Community Milling in California: Small Growers Encouraged to Reserve Early

California com­mu­nity milling days are a way for small olive grow­ers to cel­e­brate the joys of the har­vest and pro­duce excep­tional home­grown olive oil.

The days are sim­i­lar to those in small vil­lages in the Mediterranean, where all the vil­lagers bring olives to the olive mill in the town cen­ter.

“2022, for some, was a very tough har­vest; many grow­ers found their crops to be quite light,” Mary Louise Bucher, a mas­ter miller and owner of Trattore Farms, told Olive Oil Times. ​“Being an alter­nate bear­ing crop, a lot of our cus­tomers are look­ing for­ward to a greater abun­dance of olives this 2023 har­vest.”

Community milling is a pop­u­lar tra­di­tion at Trattore Farms. ​“The very wet win­ter and heavy rains in Northern California have delayed things, so we expect the har­vest to begin late and run later into the win­ter than nor­mal,” Bucher said.

“The com­mu­nity milling dates are October 29, November 12 and December 3,” she added. ​“We may add a fourth com­mu­nity milling date later in December to accom­mo­date this delayed sea­son and help our cus­tomers with later har­vests.”

Community milling offers a time to gather with neigh­bors and cel­e­brate the har­vest. At Trattore Farms, com­mu­nity milling cus­tomers and club mem­bers are wel­come to join the fes­tiv­i­ties – with or with­out olives.

With mills across the state offer­ing their ser­vices, com­mu­nity milling gives hobby grow­ers a chance to learn more about olive oil pro­duc­tion and taste the fruits of their labor.

“We offer com­mu­nity milling day each year for olive grow­ers who have less than 1,000 pounds (450 kilo­grams). Some peo­ple come with a few buck­ets; oth­ers arrive with a truck­load,” Charles T. Crohare, owner of The Olivina, told Olive Oil Times.

Olivina is fam­ily-owned, estab­lished in 1881, and pro­duces extra vir­gin olive oil from Mission, Arbequina, Lucca, Frantoio and Picholine olives. The com­pany uses a state-of-the-art Italian-made Alfa Laval three-phase olive mill.

The milling process needs a min­i­mum of 1,000 pounds to oper­ate effec­tively. Growers are wel­come, whether they have one or two trees and as lit­tle as a cou­ple of pounds (about 1 kilo­gram) of olives.

“McEvoy hosts one com­mu­nity mill day each fall — and it is an incred­i­bly fun day,” Samantha Dorsey, the pres­i­dent of McEvoy Ranch, told Olive Oil Times. ​“It is a day to cel­e­brate the fall har­vest and to bring all our small, local grow­ers together to cre­ate a truly unique and deli­cious com­mu­nity blend of Olio Nuovo.”

Dorsey invites small grow­ers to McEvoy’s com­mu­nity milling days, allow­ing peo­ple with olives from just a few trees to par­tic­i­pate.

“Anyone who has one pound (0.45 kg) to one ton of olives is wel­come,” she said. ​“This year’s date for com­mu­nity milling is Sunday, November 12, just in time to have Olio Nuovo on their Thanksgiving table. Gravy is cool, but noth­ing beats Olio Nuovo on mashed pota­toes and stuff­ing.”

Bucher advised using clean, food-grade con­tain­ers but avoid­ing used juice jars and milk car­tons. ​“First time around, we sup­ply a con­tainer to buy, and cus­tomers are wel­come to clean those and re-use them year after year,” she said. ​“Stainless steel fusti are also wel­come.”

Olive grow­ers should check with each mill for their spe­cific qual­ity guide­lines. Trattore Farms only accepts olives with less than ten per­cent olive fly dam­age.

“More than that, and we reserve the right to refuse them, as they are com­bined with every­one else’s olives, and we are com­mit­ted to pro­vid­ing the high­est qual­ity olive oil for all,” Bucher said.

Crohare agreed that grow­ers must be aware of the dam­age the fruit fly can do and can affect oil qual­ity.

“We have had some over the years that we had to reject due to exces­sive fly dam­age,” he said. ​“It is dis­heart­en­ing for them, but it does teach them about the pains of agri­cul­ture.”

“Any batch of olives with greater than five per­cent fruit fly infec­tion rate will be rejected — we are mak­ing extra vir­gin olive oil here,” Dorsey added. ​“We’re very selec­tive regard­ing the qual­ity of olives going into our blend.”

Bucher noted a few myths about com­mu­nity and cus­tom milling. She explained the best times for pick­ing and milling to col­lect olives for the high­est qual­ity field blend­ing and pro­duc­ing excep­tional extra vir­gin olive oil.

“We ask our com­mu­nity milling cus­tomers to pick no later than the Friday before the event,” she said. ​“Ideally, olives go from the tree to the mill in 24 to 48 hours.”

“If picked on Friday, they need to be kept in a cool, dark place, in ven­ti­lated bins,” Bucher added. ​“Rotten olives, those picked up off the ground, are not accepted. Everyone par­tic­i­pat­ing gets very par­tic­u­lar about that.”

