At Frantoio Grove, we work to always improve our practices to improve the quality of oil we produce. We've been working on some changes and are excited to talk about some of the methods we've been working on and hope to expand on in the future.

Over the last 6 years, we've had 3 years without enough fruit to pick. We had some issues with the timing of our pruning and nutrition management, but we have still struggled to produce a consistent crop. In the face of climate change, our trees are struggling to handle the unpredictable weather, and by increasing the quantity and diversity of soil life, we hope to see increased vigor and resilience in our orchard.

Harvest is just getting going this year, and it sure has been a heck of a month getting up and running. Our major equipment upgrade - a new decanter that would allow us to nearly double our daily production - had multiple issues upon startup, requiring a last minute scramble to get our old decanter re-installed.

As soon as we were ready to harvest, the atmospheric river came and rained us out of our field for another week. these delays, however, seem to have been a blessing in disguise!

Our fruit - the Frantoio variety - is characteristically bright and spicy with strong flavors of green fruit and fresh cut grass. Having delayed our harvest a bit, we have been rewarded with an oil that remains robust and spicy, but is tremendously balanced, layered with both green and ripe fruit flavors.

As our pickers move through the field, we're seeing variations in ripeness (which is typical) and our oil is delighting us with notes of artichoke, green banana, and pink pepper on the green side, and persimmon, almond, and banana on the riper side.

Check back for chemical analysis.