November 09, 2003
Beautiful weather graced the 6th annual Arts and Olive Festival at Cañada College in Redwood City, south of San Francisco. BR Cohn and Olivas de Oro welcomed tasters of their oils and associated products.
Gil of Gil's Gourmet had a busy time keeping samples of his hand stuffed olives served up. At times tasters were three deep at the booth for the blue cheese and garlic stuffed olives. They were also offering a Garlic and Herb olive oil. Bonita Ranch and Aeolia gave tastings of their California olive oils. Tony Pennisi of Big Paw guided olive oil tasters through the largest selection of olive oils at the show including such exotica as a pungent porcini mushroom oil.
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| Festival visitor cools paws at Big Paw Booth |
The Olive Oil Source gave demonstrations of pneumatic olive harvesting rakes and pruners. Demonstrations of the First Press home olive press let many festival attendees see how olive oil was made. Several larger growers came to the show to exchange retailing ideas and to discuss the new Pieralisi olive oil pressing equipment offered by The Olive Oil Source.
Don gave demonstrations of no-lye olive curing and generous hand-outs of his home made olives.
Many visitors left with small olive trees from Olive Grove Nursery. Proprietor Wendell Davis had posters displaying some of the mature tree installations his company had done for homes and businesses. Table olive growers hurting from cheap imports are a great source of large trees for landscaping which would otherwise be bull-dozed.
Several vendors with full condiment product lines were also offering olive oil: Napas Tapas, Hare Hollow, and Spenger's Bistro Blends.