The Santa Rosa Press Democrat ran a story today marking harvest time for North Coast artisan olive oil producers. Though the area's high-end olive oil producers are "making money," reporter Robert Digitale wrote that the high labor cost associated with harvest makes olive oil production a "labor of love."
With information from UC Cooperative Extension farm advisor Paul Vossen, the article compared the small-scale, specialty olive oil production of the North Coast with large-scale olive operations in California's Central Valley.
The growth of the industry in the valley is due to “super-high-density” orchards and mechanical harvesters that greatly reduce labor costs. Valley growers plant 650 to 900 trees per acre, compared to no more than 300 per acre at the North Coast. Artisan olive oil producers on the North Coast mostly “are doing it for the love of it," Vossen was quoted.
Digitale spoke to Colleen McGlynn, whose husband Ridgely Evers founded the online small-business management program NetBooks, about their olive farm's bottom line. In olive oil, she told the reporter, you have to take the long view.
“You plant grapes for your kids and olives for your grandkids," she was quoted.