Aptos company is letting locals pick their own olives in October
Surely you have at least one friend who insists you use only extra virgin olive oil—or perhaps you are that friend? Well, guess what, you’re onto something, both for taste and health reasons. Dos Aguilas is an Aptos company that grows five varieties of Tuscan olives, and processes and packages the oil, which is available in grocery stores. Also, during the month of October, they let folks come in and pick their own olives right out of the orchard, and even teach classes on proper curing methods. We spoke with Roger Wolfe, or the “Olive Dude” as he refers to himself, the operator and grower at Dos Aguilas.
How did the U-Pick option start?
I became aware that local people had been harvesting their own olives off of trees, like in front of banks and things like that. They could no longer do it because the olive fruit fly became ubiquitous in the state of California. Prior to 1999, when we planted the trees, there were no olive fruit flies in California. Now, they’re everywhere. Why not have people pick some of the olives that we use for oil?
What are people doing with these olives?
Most of what we grow is Leccino, the favorite table olive in Tuscany. There’s a different curing method for every level of ripeness. They all start out green, then they go to red and then black. They take anywhere from five days to a year. Some of these olives aren’t available anywhere. These fresh-cracked green Mediterranean olives, they’re really popular in France, but nobody produces them here. They’re a great snack item.
What does your olive oil taste like?
Some [olive oils] are known for being real buttery. Some are known for being peppery. I go for what we call a medium taste. The way you can determine how peppery it is, is when you harvest it. If you harvest your olives when they’re real green, you get the burn in the back of the throat. I wait a little longer, so that burn in the back of the throat, which some people refer to as the Tuscan tickle, isn’t so severe, because Americans really don’t like that.
What’s your favorite use for olive oil besides cooking?
If I don’t get enough olive oil in my food, I’m drinking it right out of the bottle, three or four tablespoons a day, which is what they recommend. I even put it on my granola when I wasn’t paleo. The oil, when we start harvesting it, we start selling it right away. That’s known as olio nuovo. The rest of the oil we let sit for three months before we bottle it. But the olio nuovo is bright green. It’s like olive juice. It’s something Americans aren’t used to having. You have to be close to the mill to have it. That’s definitely my favorite of the olive oils.
1855 Pleasant Valley, Aptos, 252-0752, dosaguilasoliveoil.com.
A GREAT MONTH FOR MARTINIS Roger Wolfe, aka “the Olive Dude” of Dos Aguilas in Aptos is opening their estate through October to let locals pick olives. PHOTO: CHIP SCHEUER
