We entered four competitions this year with two different oils from Harvest 2024, Rancho Milagro Frantoio, and Rancho Milagro Field Blend. We won for each oil in each competition - that's a first for us!

You may be familiar with our estate-grown extra virgin olive oil. 

Everything was "Field Blend"

In our earliest days we had only half of the trees we have now. In 2016, three years after the original orchards were planted, we got our first harvest. We called everything Field Blend. It was an opportunistic blend:  Whatever order the contract labor crew picks is what goes into the big half-ton bins.

Whatever order the bins arrive at the mill is the mix we get. The first big blue drum of oil might be only one variety, another barrel might include two or three varieties of the four we grow. The taste varied from drum to drum, and it was all good. 

A few years later, our volume of oil had increased, both from more newer trees maturing to be able to give fruit, and more fruit from the original orchards. One judge wrote their critique of the bottle I sent in for a competition:

This doesn't taste like it is a blend. I think it's a single cultivar.

That was my wake up call. We need to separate out these oils in several ways.

For Harvest 2023, we worked with the miller to track the eastern side olives (all Frantoio variety) as separate from the original orchards on the west side (four different varieties). And that helped us and the judges agree on what a tasty product we grow and blend here. Our Field Blend won a gold in one competition and a Bronze from the California State Fair. 

An intentional blend wins, as does the single cultivar

This most recent harvest in late November 2024, we again separated the Frantoio from the rest of the mix. And this time, rather than stick with the opportunistic blend, we engaged a professional taster to help us create an intentional blend that would include all four varieties, and wow the judges. Harvest 2024 Field Blend is the result of that intentional process, with two golds and two silvers. Harvest 2024 Frantoio shines on its own with a double gold, gold, silver and bronze. We're standing out from the 100+ oils that were submitted to each competition. 

Here are our results: