The Doctor is In!

I just returned from a lovely weekend harvesting our Leccino olives. The air was crisp, a bracing breeze blew, and the remnants of  a storm scattered clouds across the sky; it felt a lot like Fall, the perfect weather for the approaching Thanksgiving holiday, but maybe a little later than we wanted to harvest olives. Farming is a balancing act, however, pitting the dictates of nature against the availability of labor: walnut harvest stretched longer than planned due to some early season rainfall. The baby olive trees also needed to go into the ground before it became too cold. Thus the Leccino harvest was thrust third in line.

Which has implications for taste. Early harvest olives are greener, containing more of those wonderful antioxidants called polyphenols. Later harvest olives are generally smoother in taste, less bitter than pungent early season fruit, but also containing less polyphenols. Knowing when to pick is an art: balancing taste against the olive’s oil and polyphenol content. And of course, not all olives mature at the same rate, even on the same tree.

I’m sitting at my desk, wrapped up in sweatshirt and pants, watching the wind blow the branches of our trees around. Today is the first morning that feels like Fall. Clouds dot the sky, obscuring any direct sunlight, but leaving small cathedral-like patches of blue sky that remind me of a Bierstadt painting. I like it. It’s been a long, hot summer.

The olives are turning early. We normally harvest our Leccino-variety olive trees in mid-November, but something in this summer’s weather pattern has nudged the olive harvest nearly a month early. For a farming family like ours, that spells harvesting trouble. Walnuts, which are our main crop, traditionally take most of October to harvest, which means the olives will have to wait on the trees until our workers are freed up to pick them. Waiting on the trees, however, can result in a mellower and less pungent olive oil. If you’re like me and love the strong, fruity flavor of California extra-virgin olive oil, you can see why waiting  might not be the best option. I guess yours truly might be out there picking herself! Maybe I can get the kids to help…

Here’s a quick look at the field where we’ll be planting two more acres of olive trees in November. In addition to our favorite olive oil variety, Leccino, we’ll be planting the Spanish-variety Picual and Italian-variety Ascolano. I can’t wait for the new oils!