Slow Business: Temecula Olive Oil Company

Story by Emily Hartop

The Temecula Olive Oil Company is a business that takes pride in their product at every stage. Olives on their 110 acre ranch in Aguanga are grown naturally, with manure and compost for fertilizing, and natural weed abatement using the alkaline water left over from oil extraction. Picking is done by hand. Pressing is done by hand. Power for the ranch is solar. The company runs farm equipment on olive oil, and uses all olive oil not extracted during first pressing for other products handcrafted and sold in their stores (one in Temecula, one in San Diego ).

The owners, the Curry and Pepe families, are committed to quality after pressing as well. They pack the oil in tall bottles made from deep-green colored glass. The bottles help reduce the oil's exposure to both light and air, two factors that can harm the oil's quality. Age is another factor that affects quality – and you will never find old olive oil in the company store. Every harvest sells out, and it's not a wonder why. One taste of this local olive oil next to a supermarket brand and you'll never go back.

Olive oil, hand picked and fresh pressed, is aromatic and fruity. It cannot even be compared to the old, poor quality oils sold by the major brands in supermarkets. Many “olive oils” are chemically extracted, have color added, may contain cheaper oils blended in to the olive oil, and will undoubtedly be old and rancid by the time they reach your home.

Uncertain? Think your supermarket olive oil is up to the challenge? Tastings are available at tasting bars in the company's stores. You can taste early and late harvest oils, and the staff is always there to help explain what you're tasting. And if the beauty of the regular pressings doesn't strike you, perhaps one of the many flavored oils will. Try the basil oil, made with fresh basil pressed with the olives; or perhaps the California Pomegranate oil to add a splash of fruitiness to a salad. Once you've picked your olive oil, you can pick up other gourmet food products to accompany it, crafts made with olive oil, or even a small olive tree to give production an attempt yourself.

To learn more about this great company, visit their website at www.temeculaoliveoil.com – or, better yet, purchase tickets for the Olive Harvest event this Sunday! Just $20 buys you an amazing afternoon of food, wine, and olive pressing. We hope to see you there! Click Here To Purchase Tickets