Harvest News

Harvest is in full swing and the outlook for great antioxidant numbers, wonderful aromas, and nuanced flavors is very promising. However there is one exception, for the first time the Barouni crop did not produce sufficient fruit to create a Barouni varietal for next year. This means that once we sell out of this year’s Barouni we will not have it again until 2016. So all you Barouni lovers may want to stock up.

This happenstance is not unusual in the uncertain world of farming. This year the crop of Italy’s highest quality region of Tuscany is down 50% due to unseasonably high temperatures during bloom, unusually wet weather during the growing season encouraging the olive fly, and an unexpected early hail storm during the harvest season. Accordingly bulk prices from Italy are up 50%. Unfortunately, the hardest hit farms were the small high quality producers. For all of you who enjoy buying high quality Italian imported extra virgin olive oil be sure you are getting the real thing this coming year, it will be much more expensive than this past year.

Luckily, we do not anticipate any increases in our prices this coming year.

14th Annual North Yuba Harvest Festival

14th Annual North Yuba Harvest Festival

Once again we are proud to sponsor this year’s harvest festival on September 27th and 28th, 10am to 4pm. It will be held at the Alcouffe Community Center at 9185 Marysville Rd., Oregon House, CA 95962. This is the biggest food and wine event in the North Yuba foothills.

North Yuba has received international recognition as a premium wine and olive oil region with local producers garnering coveted medals at major state, national and international competitions.

There will be over 60 vendors this year, including food stalls offering everything from haute cuisine to hot dogs, arts & crafts, antiques, Farmers Market, coffee bistro, and live musical entertainment. Ample children’s activities guarantee a day of family fun.

We hope to see you there!

A Seasoned Farmer Delivers a Beautiful Frantoio

We at Apollo Olive Oil have had the very fortunate experience of meeting and being able to work with some of California’s most dedicated and knowledgeable olive farmers. At 81 years old and still going strong, Antonio Isern brings 60 years of hard won wisdom coupled with intelligent innovation to his organic olive farm. He is pioneering a medium density planting scheme that uses organic methods and also allows the olive tree to blossom into its natural form. Other high density planting methods use severe pruning methods, pesticides, and chemical fertilizing. Antonio’s method could bring a Renaissance of olive farming to California that is profitable, sustainable, and organic.

Antonio also brings his internationally sought after consulting experience to help us with the orchards we manage. He specializes in a pruning technique that helps reduce the alternate bearing tendency of olive trees. This helps the olive farmer to have a more consistent production, the challenge that faces all farmers. We are grateful to have such a great resource in our own backyard.

Frantoio is one of the main varieties that Antonio grows on his farm. It is a very vigorous tree full of vitality. For the first time, we are fortunate this year to be able to offer a very limited supply of Antonio’s Frantoio of 510 bottles only available on our web site. This oil is 100% Frantoio. It is a medium bodied and complex olive oil with hints of fresh greens and a light walnut astringency. It is also very rich in antioxidants. It is a very earthy oil with a medium intensity which goes well with vegetarian dishes, fresh mushrooms, and light soups.

 

A Taste of Tuscany from California

Tuscany is famous for its beautiful olive orchards and exceptional olive oil. For years now, we have a special relationship with someone here in Northern California who has a small, Tuscan-style grove that delivers one of the very best oils we mill. The grove, located in the cool, rolling foothills of Petaluma, is planted with a mix of Tuscan varieties – Frantoio, Maurino, Leccino, and a few Pendolino trees. The olives are very, very small, and the fresh oil trickles out of the mill with an incredible dark emerald color and stunning vegetal aromas.

Sam Saltonstall, seen here with his son, Sam, and Gianni, is one of our hero-growers. He carefully tends his trees using sustainable, organic methods, and is so strongly committed to getting the best oil possible, that – even now at 80 years old – each evening, he loads up the day’s harvest and sets out at 4 am to drive his olives to our mill, arriving four hours later so that they can be milled immediately on what he has found to be the best mill around. He unloads and returns home straight away to get another load of olives to us the next day.

This year we are lucky and honored to offer his oil in our bottles, under the Gold Series “Tuscan” label. If you are tempted to experience Sam’s oil, the limited production of 720 bottles is available only on our web site.

2014 Oils Win More Gold

2014 Oils Win More Gold!

We are proud to announce once again, that our new oils have placed very well in this year’s competitions. Since Apollo’s first production 13 years ago, our oils have consistently shown exceptionally well. Reviewing all the awards from past competitions, we found that in the prestigious US competitions our oils have been awarded far more golds than silvers, and been recognized as Best of Class or Best of Show 50% of the time. And that’s not counting top recognitions in various European competitions over the years!

