Olives flavor Sonoma’s story

January 03, 2010|Bonnie Tsui, Globe Correspondent

SONOMA, Calif. - The olive tree was first introduced to California by Spanish priests of the Franciscan, Dominican, and Jesuit orders who founded missions in the New World. By the mid-18th century, there were 20 missions dotting Baja California, most with orchards and gardens that featured the Mediterranean trees most familiar to their inhabitants: olives, pears, pomegranates, and figs.

As the padres headed north to establish missions in Alta California - what we know today as the state of California - they continued to plant olive groves. They pressed olives into oil for cooking and lamplight, and for medicinal, machinery, and ceremonial use. The Mission olive varietal is unique to these missions and is now considered a fruit of the Americas, since it is no longer found in Europe.

Every year, on the first Saturday of December, the immigrant story of the California olive is celebrated at the Sonoma town mission by the latter-day pioneers of the olive oil industry in California. The state now produces 99 percent of the olives in the United States, the top four varietals of which are the Mission, Manzanillo, Sevillano, and Ascolano olives. Though it still supplies less than 1 percent of American consumption, California’s olive oil production is booming - it will top a million gallons for the first time this year, surpassing France’s production volume. The olive is considered to be the “second crop’’ to grapes in Sonoma County, which has the most olive growers per capita of any county in the state.

One of these latter-day pioneers is Deborah Rogers, who manages The Olive Press, established with Ed Stolman in 1995 as Sonoma County’s first olive mill. “For me, the kickoff day in December - the blessing of the olives - is my favorite time of the season,’’ she said. “We lay out the olives for the priest, and there’s mariachi music to celebrate the harvest. It’s very local and intimate, and it makes me cry every single year.’’

The blessing of the olives kicks off the Sonoma Valley Olive Festival, a three-month celebration around the olive season of harvesting, pressing, and bottling. Now in its eighth year, the festival includes tastings, community press events, curing workshops, and olive-themed dinners by wine country chefs.