Oregon Olives

Oregon Olive Oil

Oregon Olive Trees

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Cultivars

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Oregon Olive Trees™

Oregon Olives 

2012 U.S. Olive Tree Sales and Tours

 

As always, we are setting aside the month of April to help people buy olive trees.  Our "Open Field Days" and olive tree sales at Kathy's Grove will again be four Saturdays in April (April 7, 14, 21 and 28); and most likely olive tree tours will again be in September at the Reken Estate.  More information on tours will be available in August.

 

The weather in the past year has been very good for establishing olive trees, not too hot and not too cold, if not for fruiting.  With the "double dip" La Nina conditions continuing until at least summertime, this looks like another good spring to plant olive trees (and if you are planting them this year, you wont be worried about harvesting them this year).

 

For those of you looking for 20+ olive trees, we are available for sales times at you convenience, after April 1st.  So, between now and April 2012, feel free to email, and we hope to see you and sell you some olive trees in April!  Directions to our nursery will be posted in March (we hope to have the nursery moved by then!).

2012 Olive Tree Price List

                                                                                                                                       

               Capacity  Est. Age  Height                       

Size           (liters)  (years)   (est.)    1 to 9  10 to 39  40 to 99  100+

                                                       

AB46             1.098    1 1/2    24"-42"   $18.00    14.00    11.00    10.00

#2 Round Pot     5.678    2 - 3    24"-48"    32.00    26.00    22.00    20.00

#5 Round Pot   ~14.2      3 - 4    36"-60"    60.00    55.00

                                                       

+ $4.00 for grafted trees (Kalamata)

 

We are not a mail order supplier of olive trees; in fact we don't ship at all.  All olive tree sales are F.O.B. our nursery. 

Payment in full is expected at time of pickup (cash or check payable to David Lawrence). 

Prices are “mix and match”: for example if a total of four #5 trees and eight AB46 trees were bought of mixed varieties, the 10 to 39 column would be used to price all the trees.

Olives are not a recommended crop for Oregon: there is no warrantee or guarantee on these trees, either express or implied.

 

Expected Availability as of 04/01/12

 

Ab46 Pots; your best buy for spring 2012:

Canadian Olive Tree Sales

 

We are happy to announce we have a business partner that has imported our olive trees into Canada for resale.  Please see:

                                                    Saturna Olive Consortium

 

