Published: Saturday, Aug. 22, 2009
County sees growing group of olive growers
Most still consider the fruit a hobbyist crop, but its local popularity has risen recently thanks in part to Paso Robles’ festival
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closeOlives remain a small part of San Luis Obispo County’s total agriculture scene, but as backyard hobbyists continue to plant them, the crop keeps attracting attention in local events and at the county level.
“The last five years … demonstrated the important, growing olive oil industry in our county as well as the state,” said Clotilde Julien, co-owner of Olea Farm along with her husband, Ives.
The Downtown Paso Robles Main Street Association and Olea Farm are hosting the Paso Robles Olive Festival in Downtown City Park today, bringing in 36 statewide olive vendors.
Now in its sixth year, festival officials say they have 20 percent more sellers participating than in 2008 because the crop is gaining popularity.
The county began paying more attention to olive tree acreage in its crops report during the past few years, county agricultural inspector biologist Tamara Kleemann said, as more growers popped up, likely lured in by the success of wine grapes because they need similar growing conditions. In 2006, county records show about a few hundred acres of olive trees.
But the numbers don’t show a full picture in the early years, Kleemann said, because the county didn’t know about all the local olive growers present in the area. The county issues voluntary surveys to the growers in order to obtain its crop report statistics.
In 2007, when officials asked around and grew their database of growers, the report’s olive acreage showed a much larger jump, at about 1,200 acres. However, after the 2007 freeze, younger trees died, and that number dropped to about 830 acres in 2008. In each of those annual acreages, Kleemann said, not all are of bearing age.
There are very few local commercial olive producers, she added, and most growers are hobbyists who grow for their family or small businesses.
That makes the fruit a small player in county agriculture, Kleemann said, but still one to keep track of. Olives are currently lumped with miscellaneous crops. Larger crops, such as wine grapes, have their own category. Wine grapes are the county’s most dominant crop with 36,845 acres planted by 2008.
Once matured and harvested, olives are picked from the trees and processed into many forms, such as traditionally bottled olive oil. They may also be served whole in dishes, made into spreads or pressed into flavored olive oils, such as lemon oil to be drizzled on cakes or basil-flavored oil for pies.
Festival today
The Sixth Annual Paso Robles Olive Festival will be held from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. today at Paso Robles Downtown City Park off Spring Street. There will be free olive oil tastings and ice cream, demonstrations, wine tastings for various fees, music and art.
Visit www.pasoroblesolivefestival.com.
The public can enter a free cooking contest today at the festival. Those interested should bring their olive-inspired dishes to the park’s gazebo between 9 and 9:30 a.m. Download a contest entry form or call 238-4103.
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