Apollo Extra Virgin Olive Oil Awards, 2001 – 2014 in US competitions
7 Best of Show
6 Best of Class
41 Gold
32 Silver

The 2014 competition results just came in, and here they are: internationally, from Italy, New York, Los Angeles, and locally, from Napa Valley:

Biol – International Competition for Organic Olive Oils in Bari, Italy
Mistral – Extra Gold
Sierra – Gold

International Olive Oil Competition in NY
Mistral – Gold
Sierra – Gold

LA County International Olive Oil Competition
Mistral – Gold
Frantoio – Gold
Sierra – Silver
Barouni – Silver
Tuscan – Silver

Napa Valley Olive Oil Competition
Mistral – Best of Class, Gold
Sierra – Silver
Barouni – Silver
Frantoio – Silver
Tuscan – Bronze

Good Food Award Finalist

We are very proud of winning this Good Food Award because it is the only competition that includes sustainability as a critical component. This is the first year they have had a category for olive oils. The application included many questions pertaining to farming practices, processing, and packaging that were all aimed at choosing those producers with the highest sustainability standards. So with Apollo Olive Oil you can be sure you are not only getting the healthiest and highest quality olive oil, you are also getting the one using the highest standards of production from farm to table.

Holiday Special

With Apollo Olive Oil, you have several gift-giving options – the beautiful golden gift box, your gift message on a nice Holiday card, and the extended 15% holiday savings for orders over $100.

Now, in keeping with our Holiday tradition, when you place an order over $100 just enter the SUPERSAVER coupon code for the 15% discount. That’s a perfect way to stock your pantry AND do your holiday shopping in one transaction.

Our gift to you: A 15% savings PLUS free shipping on any order over $100 by using the coupon code SUPERSAVER.

It Is Best To Make Your Own Flavored Oil

We are often asked why we do not offer a flavored olive oil. The simplest answer is a flavored olive oil is not extra virgin because it includes additives. Some additives are worse than others. Any oil that has any vegetative matter in it, like herbs, goes rancid very quickly. Oils that are processed by adding fruit during the crush are less subject to oxidation but the additives still contribute to quick deterioration. Oftentimes producers will create a flavored oil from a sub-standard oil in order to mask the lesser quality oil.

Instead we recommend that you make your own infused oils when you want them in the quantity that you want them. In this way all your separate ingredients are as fresh as possible. Making your own infused oil is as simple as making a salad dressing, simply add some lemon, whisk, and let set a little while. You can also heat the oil in a pan and add your favorite spices to make a savory infused oil. It is very simple and tasty and most importantly very fresh.

Flavored oils are easy to use and we have tasted some that were quite good. But in the end we prefer to go with the best of both worlds by making our own with the freshest olive oil and the freshest ingredients.

Rachel Ray’s California Olive Oil Trail

We were delighted to learn that Rachel Ray included Apollo Olive Oil as one of eight Northern California olive oil producers featured in the travel section of her June magazine. Recognition from such a national food icon is a great feather in our cap, and we welcome your visit! Just please call ahead to be sure one of us can take you around.

To Filter or Not to Filter, That is the Question.

We’re frequently asked if we filter our oils. This question often comes from reading some faulty information on the internet or thinking olive oil is somehow similar to apple juice in this regard.

We filter our oils with mechanical means – meaning there is no chemical reaction. The newly milled oils are just passed through very fine meshes and a special felted paper designed specifically for trapping the olive particles and juices. Based on the recommendations of Marco Mugelli, the pioneer of naturally preserving olive oil polyphenols, we do this in-line, immediately after the oil is extracted and before it is pumped into a tank. This way, almost no sediment remains and there’s no chance anaerobic decomposition of the sediment will produce off smells during storage. Once spoilage begins to happen, other chemical processes kick in that rapidly lead to oxidation, rancidity, and unpleasant smells and tastes.

Some people centrifuge their oil to remove particulate matter, but this method introduces a lot of oxygen which reacts with the antioxidants in the oil. We also used this method early on, but we found that our oils lost their freshness due to the excessive oxidation much more quickly.

Others rack their oils the old-fashioned way to remove the vegetable water and particulate matter. After a cloudy oil has been in a tank for days or weeks, the sediment will have settled to the bottom, and then the clear oil is pumped into another container. We used to use this method early on as well and found the same problem with the freshness not lasting as long as we wanted.

Some olive oils are sold as “unfiltered”, conjuring up the benefits of unfiltered apple juice – as though this was a positive aspect in olive oil; it is not. The difference is that fresh, unfiltered apple juice is consumed almost immediately, whereas extra virgin olive oil, even though it is also a fresh product, is supposed to last for about two years. Particles suspended in olive oil usually begin anaerobic spoilage within a month or two, which is also one reason we never put herbs or other things into our oils.

Two years ago we had the polyphenol levels analyzed twice – as soon as the oils were made and again after the summer, 8 months later. We found, to our surprise, that the levels hadn’t changed a bit! Our oils are very stable because we take every precaution to avoid oxidation and prevent spoilage. We’re confident that immediate mechanical filtering is one of the keys to the exceptionally high polyphenols, and beautiful award-winning aromas and flavors – as well as the long shelf life of our oils.