Michael Pierce now has Frantoio, Leccino and Pendolino he bought for resale, as well as other choice selections from our inventory.  He will be procuring more trees for 2012 sales - give him a call and let him know what you would like to buy!
Text Box: For the past 100 years, American grown and processed olive oil was all about California.  And for most of those past 100 years, olive oil was a salvage operation, using the culls from the table fruit cultivars Ascolano, Manzanillo, Mission, and Sevillano.  More recently, there have been groves in California planted specifically for the purpose of olive oil production.  People like Nan McEvoy (McEvoy Ranch) and Ridgely Evers (DaVero) went to Europe, decided on their favorite olive oil, and brought back the exact clones and planted them in perfect imitation of what was being done in Europe.   Times they are a-changing, and Oregon now has a unique opportunity to boldly pioneer a new approach to making olive oil.  Using the “research groves” of Oregon Olives and the sensory skills of Alexandra Devarenne (a noted California authority on olive oil and olive oil blending), Oregon Olive Trees presents some unique field blends developed especially for Oregon, that have the potential to produce Gold Medal winning olive oils:   "Short Season Soft Field Blend”: a blend designed to produce a well-balanced oil in a short season location. Because of the softer flavor profile of the Arbequina and Leccino, this oil will be fruity without excessive bitterness even when harvested quite green: 30% Arbequina, 50% Leccino, 20% Pendolino.   "Short Season With a Kick Field Blend": a slightly more assertive choice for short season areas. The addition of Frantoio will add complexity but also more bitterness in the oil. Frantoio benefits from hang time on the tree, so this blend will probably be ready for harvest a little later than Short Season Soft Field Blend: 30% Arbequina, 40% Leccino, 15% Frantoio, 15% Pendolino. "Tuscan for the North Field Blend": a classic blend for assertive, green style olive oil in the Tuscan tradition. In the Northwest it will benefit from the latest harvest possible, just ahead of the first freeze. The oil will be dominated by grassy notes and have fairly high bitterness and pungency. It will have excellent shelf life and stability: 50% Leccino, 30% Frantoio, 10% Moraiolo, 10% Pendolino.    "Dual Purpose Field Blend": a mix of olives designed for the grower who wants the option of table olive production. The varieties Itrana, Nocellara del Belice and Picholine are excellent for table fruit as well as for making olive oil; and Leccino and Pendolino are relatively large oil type olives that can also be used for table olives. Since olives for green ripe processing are picked earlier in the season than olives for olive oil, this blend should always allow for a harvest in our climate, even in years low in accumulated heat. If picked for olive oil, this blend may have aggressive bitterness and will require the latest possible harvest date. Adding Leccino to the blend will help counter this bitterness potential: 50% Leccino, 15% Itrana, 15% Nocellara del Belice, 15% Picholine, 5% Pendolino.   "Premium Dark Horse Field Blend": an unexpected combination of a delicate early harvest Italian variety and a very distinctive early harvest Spanish variety. The Leccino will contribute a soft spicy base with some pepper on the finish; the Picual will add a dark, bittersweet chocolate / coffee note: 60% Leccino, 30% Picual, 10% Pendolino. As a single varietal olive oil for those wanting a truly distinctive product, we recommend Frantoio. If you are the type that can handle the suspense of harvesting at the very last minute, a 100% Frantoio planting has the potential in our climate to produce an outstanding Best of Show olive oil. But be warned, it will not be free and easy, you will most probably be biting your knuckles before the crop is in... By focusing on the end product, olive oil, and by boldly planting what has never been planted before, Oregon has the opportunity to raise the bar on premium olive oil production to an exciting new level! For "urban homesteaders" wanting a smaller easily managed tree, we recommend Arbequina. For those who have a little more space and want a classic olive tree "ambiance and feel", it is hard to beat Kalamata. Both are considered self fruitful, but will benefit from having a cross pollinator on the same lot. From the time of the ancient Greeks until this very day, olive oil has had far more prestige than the table olive. However, for the small scale boutique operation in Oregon, making table olives might make far more sense. Given the short growing season here, and that green ripe table olives are picked earlier than oil olives, table olives seem to make more sense from a grower’s perspective. Add in the fact that olive oil mills are just so darn expensive and that milling olives for oil essentially throws away at least 80% of the product (as pomace and waste water), table olives look even more promising for the small scale operation looking to actually make some money from growing olive trees. Even in California, there are far more acres harvested for table olives than for olive oil. Oregon Olives takes a special interest in table olives for exactly these reasons. While it makes little sense to try and compete with the main and well adapted California cultivars, we can recommend the following cultivars for Oregon: Amfissa Carolea Itrana Kalamata Nocellara del Belice Picholine As an interesting aside, California black ripe style table olives (you know, pizza olives) are picked green ripe, and then the color is changed to black in the processing. Evalution of at least 60 cultivars is proceeding here at Oregon Olives; there will almost certainly be more cultivar recommendations coming that are suitable for planting here in Oregon. After all, we all are at the beginning of a new industry when there is still room for learning and growth!

Recommended Cultivars For North-West Oregon

 

Here is my current (Fall 2011) assessment of the olives trees in our groves: these cultivars are the top cultivars from a horticultural perspective.  Listed in very rough order of adaptation to our climate (name, origin, traditional use, traditional pollinator, etc.):

 

* Frantoio, Italy, oil, self-compatible(?)
   Lucca, UC intro, oil, self-compatible(?), very similar to Frantoio, except later harvest
* Leccino, Italy, oil, (pollinators: Pendolino, Leccino, Moraiolo, Marino; also highest yielding on average)
* Pendolino, Italy, oil (considered a "universal" pollinator)
* Arbequina, Spain, oil, self-compatible(?), good for potted tree

* Picholine, France, green ripe, oil, self-compatible(?)
* Bouteillan, France, oil

   Carolea, Italy, green and black ripe, oil (pollinators: Itrana, Picholene)

* Picual, Spain, oil, black ripe, self-compatible(?)
* Itrana, Italy, black ripe, oil, (pollinators: Leccino, Pendolino)
* Nocellara del Belice, Italy (Sicily), green ripe (Castelveltrano-style), oil

* Amfissa, Greece, green and black ripe, oil

* Taggiasca, Italy, oil, self-compatible(?)

* Tanche, France, black ripe, oil (pollinator: Cayon)

* Coratina, Italy, oil, green table

* Bosana, Italy (Sardinia), oil, self-compatible(?)

* Grignan, Italy, oil, (pollinator: Casaliva)

   Chetoui, Tunisia, oil, black ripe, self-compatible(?)

   Verdale, France, oil, green ripe, self-compatible(?)

