The promise of a fall harvest has been fulfilled. June drop has come and gone and we did not see the tree release much fruit. That not to say it did not drop some fruit but thanks in part to the pruning changes we made this year it was kept to a minimum. Fresh Olive Harvest is right around the corner and while we do not have a super heavy crop, what we do have is an adequate supply of very good quality fruit.

National Agricultural Statistics Service estimates this year’s olive crop to increase 153% over 2011. After spending the morning out in the field shooting some 200 plus pictures those numbers look like they will be pretty close to actual. Last year at this time, I could walk down a row of trees and only find 1 in 20 that actually had fruit on it. It was not much fruit, only a branch or two. But enough about last year…

While most people do not like the hot weather, we love it and you should too. The week or so of 105 plus temperatures kills the olive fruit fly; the heat creates a hostile habitat for these pests. This helps to increase the quantity of fresh olives.

The Penna’s estimates the price per box to decrease $1.00 over last year. Be sure to keep watching our website, we should have Fresh Olives within the first two weeks of September.

- Add flour to the beef and mix well.
- Fry the beef in sunflower oil until brown. Remove from heat and keep aside.
- In a different pan, add olive oil and fry the onion, when translucent add the beef, stir for 2 minutes, and then add one cup boiling water.
- When the water evaporates, add the spices, tomato paste, garlic, and salt.
- Stir for two minutes, add 2 cups boiling water.
- When it comes to a boil, add the bell pepper, olives, and rice.
- Let it come to a boil again. Reduce heat to the lowest, cover the rice and let it cook for 20 minutes or until done.

this doesn’t happen). Our olive quality this year is excellent due in part to the pruning practice we employed this year. High quality was also due to our cultural techniques we employ year in and year out.

We anticipate lower prices on fresh olives over last years prices due to the quality we are seeing at this point. Prices will be finalized when the sales go live on our eCommerce site, here is a link https://www.greatolives.com/buy-gourmet-olives/index.php?route=product/category&path=38 you can check weekly, once we start picking we will enable sales.

When Mother Nature throws you a curve ball you need to be able to hit a home run! Normally The Penna’s would have the guys prune the trees starting in March and ending in April. Due to the “Curve Ball” weather conditions we were thrown with the 2011 crop, The Penna’s held off and proceeded with a June/July Pruning. Notice in this image how you can barely see between the rows and can hardly see the sky?

Holding off on pruning allowed The Penna’s to evaluate not only the size of the crop but allowed him to increase the chances of larger fruit. This allows a few things to happen; including air flow between the trees, reduction of Black Scale and a reduction of Fruit Fly. This will also allow the fruit in the center of the orchard to come to size. Look at how much air and sun can come through now.

Not to get your hopes up or anything but look at the fruit that has started to growing. The Penna’s predicts that we will have minimal amount of drop during what is typically refered to as “June Drop.” “June Drop” is when the trees rid themselves of the fruit that it cannot support. The Penna’s believes that the trees will only drop off the smaller fruit.

Four days ago the olive buds we showed you a couple weeks ago started to open. The bloom will last for another 7-10 days. The petals have already started to fall and infertile flowers will fall off through out the blooming process. At the bottom of the page is a slide show of some extreme closeup shots of the blossoms. we included an image from Wikipedia to allow you to identify the different part of the flower.

Starting in early June we will have what is referred to as “June Drop.” “June Drop” is when the tree decides how much fruit it is going to produce and drop fertile fruit to the ground because it cannot carry all the fruit that has set. The image to the right shows a variety of bloom stages. at the top you can see a blossom that opened this morning at is showing its anthers. Just slightly below you can see two that have already bloomed and  dropped their petals.  The entire right side of the blossoms were pollinated (yellow specs) and they will start to dry up and drop their petals in the next few days.

As we explained in the previous post bees and other insects play a small role in the pollination process. The little Carpenter ant is doing his part to spread pollen from one blossom to the next while it is scavenging for food. He was just hanging out, I didn’t spot him until I was moving the camera around trying to find the blossoms on my screen.

The Cross Section Of A Blossom – Courtesy of Wikipedia

Do you love the jalapeno flavor but not the heat?  The sweet and tangy brine knocks the edge off the heat a bit. These thick sliced Jalapenos are swimming in the spicy aromatic sweet brine When you pop one in your mouth, you get a flavor that stimulates your taste buds creating a mouthwatering sensation, the heat comes on slowly; it is a precise Sweet Heat. If you like spicy, be careful these are very addictive. Add them to potato salad, put them on your burger or hot dog, make a relish or even add to pasta, the ideas for these are endless.

Ingredients: sugar, distilled vinegar, cider vinegar, turmeric, celery seed and garlic

There will be one 1st Place winner that will receive a case of these Sweet and Hot Jalepenos.  Another 5 runners up will receive 1 jar of these Jalepenos that we’re trying to name.  The winner will be chosen by Great Olive.  In the event that there is a duplicate name the first person who commented with it will be given credit for that name.  The contest will end on 5/30/12 at 9:00 pm PST.

Submissions:

• Hoppin’ JalaPenna – Lynn W.
• Penna’s Peter Piper Pickled Peppers - Laurie L.
• Red Hot ‘n Green - Margot C.
• Prairie Fire Pickles - Cissy C.
• Prairie Fire Diablos - Cissy C.
• Prairie Fire Poppers - Cissy C.
• Prairie Fire Rings - Cissy C.
• Sweet & Spice…It tastes Nice! - Christy A.
• Sweet’n HOllapeno - Maria T.
• Sweet Heat! - Nicole C-C.
• Fire Water Pickles - Carrie W.
• YIPPEE YI YO’S! - Kathye M.
• Armadillo Treats - Greg W.
• Sweet Devils – Carrie R.
• Penna Pickles – Carrie R.
• Some like it hot! - Audrey K.
• Some like it hot! And sweet!  - Audrey K.
• Hot Sweety - Darlene O.
• Summer Heat - Del F.
• Sweet Lil’ Devils - Amber G.
• Sugar n’ Spice - Tim L.
• Sweet Tang Peppers - David L.
• Hot To Trot – Debbie S.
• Sweeties Jalapeno Slices - Derrick G.
• Sweet and Hot Jalapenos - Agnes C.
• Jolives - Kendra B.
• Heaven’s Jalapeno’s – Tracy O.

Setting up your tent a Farmer’s Market can be a daunting task especially if it is your first time. Each Market has their own setup and display rules or regulations. If done properly your visit can be rewarding both financially and socially.

Maurice and Cindy Penna have decided that their days of setting up a tent are over. So they decided to build a sales trailer for the farmers market. They are hoping to have it completed by the end of the month.

Complete with whisper quiet generator, air ride and many of the modern comforts of home. But more importantly stocked with all the Great Gourmet Product you love from GreatOlives.com. We will have Stuffed Olives, Meyer Lemons, Olive Spreads, Spicy Beans, Parmesan Asiago Cheese and much more on board.

The Penna Sales Trailer will accept Visa, Master Card, Discover Card, American Express and of course we gladly accept cash. Keep an eye out for us at the Chico Farmer’s Market.

How is it that our government did not realize we have a revenue stream from California Olives when according to the Western Farm Press, California boosts the economy by almost $500 Million ($500,000,000.00) and here are the facts:

• 3,555 jobs are created by ripe olive growers as a result of their business activities and spending in a variety of farming and non-farming sectors.
• Nearly $14.7 million in tax revenue and other business licenses and fees are generated from the economic activity created by ripe olive growers.
• California’s ripe olive growers have a significant impact on the state’s economy, yielding nearly $493.6 million in annual economic activity – or nearly $1.4 million dollars each day of the year.

They added that data came from sources such as the Census of Agriculture; U.S. Department of Agriculture; California Department of Food and Agriculture’s California Agricultural Production Statistics 2010-2011; and, University of California Cooperative Extension’s Sample Costs to Establish and Produce Table Olives. http://westernfarmpress.com/orchard-crops/ripe-olives-boost-california-economy-almost-500-million-yearly

Patrick Fine, who oversees such agreements as Millennium’s vice president of compact operations, said he does not believe that the investment in Morocco will harm California producers.  Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/09/17/MNTA1KSF5N.DTL&ao=all#ixzz1uDLYkPI0 It sure wont help it now will it. If these poor rural communities have a crop they need a place to sell it, right? They will either sell it locally or export it. Either way it is bound to affect our local olive farmers and not in a positive way.

“I sympathize with the point of view of the California olive growers,” Fine said, adding that Millennium did research to determine whether the compact with Morocco would adversely affect growers here and found that California table olives were meeting only 50 percent of U.S. demand, and local olive oil only 2 percent. “We never want (Millennium’s) investments to compete with America.” Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/09/17/MNTA1KSF5N.DTL&ao=all#ixzz1uDMa8evw

So if California was only meeting 50% of the demand, why did we invest in a foreign country? Wouldn’t it have been better spent in California were we have strict rules, regulations and laws governing the production and processing? These same rules, regulations and laws to not apply to fruit and vegetables that are imported.

Maybe it is time we start trending back to buying US products, Local Products putting the wind back in the sails of our economy.

Cindy has an amazing green thumb, though she will tell you that she has nothing compared to her mom and sisters. Cindy like Maurice is very modest about her talents, and the proof is in the pictures of her flowers. She has an eye for design, not just in the flower garden but interior design as well. When I need landscaping design help, Cindy is always the one I go to. I pick her brains all the time trying to improve my property. For more images of Cindy’s Flowers, we have added a slideshow at the bottom for you to enjoy.

While Spring has arrived and the flowers are blooming, the olives trees are starting to push up buds. These buds in a few weeks time will turn to flowers. When we hit full bloom this year we will keep our fingers cross while knocking on wood, praying that the weather stays nice and see us all the way through. As many of you know, last year we got a surprise rain a cold weather that killed the tree pollination.

Two Flowers will develop on an olive tree, staminate  (the male) which has an aborted or degenerate pistil. The perfect flower (the Female) which is easily identified by its prominent pistil and stamen . Only Perfect Flowers  can produce fruit. There are literally hundreds of flowers per twig. Bees play a small role in the pollination process, cross pollination increases production. Keep checking back as we plan to take pictures of the trees this year from the start of bloom all the way through harvest. It should be interesting to see the different stages of growth.

If there is an image you would like to see a little long just roll you mouse pointer over the picture and it will pause for you. Then when you are ready to move on, move the mouse pointer off the picture.

[camera slideshow="cindys-flowers"]