D’Aun and I had a fun weekend at the California Olive Oil Council annual meeting in Monterey. Sometimes our little D’Oliva Olive Oil felt overwhelmed by the huge operators, but everybody attending genuinely wanted to help each other create better California grown olive oil. Stories, ideas, and data flowed freely between “competitors.” It didn’t matter if you had 100 trees or 100,000 trees because all in the industry want to see great things happen with locally grown olive oil.
The panel discussions were led by a wide range of growers, marketing people, certified judges, retailers, technical experts, and trade association leaders. Even the trade show exhibitors offered a wealth of information, from bottle producers to irrigation innovators to lab services. One exhibitor sold hand held harvesting devices, and D’Aun bought one to try this Fall.
One of the great things about events like this is simply meeting people. For instance, I had conversations with a UC Davis professor, a professional olive oil taster from Italy, a journalist from Modern Farmer Magazine, the executive director of California Grown, and the VP of the Speciality Food Association. And I’m the introvert — can you imagine how many people D’Aun talked to?!?!?
I will admit that by the end of the weekend my olive oil consumption — both literally and from the information dump — was maxed out. The introvert in me wanted to find a quiet room for a few hours.
Despite all that, D’Oliva is going to be an even better oil because of the things we learned. Of course it’s already GREAT and you should order some here. But it’s just going to be even better in the years to come.
Thank you to the folks at the California Olive Oil Council for planning and hosting such a great event. And thank you to all who took the time to teach us how to create great oil.