 

These cultivars are also doing well; but either seem to be just a tad more sensitive to our growing conditions, or we just don't have a lot of trees on which to base a more solid recommendation:

 

* Kalamata, Greece, black ripe (Kalamata style), oil, self-compatible(?) excellent specimen tree

* Ascolano, Italy, green ripe (pollinators: Itrana, Santa Caterina)

   Maurino, Italy, oil

* Cailletier, France, oil, half ripe

* Empeltre, Spain, oil, black ripe, self-compatible(?)

   Nocellara de Etnea, Italy (Sicily), green ripe, oil

   Hoji Blanca, Spain, oil, green ripe, self-compatible(?)

* Moraiolo, Italy, oil, (pollinators: Pendolino, Marino)

 

And these cultivars are under evaluation as to their suitability in the northern Willamette valley:

 

   Agezy Shami, Egypt, green ripe

   Aglandau, France, oil, green ripe, self-compatible(?)

   Azapa, Chile, green or black ripe

   Barnea (K18), Israel, oil

   Barouni, Tunisia, green ripe, self-compatible(?)

   Canino, Italy, oil, (pollinators: Frantoio, Leccino, Moraiolo, Marino)

   Carboncella, Italy, oil, (pollinators: Pendolino, Marino)

   Casaliva, Italy, oil, (pollinator: Grignan)

   Lechin di Sevilla, Spain, oil, self-compatible(?)

   Manzanillo, Spain, green ripe, self-compatible(?)

   Mission, Spain, green ripe, oil, self-compatible(?)

   Mission Leiva, Columbia

   Oueslati, Tunisia, oil, table olives

   Salonenque, France, oil, green ripe, oil

   Saiali Magloub, Tunisia, table olives

   Salome, Australia, oil

   Santa Caterina, Italy, green ripe

   Sevillano, Spain, green ripe

 

self-compatible: a given olive tree can pollinate itself.

* Cultivars we at Oregon Olive Trees expect to have available for sale in 2012

 

These are very new to us, and we basically don't have enough data yet to draw any conclusions:

 

   Bidh El Hammam

   Cordovil

   Dolce Del Marocco

   Giaraffa

   Grossane

   Hamid

   Karydolia

   Nab Tamri

   Prunara

   Rubra

   Syrogylolia

   Touffahi

   Vassilika

 

And, the sad list: those which we do not think are particularly suitable for our climate:

 

   Arbosana

   Koroneiki

   Uc 49-14

   Uc 52.24.1

 

The ratings will undoubtedly change as time goes by, and we are still collecting new cultivars; but until next fall, this is how we see it!

400 Nocellara del Belice in AB46 pots are expected to be available June 1st.

 

#2 Round Pots; most recently repotted, so most are not particularly a good buy:

#5 Round Pots:

The fall rains have started...

 

and the 2011 tour season and tree sales are over for us.  The tours all went excellent, and everybody really appreciated them, but there were several unintended consequences.  After every one saw how well even small trees planted from AB46 pots can grow, and how #2 trees have really good survivability, we didn't sell any #5 trees.

 

Two Leccino, one planted in spring 2010 out of an AB46 pot, the other planted spring 2011 out of a #5 pot.  Which do you think is which (09/19/11):

(The one on the left was planted out of an AB46 pot)

 

And the other thing I noticed: we didn't sell a single Arbequina tree.  After seeing the size of, say, Amfissa, Picholene, Nocellara del Belice, Santa Caterina, Ascolano, Sevillano and other olives, I guess nobody wanted Arbequina.

 

Three Nocellara del Belice, and one Arbequina olive (the small one, but it is -not- a shotberry!) 09/19/11

And that brings up something interesting I learned.  People who have only Arbequina are experiencing severe shotberry problems, to the extent that they have essentially only shotberries.  I guess I will be rethinking and re-writing what I have to say on pollination!

 

Speaking of Nocellara del Belice, here is a blog post from last year's harvest in Sicily:

 

                                                    Curing Nocellara olives

 

Doesn't it just make you want to go out and start picking olives and curing them?!

Aglandau

10

Amfissa

30

Arbequina

64

Ascolano

10

Barnea (K18)

10

Bosana

40

Bouteillan

40

Cailletier

10

Cayon

10

Chemlali

10

Coratina

40

Empeltre

20

Frantoio

230

Grignan

40

Grossane

10

Itrana

40

Kalamata

79

Leccino

340

Lucca

20

Pendolino

210

Picholene

60

Picual

40

Taggiasca

20

Tanche

10

Amfissa

45

Arbequina

64

Ascolana

18

Bouteillan

34

Frantoio

70

Itrana

18

Kalamata

33

Leccino

173

Moraiolo

38

Nocellara del Belice

20

Picual

36

Kalamata

5