I mentioned in my last post that California olive oil is a burgeoning industry. California farmers produce high quality oil that far surpasses most of the olive oil you’ll find at your grocery store. Why, then, aren’t you seeing more California olive oil on the shelf? Part of the reason is production. We’re just not producing that much oil–yet. Part of the problem is also price. California olive oil is expensive. We don’t yet have the economies of scale that our European competitors do (we also don’t have price subsidies but I’ll save that story for later).
What we do have is ingenuity. California olive growers have turned to wine grape harvesters to harvest their olives. We know the technology. After all, California winemakers have built an industry based on both quantity and quality. California olive growers are trying to do the same. To compete with the Europeans, we’ve got to develop production methods that make us competitive, hence the use of these massive over-the-row harvesters.
Over the Row Olive Harvester from AGH
Now there’s a downside to this ingenuity. The over-the-row harvesters can only harvest three olive varieties: arbequina, arbosana, and koroneiki. These trees are small enough to allow modified wine grape harvesters to pass over them. For those interested in varieties grown from bigger trees, the only option now is to hand harvest, which means a very expensive oil. That’s why, if you find California olive oil in the store, it is often arbequina. It’s cheap and easy enough to harvest that you can find a relatively inexpensive bottle at your local Trader Joe’s (hint: Trader Joe’s has an excellent $6 bottle of California arbequina oil. It’s a steal. Buy it!). But if you’re looking for fun and variety, all those arbequina oils might get boring after awhile.
Which is why Cooperative Extension’s mechanical harvest field day last week was so interesting. American engineers are trying to come up with a way to mechanically harvest the bigger trees, so that the bottle of Leccino olive oil you’ve been dreaming of doesn’t cost $20. Unfortunately, most of these harvesters were prototypes, so not available for sale yet. But I had to appreciate the innovativeness.
New Olive Harvester Prototype
I especially loved this one. Designed by a University of California professor, it features large brushing fingers loaded onto a Department of Defense bomb loader. Basically the fingers agitate the olives out of the tree onto the tarp below. To me it reminded me of something from Dr. Seuss. Maybe the Lorax? Whatever the case, the design showed promise, and I am hopeful, as our unique olive varieties come into production over the next few years that you’ll be able to find a high-quality Leccino oil which won’t make you blanch when you look at the price tag.
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