California’s Olive Oils Challenge Europe’s – NYTimes.com

Image by letorrivacation via Flickr

AMERICAN food lovers have long taken for granted that only olive oils from the Mediterranean are worth buying — preferably with an olive tree, an Italian flag and some words like “authentic cold pressed” on the bottle.

But in the last decade, California producers have mounted a major new effort to bring back the domestic olive oil industry, planting thousands of acres, building new mills and producing oils that can be fresher, purer and cheaper than all but the finest imports.

The California olive oil trade, started by 16th-century Spanish missionaries, was almost dead 10 years ago, except for small-scale producers along the Pacific Coast and in the wine country.

“Many people loved the romance of olive oil,” said Deborah Rogers, an owner of the Olive Press, a mill and orchard in Sonoma, Calif. “But no one could figure out how to make any money at it.”

via California’s Olive Oils Challenge Europe’s – NYTimes.com.

Strange Random Olive Oil Quote:

“Olive oil … asparagus … if your mother wasn’t so fancy, we could shop at the gas station like normal people.” – Homer Simpson

Related articles

• The Yocha Dehe Return Focus to their Land through An Olive Oil Enterprise – and More (indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com)
• Five Ways to Use Olive Oil For Beauty (bellasugar.com)
• Looking for an Original, Memorable Holiday Gift? “Adopt” an Authentic Italian Olive Tree for the Food Lover in Your Life (prweb.com)
• How to Maximize the Health Benefits of Olive Oil (fitsugar.com)
• Picking organic olives for cold pressed olive oil- Creamy White Beans with garden veggies: a Recipe (alkalinealive.wordpress.com)
• A Hidden Treasure – Portuguese Olive Oil (portugaluntouched.wordpress.com)