Comments for Gold Oak Press

Comment on Cooking with Olive Oil by Eden

Eden — Fri, 03 Dec 2010 22:32:27 +0000

What’s with the blue glass? And I expect that for our next sampling session, we will get a full demo on the technique. I am kind of giggling already!

Comment on Cooking with Olive Oil by Natalie

Natalie — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 20:33:47 +0000

Is there a reason people always seem to use blue glasses while tasting olive oil?

I had never heard of a smoke point before reading this! That’s interesting to know when choosing an oil. I like the idea of still using olive oil for frying in order to take advantage of the health benefits.

Comment on The Exciting New World Of California Olive Oil by Cheryl Grocock

Cheryl Grocock — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 14:28:12 +0000

I had no idea we imported that much olive oil. Doesn’t make sense when there’s quality oil available from the beautiful Capay Valley.

Comment on Grafting Experimental Walnuts by Alex

Alex — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 07:33:38 +0000

My neighborhood has TONS of black walnut trees, frankly the black walnut is a weed here, growing every and anywhere. I’ve observed in the almost 2 years I’ve been here, a “volunteer” black walnut just starting out, my height a year later. What we have a problem with is, this used to be small family farms and a lot of walnut production. The area became a “bedroom” community for the greater San Jose area, and the new inhabitants don’t know diddly about walnut trees. The result is all the fine, producing, trees, being overtaken by their black walnut rootstock. I see, and harvest from, many that are about half’n'half, English and black. I’m tempted to start cutting off black walnut branches in a campaign to keep more English walnuts growing in my area. I collect the nuts for my own use, out of ditches and beside the road, I guess I’m just a slightly larger squirrel. I plan to learn about the grafting of walnuts, and may offer a service to my neighbors of grafting their black walnut trees with english walnut scions and instructing them in their care and maintenance.

Comment on Grafting Experimental Walnuts by Administrator

Administrator — Sun, 03 Oct 2010 18:43:14 +0000

The tree you planted was an English walnut variety grafted to a black walnut rootstock, which is not an unusual graft. However, you apparently let a sucker/shoot grow from below the graft (a black walnut sucker/shoot), and since only one branch displays English characteristics it sounds as if that black walnut sucker now dominates the tree. If shade is what you want you can live with it as it is. If you want English walnuts you should begin pruning back the black walnut portion of the tree with goal of eventually removing it. Without seeing the tree I would hesitate to suggest you remove all the black walnut growth in one year, it might be too big a shock. If your pruning leaves the English trunk unshaded you should consider painting the exposed surface with interior white latex paint to protect it from sunburn.

Comment on Grafting Experimental Walnuts by Lanae

Lanae — Sun, 03 Oct 2010 02:15:09 +0000

I have a situation at our school garden in Sacramento. We have a 7 year old walnut tree planted by us when it was just a stick. It has been producing for 2 years now and the tree is huge. Anyway we just noticed that all the walnuts are on one branch and only that one branch that resembles an English ? Walnut’s leaves. The rest of the tree has black walnut leaves. What went wrong and is there anything we can do about it? We also like the shade the tree gives ( the students call the tree Wally). The joint where the producing branch grows out of is off to the side.

Comment on Grafting Experimental Walnuts by David

David — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 21:36:18 +0000

Scion wood is cut while it is dormant, and it is stored and refrigerated in a moist (not wet) media, commonly wood chips. Grafting in walnuts is done in the spring when the buds are beginning to push. We use a piece of scionwood that contains two buds. It is important to match the cambium of the scionwood to the cambium of the rootstock. Wrap the graft union with a layer or two of grafting tape and waterproof the tape and the end of the scionwood with tree seal.
California walnut varieties are cold sensitive and may not be adapted for Nepal. Our trees have withstood temperature dips as low as 10 degrees F.

Comment on Grafting Experimental Walnuts by Bob Burkinshaw

Bob Burkinshaw — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 15:10:52 +0000

Thankyou for this! My son is doing agricultural development work in a mountainous region of Nepal. There are many ‘wild’ walnut trees growing there that are well adapted to the conditions but they do not produce very good walnuts, so he would like to try some grafting. In his remote part of the world, he doesn’t have high speed internet so asked me to research grafting techniques.

I have read that the scion should be cut when the tree is dormant and then refrigerated in a plastic bag until the grafting is done in Spring (at leaf bud). Do you follow that timing? Or….?

Thankyou again.

Bob

Comment on Gold Oak Ranch Olive Oil Wins Gold by Eden

Eden — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 18:07:03 +0000

Can I get in on that too?

Comment on Olive Harvest–At Last by Administrator

Administrator — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 19:17:50 +0000

True extra virgin olive oil is harvested, taken to the mill, and pressed within 24 hours. There are no chemicals, and no heat is used. For this reason, true extra virgin olive oil is one of the purest oils around. That being said, many olive trees are treated at some point to prevent olive fly infestation. Fortunately we haven’t had to do that with our olive oil because olive flies are not yet common where we grow our olives. I’m due for a post to answer the rest of your questions, because believe or not, I get those questions a lot. Stay tuned and thanks for reading!