`UC Davis Master Milling Course to Squeeze Out Another Day - Olive Oil Times

UC Davis Master Milling Course to Squeeze Out Another Day

By Chris Lindahl
Oct. 3, 2014 08:16 UTC

The mas­ter milling cer­tifi­cate course hosted by the University of California at Davis Olive Center makes its return for a sixth install­ment this month, boast­ing an extra day added to the agenda.

The course, which will be held from Oct. 9 through 12 at the Silverado Vineyard Sensory Theater at the Robert Mondavi Institute for Wine and Food Science, invites par­tic­i­pants for a hands-on look and instruc­tion on the max­i­miza­tion of qual­ity and extrac­tion effi­ciency in olive oil pro­duc­tion. According to Dan Flynn, exec­u­tive direc­tor of the cen­ter, par­tic­i­pants will ven­ture out of the class­room to three local olive oil proces­sors.

For the third time, the Olive Center has tapped Pablo Canamasas as an instruc­tor. Trained in Argentina and Spain in the art and sci­ence of olive oil pro­cess­ing, Canamasas refined his skills at Australia’s Boundary Bend, where he was the lead miller for 12 years. He cur­rently con­sults for a num­ber of pro­duc­ers world­wide.

Pablo brings a deep pas­sion for excel­lence and will help atten­dees under­stand how to pro­duce award-win­ning olive oil,” said Flynn.

Pablo Canamasas

Canamasas will offer a num­ber of lec­tures and instruc­tional pieces through­out the course’s four-day pro­gram along with the Olive Center’s Sue Langstaff and Selina Wang, who will delve into chem­i­cal analy­sis, among other top­ics. Olive2Bottle Mobile Services will be pro­cess­ing oil on site. Outside of the class­room, day three brings a field trip to three olive oil com­pa­nies:

Mike Madison’s Yolo Press grows Leccino, Taggiasca, Frantoio, Pendolino and Mission olive vari­eties. Madison’s oper­a­tion boasts sev­eral years of expe­ri­ence using Enorossi equip­ment.

At Bondolio Olive Oil, Karen and Malcolm Bond grow sev­eral acres of Nocellara, Cerasoula and Biancolilla. They are in the fin­ish­ing stages of installing Pieralisi pro­cess­ing equip­ment as well as a new tast­ing room.

The Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation’s Séka Hills Olive Oil grows Picual, Arbequina, Arbosana and Koroneiki. They oper­ate Alfa Laval equip­ment and just cel­e­brated the open­ing of a new tast­ing room at the end of September. A recep­tion lunch will be pro­vided to atten­dees at Séka Hills.

Although the course has always fea­tured an oper­at­ing mill com­po­nent, it has been entirely on-site in pre­vi­ous years.

The pas­sage of new olive oil label­ing stan­dards will bring an excit­ing new dimen­sion to the course, accord­ing to Flynn. He says these new stan­dards allow for a bet­ter rela­tion­ship to sen­sory qual­ity than those already in place.

Participants in the 6th UC Davis Olive Center Master Milling Course will visit three pro­duc­ers in the area, includ­ing the Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation’s Séka Hills pro­duc­tion facil­i­ties and tast­ing room.

According to the course’s web­site, the suc­cess of Boundary Bend Limited under the direc­tion of Canamasas, is deter­mined by its ded­i­ca­tion to strin­gent chem­i­cal and sen­sory analy­sis.

The instruc­tion given at past courses by Canamasas has led to imme­di­ate improve­ments in both qual­ity and prof­itabil­ity of par­tic­i­pants’ pro­cess­ing oper­a­tions, accord­ing to Flynn.

However, he is quick to men­tion that the event is not just for sea­soned pro­fes­sion­als. Flynn says he expects “[Everyone from] expe­ri­enced millers to prospec­tive olive oil proces­sors to those curi­ous about the best prac­tices in the craft of extra vir­gin olive oil pro­duc­tion,” to be in atten­dance.

What’s more to look for­ward to?

Attendees always eat well at the Master Milling Certificate Course,” said Flynn. The course is fully catered, and includes fresh, sea­sonal pro­duce and arti­san cof­fee.

Registration is still open on the UC Davis Olive Center web­site.

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