantoio also provides custom presses for more than two dozen clients. It’s unique and so is the house-made extra virgin olive oil used in all of the dishes.
The menu boasts seasonal Tuscan delights which use local produce and cheeses. As a vegan, I select the margherita brick-oven pizza, made with San Marzano tomatoes, mozzarella, basil, and extra virgin olive oil. As I sipped chamomile tea, I dipped home made bread (with olives) into the freshly made extra virgin olive oil. (Yes, for me this is an adventure.)
Then, chef Duilio Valenti, a 30-something friendly man from Milan, pays a visit to my table. Not only is the pizza and service delightful, the ambiance is warm, casual and comfortable.
Once I make my way back to the hotel, I am greeted by Kim, Bruce, my brother and two dogs. They had ordered in from Frantoio’s menu. I get a taste of more Italian cuisine: tortelloni filled with Pino’s fresh ricotta and swiss chard, walnut sauce and olio novella, as well as homemade bread. For dessert, we indulge in a moist Valrhona chocolate cake tower. We are content with the chef’s culinary skills.
DAY TWO
While my trip to the Valley of the Moon is an unforgettable one, it by no means is unique. Countless people visit olive oil spots just like the two characters in the film Sideways, who go on a wine-tasting road trip.
I admit due to the snowstorm, we are a day late to arrive at The Olive Press. Still, we do get to experience another olive oil tasting. Olive oil experts will tell you olive oil must be tasted to be “fully understood and appreciated.” Think of wine or coffee aficionados. It takes a seasoned and acquired knack to be able to differentiate a fine chardonnay or delicious cup of java.
So, “How will I lose the inhibitions and taste olive oils at The Olive Press?” I ponder. I had rehearsed the scenario: pour a small amount of olive oil in a small cup. (But note, if you are at a tasting bar this is often already done for you.) Place the cup in the palm of your hand and cover it with your fingers to warm it. After a minute or two, place the cup under your nose to appreciate the aroma of the oil.
I feel too shy to pretend to be Hannibal Lector (like in a scene in the film Silence of the Lambs where he makes a frightening sucking noise with his mouth) or a veteran judge so I invite my extroverted friend (geologist Jim Berkland, a longtime resident of Glen Ellen, known for its wineries) to show us the way to The Olive Press and step up to the cup, so to speak. And he did.
It is show time. While I had heard and read about the process, I watch it again take place in front of me. I view Berkland place a small amount of oil on his lower lip, and with the tip of his tongue, taste the oil for its degree of sweetness. Then, it was time to sip the oil and taste for spiciness, using the sides of his tongue. (I decide I will do the dip-my-bread-into-olive-oil tasting method in the privacy of my own home, in front of my two nonjudgmental dogs and cat.)
The last stop is at B. R. Cohn Olive Oil Co. in Glen Ellen. Because we are late, our tour is cancelled. However, I do manage to come home with a Baronessa Cali Oliva Spa Viaggio Travel Set with “Extracts of Italian Olive Oil” and a bar of Cali olive oil-based soap. And, for some reason, that made everything all right because I knew at home I’ll be able to pamper myself with the natural beauty products from my tour to where olives are blessed once a year.
Note to self: When a snowstorm threatens, go with the flow on a olive oil tasting tour, because you never know what you’re going to get. Then again, one olive oil enthusiast got to visit both Napa Valley and Tuscany and got the best of both worlds. . .
CAL OREY: After graduation from SFSU, I wrote natural-based articles for national publications. I wrote about dogs (my first published article “Mobile Mountain Vet,” ran in Dog World, 1986), cats, pet health, human health, and relationships. I also wrote dozens of mini mags (those little books you see at grocery store check out stands). The titles included, “The Healing Power of Love,” “The Healing Power of Cats, “The Magic of Oils, Scents & Candles,” and “Lose 12 lbs in a Week!” I finally got a lead to write a “real” book--straight from a New York Publisher. In 1999, I got my first book contract. Thus, I packed my bags and relocated to Lake Tahoe, where I finished writing The Healing Powers of Vinegar. Ironically, I knew nothing about the touted perks of apple cider vinegar. After extensive research, my pantry was full of a variety of vinegars. And I just wrote the bible on vinegar.
Then, Doctors’ Orders followed. As I wrote in the preface, “One afternoon I lay in bed, cozy in my cabin in the California Sierra, suffering from writer’s block. Brain dead, I turned on a television news program. Suddenly, I was listening to an amazing story about a college student who had interviewed more than 80 cardiologists for his thesis. His ambitious feat inspired me.
"I thought, 'What if I interviewed doctors, all types, and wrote a book about their health habits? It would be fascinating to probe medical experts about what they do for their own health.'"
Later, I pitched my idea for a book about how doctors stay healthy to my book editor. Two years later, Doctors’ Orders continues to sell worldwide. And I personally follow the holistic docs’ timeless advice to keep a healthy body, mind, and spirit.
A few years later, as a single baby boomer living in the mountains, I continue to write about Mother Nature. Surrounded by towering pine trees, nearby the Lake, and amid wildlife I am constantly inspired to create books containing a nature-based element, from earthquakes, health, animals, and relationships to spiritual growth. It’s my true calling to write a garden-variety of nature-based books. And I use Lake Tahoe as my muse.
Over the past 15 years, I have written several books and hundreds of articles for national and international magazines and websites, specializing in topics as diverse as health, relationships, sex, and pets. I have recently moved into controversial science topics, memoir and fiction. My most recent venture has been The Man Who Predicts Earthquakes, Jim Berkland - Maverick Geologist--How His Quake Warnings Can Save Lives. I also teach classes - click on the Classes link to learn more. My favorite hobby is predicting California-Nevada earthquakes by tuning into my seismically sensitive black cat, Kerouac, Simon a fun-loving three-year-old Brittany, and Seth, a five-month-old Brittany pup. I now reside in Northern California.
Cal is an accomplished freelance writer who holds both a bachelor’s degree and master’s degree in English (Creative Writing) from San Francisco State University. See many of her books and contributions to other works by going to www.CalOrey.com/calsbooks.html.
