TREES

The olive only really flourishes in a true Mediterranean climate, with which only 1.2% of the earth's surface is blessed. Our little patch of the Sierra foothills falls into that tiny Mediterranean percentile, which gives us the possibility of exploring the great range of flavors and nuances offered by the Old World varieties. In Barcelona they grow a lovely soft variety called Arbequina; in the hills overlooking the north coast of Crete one finds the fruity and assertive Koroneiki; from Aix-en-Provence to the Bouche de Rhone the Aglandau and Salonenque dominate.

Since 1997, we have been importing these and other varieties from the world's great oil producing regions. We now have some 6000 trees, of 37 different varieties, mostly from Spain, Italy, France and Greece. We have done our planting scientifically, selecting a wide range of conditions (altitude, exposure, soil type), so as to more quickly learn the characteristics of each variety. The University of California at Davis, the foremost agricultural school in California, is now using us as an experimental station for its study of olive oil.