California College’s Olive Harvest Brings Campus Together

The sus­tain­abil­ity office at Occidental College in Los Angeles, California, has pro­duced its first-ever extra vir­gin olive oil after hand-har­vest­ing the campus’s 130-year-old Mission trees.

According to Alison Linder, the college’s sus­tain­abil­ity coor­di­na­tor, the olive har­vest was inspired by a sim­i­lar event at nearby Scripps College to cre­ate a hands-on learn­ing expe­ri­ence and pro­mote sus­tain­abil­ity.

“I’m happy to sup­port efforts like the olive oil har­vest that bring cli­mate action to the fore­front of life on cam­pus and show that we all have a part to play,” she told Olive Oil Times.

“Our cam­pus, located in sunny, urban Southern California, is home to more than 125 fruit­ing olive trees, revered by observers for their beauty and shade pro­vi­sion, and by grounds and sus­tain­abil­ity staff for their drought and cli­mate resilience,” she added.

While there had pre­vi­ously been inter­est in an olive har­vest, a newly staffed sus­tain­abil­ity office and a par­tic­u­larly wet win­ter cre­ated the per­fect oppor­tu­nity to coor­di­nate a suc­cess­ful har­vest and com­mu­nity event.

“The inten­tion of Occidental College’s first olive har­vest was mul­ti­fac­eted: first, to bring aware­ness to cli­mate-resilient, drought-tol­er­ant land­scap­ing prac­tices used on its cam­pus; sec­ond, to cre­ate a com­mu­nity around local food pro­duc­tion; third, to intro­duce our reimag­ined office of sus­tain­abil­ity to the Occidental com­mu­nity,” Linder said.

The sus­tain­abil­ity office was recently revived due to stu­dent, staff, board and fac­ulty inter­est in see­ing a coor­di­nated effort for sus­tain­abil­ity plan­ning and action on cam­pus in the face of increas­ingly evi­dent impacts of cli­mate change.

Interest in its efforts was man­i­fested by roughly 75 vol­un­teers from all areas of the cam­pus help­ing to pick olives at the event.

“It was eye-open­ing for me to see the quan­tity of olives required to pro­duce one gal­lon of oil, and sev­eral vol­un­teers were sur­prised about the length of time required to fill a bucket,” Linder said. ​“In the office of sus­tain­abil­ity, we hope this hands-on oppor­tu­nity leads to a greater appre­ci­a­tion of the prod­ucts we con­sume.”

Immediately after har­vest­ing, Lola Trafecanty, Occidental College’s ground man­ager, and Isa Merel, the assis­tant sus­tain­abil­ity coor­di­na­tor, drove the olives two hours north­west to Ojai Olive Oil Company.

Ojai Olive Oil received and trans­formed the 500 pounds (225 kilo­grams) of olives imme­di­ately upon arrival. The olives were milled into 12 gal­lons (45 liters) of olive oil within four hours of har­vest­ing.

“The nov­elty of such a momen­tous occa­sion brought an energy of excite­ment and enthu­si­asm to cam­pus,” Merel told Olive Oil Times. ​“I was approached by com­mu­nity mem­bers who I would have never oth­er­wise inter­acted with, telling me how excited they were for the har­vest and thank­ing me for my hard work.”

Occidental College’s olive grove is more than 130 years old and started when land­scape archi­tect Beatrix Farrand, one of the found­ing 11 mem­bers and the only woman of the American Society of Landscape Architects, planted four trees in 1936.

Over time, the grove has expanded and now pro­vides stu­dents, staff, fac­ulty and cam­pus fauna shade to relax, study and social­ize, all while pro­duc­ing a viable crop for com­mu­nity use.

Olive trees, although not native to California, are incred­i­bly resilient in the face of high tem­per­a­tures and drought, an increas­ingly nec­es­sary trait in cam­pus land­scap­ing as the sum­mers become hot­ter and win­ters become drier due to cli­mate change.

“We hope that through this inau­gural har­vest, and by hon­or­ing the trees’ boun­ti­ful­ness, we have sparked a com­mu­nity-wide appre­ci­a­tion for their dis­tinc­tive resilience,” Linder said.

In the future, col­lege offi­cials see poten­tial for ongo­ing research oppor­tu­ni­ties on soil qual­ity, olive oil organolep­tic qual­i­ties, eco­nomic impact and increased envi­ron­men­tal aware­ness.

A research part­ner­ship is also envi­sioned with the biol­ogy and geol­ogy depart­ments to test and reme­di­ate the soil using regen­er­a­tive prac­tices to increase nutri­ent avail­abil­ity and water reten­tion capac­ity.

For instance, one project focuses on com­post­ing olive pomace on-site to cre­ate an all-nat­ural fer­til­izer.

Occidental also hosts a food stud­ies minor, an inter­dis­ci­pli­nary area of study that encom­passes envi­ron­men­tal pol­icy, soci­ol­ogy, cul­ture and reli­gion and kine­si­ol­ogy.

This inter­dis­ci­pli­nary minor is an ideal plat­form for a directed research project on sus­tain­able olive oil pro­duc­tion, health and com­mu­nity ben­e­fits spe­cific to Occidental College.

Plans include invit­ing stu­dents and fac­ulty mem­bers to join the research and main­te­nance process to make the olive har­vest an annual cam­pus tra­di­tion.

During the har­vest, the sus­tain­abil­ity office was also approached by fac­ulty inter­ested in mak­ing ink from cam­pus olives, show­cas­ing the mul­ti­ple pos­si­bil­i­ties with an event like this.

“After a four-year pause in our office of sus­tain­abil­ity, it has been so reward­ing for this to be the kick-off event for a new era of cam­pus sus­tain­abil­ity pro­grams,’” Merel said. ​“I can’t wait to see where future iter­a­tions of this new cam­pus tra­di­tion go.”

Student involve­ment also included design­ing the bot­tle label. ​“Working with a stu­dent to design the bot­tle label has been one of my favorite parts of this project; Alice Amdur’s cre­ativ­ity, tal­ent and pas­sion for art have been infec­tious,” Merel said. ​“I believe it makes this year’s olive oil much more spe­cial.”

“This was a great oppor­tu­nity to bring together the inter­ests and tal­ents across cam­pus in cre­at­ing a sus­tain­able and locally orig­i­nated prod­uct,” Linder con­cluded.

• Occidental College