Crohare agreed on the impor­tance of proper pick­ing and stor­ing of olives. Olives should be free of olive fly dam­age and have min­i­mal leaves or twigs. There can be no dirt, peb­bles or rocks, as that can dam­age the milling equip­ment.

Dorsey con­curred: ​“Please pick all your olives on the Saturday before com­mu­nity mill day,” she said. ​“Olives picked too far in advance will not fare well and may not meet the qual­ity stan­dards to be added to the blend.”

Bucher explained how she cal­cu­lates exact pro­por­tions and guar­an­tee dis­tri­b­u­tion.

“We do not keep any oil from com­mu­nity milling – all that is pro­duced is dis­trib­uted entirely back to those who par­tic­i­pated, in pro­por­tion to the quan­tity of olives con­tributed,” she said.

“I have a great spread­sheet that cal­cu­lates that and then con­verts the oil quan­tity to weight so we can eas­ily divide it into everyone’s con­tain­ers,” Bucher added. ​“We tare (sub­tract out) the weight of the con­tainer before fill­ing, so the amount is cor­rect.”

Crohare invites grow­ers to uti­lize their olives to pro­duce extra vir­gin olive oil. ​“We want every­one to enjoy the olive oil-mak­ing process and bet­ter appre­ci­ate the work involved in mak­ing ​‘true’ extra vir­gin olive oil,” he said.

Due to the inher­ently non-uni­form nature of com­mu­nity milling, Bucher noted that fla­vor and yield will vary from year to year and batch to batch.

“Every event has dif­fer­ent vari­etals and degrees of ripeness that are brought in, so the fla­vor and yield will vary,” she said. ​“We have seen it range from 50 pounds per gal­lon (about 5 kg per liter) to as high as 80 pounds per gal­lon (about 8 kg per liter).”

“A rough esti­mate is 75 pounds per gal­lon (7.5 kilo­grams per liter) – three 5‑gallon buck­ets worth of olives – is a good way to gues­ti­mate the amount of oil to be received,” Bucher added.

Crohare noted that typ­i­cally olives pro­duce about 10 to 40 gal­lons (45 to 180 liters) of oil per ton. This indus­try stan­dard can help grow­ers esti­mate, but actual vol­ume depends on the qual­ity and cul­ti­var of olives of har­vest being milled.

Oil mak­ing is not an instant process, so Bucher reminds poten­tial par­tic­i­pants to be patient.

“The oil will not be ready at the end of the week­end,” she said. ​“We mill late into the evening and ask that deliv­er­ies stop at 2 PM”

“We then blend the oil, cal­cu­late the quan­ti­ties, and when you have more than 100 guests at the event, it takes a while to par­ti­tion the oil,” Bucher added. ​“That is why it is indi­cated that your oil will be ready for pick-up two weeks later. We ask for prompt pick-up as our mill is not very big.”

Acceptable con­tain­ers for deliv­ery of the olives include five-gal­lon buck­ets, large plas­tic totes, grape bins, large macro-bins, or wicker bas­kets. No garbage bags are allowed. The best con­tain­ers are solid-sided ones that will not flop and spill when poured.

“Am I tough on qual­ity,” asked Bucher. ​“Yes. Ask those who have been turned away and those who have hand-sep­a­rated out fly-dam­aged olives before com­ing.”

“Groups of pick­ers, friends, and fam­ily are all wel­come,” she added. ​“You can walk to the mill and see it in action. You can join us at the win­ery tast­ing room for wine, oil tast­ing and food. We also offer spe­cials to par­tic­i­pants.”

At Olivina, Crohare noted that all olive deliv­er­ies must be labeled, and inter­ested par­tic­i­pants should check rec­om­mended dates for har­vest­ing.

“Due to mov­ing parts and mov­ing equip­ment, Olivina is not able to allow any­one except staff on the premises dur­ing milling,” he added.

Depending on how many trees par­tic­i­pants have and their ripeness lev­els, Bucher said peo­ple can sign up for mul­ti­ple com­mu­nity milling days.

“Lucky you to have that many olives, and how fun to com­pare the fla­vors from each dif­fer­ent date,” she said. ​“On deliv­ery day, com­ing right at 9 AM is not ideal – as lots of peo­ple have the same idea, and there is often a line. It takes a bit to unload, weigh and col­lect the olives – we always appre­ci­ate the patience.”

On a play­ful note, Bucher rec­om­mended: ​“Start brib­ing your friends now – pick­ing olives is hard work, and you’ll want to get help. We love play­ing the ​‘how much did I pick?’ game.”

Dorsey agreed and rec­om­mended invit­ing friends and fam­ily to help har­vest olives.

“Don’t for­get to feed your pick­ing team,” she said. ​“If your har­vest or milling day didn’t go accord­ing to plan and you didn’t get as much olive oil as you’d hoped, don’t fret for a minute.”

“Give your har­vest crew some of the incred­i­ble Olio Nuovo you pick up later from the mill,” Dorsey con­cluded. ​“That’ll surely keep them com­ing back year after year.”