McDonough Family Olive Oil

Leek mushroom soup and our olive oil. "Lockdown Poetry" according to Denise Duffy!

Here is a video of the crew using the machine that separates the olives from the leaves.

This morning we picked and pressed our olive oil! I have posted pictures in the past of the pressing process but many people have asked about the picking process. First the crew uses these shaking rakes with battery packs on their backs (Kevin knows the official names and terminology!) and the olives fall down on the nets under the trees. They then put the olives through some kind of contraption that separates them from the leaves. Next they load them up and we all caravan d...own to the pressing mill. Kevin does not let the olives out of this sight during the entire process. It was a very fun day for us. Sadly though, we got hardly any olive oil. No one did. Remember that crazy thunderstorm we had a while back? It knocked most of the little flowers that turn into olives (again, see Kevin for the correct terminology) off the trees. Don’t expect to see a lot of California olive oil this season but we’re hoping for a bumper crop next year. See more

Here are a couple of photos of our trees looking so skinny and perky after being picked this morning. And some very fresh olives!