Picture from Dos Aguilas.com
APTOS — Roger Wolfe harvests leccino olives with one hand and props a 1-pound tub against his chest with his other. Amid green, red and black olives sits Jackie Russell, Wolfe's 7-year-old Jack Russell terrier.
“It helps to have a bit of a pot belly,” Wolfe says with a laugh as he hoists the container. “She's in charge of rodent control.”
It's an early December morning in Aptos, but the sun's already beating down. Wolfe's been up for hours tending to his 5-acre olive grove. He's welcoming visitors to harvest olives until late January — later than initially announced due to a frostier season — when he'll start preparing to mill the small fruit for his award-winning Dos Aguilas Extra Virgin Olive Oil.
Despite garnering accolades (including a gold medal for his Tuscan Blend at the 2011 Los Angeles Olive Oil Competition) Wolfe remains tenaciously tied to the land; his life can drastically fluctuate with each crop's yield. Two years ago, his grove produced 90 gallons of olives; last year, 15 gallons. This year, he optimistically predicts 115.
“I'm living my dream, except when the frost comes,” Wolfe said. “Then I go, ‘Oh my God, what am I doing?' ”
The Pleasant Valley grove — just before Aptos becomes Corralitos — sits tucked between vineyards, apple orchards, horse ranches and a wreath farm. The wooded area is frequently cloaked in morning fog, which burns off to reveal wonderfully mild weather, perfect for cultivating the region's abundant produce. These ideal weather conditions have yielded other olive orchards in the area: Valencia Creek Farms in Aptos and Belle Farms in Watsonville.
“It's a little Mediterranean microclimate, so the olives love it here,” Wolfe said.
Apple orchards abound in the area,but Wolfe proved to be no Johnny Appleseed when he settled on the mainly sand-based property in 1975. He has essentially run the show on the land since then for a family that wishes to remain anonymous.
“The apple competition with Washing-ton is intense,” says Wolfe. “We were looking for an alternative.”
After some research, Wolfe decided to grow olives. California — particularly the Central Coast —boasts a remarkably similar climate to Italy,where grapes and olives thrive.The olive instantly charmed him with its strong historical and cultural ties to Italy. All four of his varietals are Tuscan: leccino, frantoio, maurino and pendolino.
“What they do in Italy typically is have a party and pick them,” Wolfe said.
Wolfe wants to recreate that same atmosphere on his own grove, particularly this Saturday when people come to harvest their own olives. He opened the grove to the public last weekend, when about 45 people attended.
“It turned out to be a great family thing to do; it was really rewarding for me to watch,” says Wolfe.
HARVEST MOON
Harvesting olives for oil is an age-old, delicate science. For oil, Wolfe generally picks the olives off of his approximately 6-foot-tall trees when the fruit turns red. If the olives turn black, they become fattier, adding more acid to the oil.
For an oil to qualify as extra virgin, it needs to have nomore than 0.8 grams of fatty acid per 100 grams. Last year, Wolfe's oil tested to have 0.6 grams per 100 grams.So what does that mean for flavor? Experts typically look for balanced levels of sweetness, bitterness and spiciness.
The oils can greatly vary in color, sporting anywhere from a light yellow to deep green hue.
After harvesting the olives, Wolfe drives them to an olive mill. This year, he plans to process them on a $250,000 machine on wheels in Paso Robles.
While Wolfe doesn't have the equipment necessary to mill his olives (the machinery is too expensive), he remains deeply involved in the process.
Wolfe has long been interested in farming, agriculture and the environment.He grew up in Carmel Valley and moved to Santa Cruz in 1975 to attend school. He studied environmental education but never finished, opting instead to pursue his passion outside of the classroom. And passion comes before money for him. “We're not making any money with this,” Wolfe says with a laugh. Still, he'd like to start making his way into more venues, particularly upscale restaurants (375-milliliter bottles of olive oil will be available for sale for $18 on Dos Aguilas' website and at Sunnyside Produce in Soquel starting in January).
“I'd like to get into some more restaurants,” Wolfe says.
NATURAL BEAUTY
After years of growing, pressing and consuming the purest extra virgin olive oil,Wolfe simply can't eat the generic, tincan stuff.
“I remember (someone) once said about Bertolli Olive Oil, ‘This is good for nothing but lubrication,' ” Wolfe says.
Wolfe generally sticks to eating his own product at the dinner table. He recently made cheese by straining yogurt with a cheesecloth and letting it sit in olive oil.
“It was so good, like a spreadable cheese,” Wolfe says.
Other recipes? Every New Year's, he serves black-eyed peas with olio nuovo (fresh olive oil) splashed on top, and he also cures olives in brine, simply scooping them out of a jar.
Despite a perpetually full schedule — “I practically tend to the trees myself,” he says — Wolfe aims add 50 trees per year. The land's his home, and he doesn't plan to stop harvesting olives anytime soon.
He also has a discrete team of helpers including Jackie Russell.
Wolfe named the business Dos Aguilas after a pair of golden eagles that nested on the property when he first started growing olives. While the eagles no longer frequent the land, a white birdhouse that houses owls stands guard over the acres — a sentinel that observes the planting, harvesting,frost,loss and ultimate bounty of the olive orchard.
“The owls do a good job of keeping the gophers at bay,” Wolfe says.
OLIVE HARVESTING
WHAT: Olives are available for picking or purchasing at Dos Aguilas Olive Oil through January. A pound, which fits into a one-quart jar, can be harvested in about a minute. Olives cost $3.50 per pound when you pick, or $5.50 for already harvested olives.[Source: Santa Cruz Sentinel]
WHEN: By appointment through January, though a special picking will held 9 a.m. to noon Saturday.
WHERE: Dos Aguilas Olive Oil, 1855 Pleasant Valley Road, Aptos
DETAILS: www.dosaguilasoil.com, 831-252-0752
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