Yearly Archives: 2018

Holiday Special!

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Holiday Special!

With Apollo Olive Oil, you can send gifts by entering your good wishes in the message box during the checkout process and we will send your gift with a nicely printed card in our standard 100% recyclable packaging.

Now, in keeping with our Holiday tradition, when you place an order over $100 just enter the SUPERSAVER coupon code for a 15% discount. That’s a perfect way to stock your pantry AND do your holiday shopping.

Our gift to you: A 15% savings PLUS free shipping on any order over $100 by using the coupon code SUPERSAVER.

Good from Today through New Year’s Eve!

Harvest is Here!

Harvest has begun and it will come to a conclusion at the end of December.  We blend our oils in January, then we bottle in February and the new oil is available in March.

 

 

Harvest is Here

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Harvest is Here

Harvest has begun and it is a busy and exciting time. Many Califonia growers are reporting very low crop levels. Even though olive trees have a tendency to alternate between low and high crop levels year to year, this year is worse than normal. The reason seems to be a warm February followed by a March frost that caused the trees to drop the flowers that turn to fruit. This primarily happened in the valley region. Since we are at a 2000 foot elevation we were not as affected. We are trying hard to not let this act of nature decrease supply or raise prices. We care for our own trees and also buy olives from local farmers and some of them seem to have scraped by. We will not know until harvest is done in December but we are very hopeful.

Book Excerpt

“The Predimed (Prevencion con Dieta Mediterranea) Study, Based in Spain, has changed the way we look at health benefits of extra virgin olive oil in the Mediterranean Diet. … The groups on the Mediterranean Diet supplemented with extra virgin olive oil and with nuts saw a 30 per cent reduction in rates of heart disease.” From the book,The Olive Oil Diet by Dr. Simon Poole and Judy Ridgway

Join Us For This Year’s Harvest Festivals

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18th Annual North Yuba Harvest Festival

Once again we are proud to be a vendor at this year’s harvest festival on Saturday, October 6th, 10am to 5pm. It will be held at the Alcouffe Community Center at 9185 Marysville Rd., Oregon House, CA 95962. This is the biggest food and wine event in the North Yuba foothills.

North Yuba has received international recognition as a premium wine and olive oil region with local producers garnering coveted medals at major state, national and international competitions.

There will be over 40 vendors this year, including food stalls offering everything from haute cuisine to hot dogs, arts & crafts, antiques, Farmers Market, coffee bistro, and live musical entertainment. Ample children’s activities guarantee a day of family fun. All proceeds benefit the Alcouffe Community Center.

North Yuba offers a welcome retreat from urban life, we encourage you to check out the lovely AirBnB’s to make this a restful country weekend as well.

Mission San Jose  Olive Oil Festival

Saturday & Sunday, October 6 & 7, 2018, 10 am – 5 pm
Join Gianni and Diana Stefanini, owners and millers of Apollo Olive Oil, in the Dominican Sisters of MSJ Olive Grove, behind the Historic Old Mission San Jose!

Many olive oil vendors, live music, arts and crafts, great food, and activities for the kids. This is the premier event in the Mission San Jose district!

Apollo Olive Oils Are Now Triple Certified

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Apollo Olive Oils are now triple certified!

Besides our two long-held certifications – from CCOF, that our orchards, mill, and oils are all managed organically, and from COOC, that our olive oils are really Extra Virgin, by both analysis and taste – Apollo Olive Oil easily passed the nutrient analyses and met all the newly published R.A.W. Standards as well.

You can rest assured that Apollo Olive Oil is organic, extra virgin AND:

“Real” – That is, safe from many angles – non-GMO, organic, our production standards and practices, the oil analysis, and with the harvest and milling date on the label (so you can always know the oil’s ‘best by date’ – two years from production for all olive oils).

“Alive” – That is, with a high amount of bio-available enzymes in the currently available oils.

“Whole” – That is, minimally processed (never cooked, never warmer than 80° F), organic and with a high nutrient-per-calorie density (how “rich” it is in various vitamins, minerals and phytonutrients).

Hand Harvesting Produces Higher Quality

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New Study Reveals the Benefits of Hand Harvesting

A new research study from Namık Kemal University in Turkey concluded that hand harvesting results in higher quality olive oil. We have known this since we started but it is nice to get scientific confirmation. They studied six different harvesting methods including the popular pole beating method. The pole beating method is often called hand harvesting but it really is not. This method is very common in our area. It is where you spread mats on the ground and beat the trees with a pole and the olives fall to the mats and then the olives are collected. The only true hand harvesting method is when you pick the olives off the trees by hand and place them in a belly bucket. This is more laborious, and the pickers charge a lot more for this kind of picking but we feel very strongly this is the only way to go.

The researchers concluded that the mechanized methods of picking including the pole beating method bruise the olives and prematurely begin the process of oxidation. This also agrees with all our experimentation. Oddly, the researchers feel that this explanation may be an over simplification and more research is needed. However, the conclusion for us is self-evident, more care in every step of the process produces the highest quality. Read more about the study at the Olive Oil TImes.

And the Gold medals keep coming!

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And the Gold medals keep coming!

After the Los Angeles International Olive Oil Competition results we reported last month (where the Mistral was judged Best of Class), both the Mistral and Sierra won Gold medals at the California State Fair Olive Oil Competition. Now, we’re eagerly awaiting the results of the New York International Olive Oil Competition, which will come out very soon.

As you may realize, our Gold Series mono-varietal oils are really ‘limited release’ specialties – there’s not enough to send to the competitions.  You can know though, that we select them as the best-of-the-best we produce. To learn more about these oils and to purchase, visit www.apollooliveoil.com.

Now Available – The new Salúte

With the bottling of the new oil, we upgraded the packaging to our elegant new bottle.  The opaque label excludes light (preventing rapid photo-oxidation), thereby allowing you to keep the bottle handy on your kitchen counter.  This 375 ml size is available for $14.95.

The new oil is also available now in the 1.32 gallon Salúte box.

Upcoming North Sierra Wine Trail

This spring’s annual event will be the weekend of April 28th-29th, from 12 to 5 pm.  Experience 12 boutique wineries nestled in our little stretch of the Sierra foothills between Oroville and Dobbins. Taste small batch artisan wine making at its best. Meet the real owners and wine makers for answers to all your questions. Visit www.northsierrawinetrail.com for more information, tickets, and trail maps.

We’ll be there too, with our three local Oregon House wineries, sampling our new oils and sharing our story at the Frenchtown Inn.

Tip: You can make a restful mini-vacation for yourselves out of the event by checking out the lovely AirBnBs on the Oregon House/Dobbins end of the trail.

Our New Oils Are Now Available

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We are very pleased with how harmonious all our oils turned out this year. We were able to achieve high antioxidant levels while still maintaining a nice balance between pungency and fruitiness.

Our Mistral has a nice, light intensity, making it deliciously French in style. The Sierra has its usual lively intensity coming from the California mission variety. The Mistral won a Gold medal and Best of Class in the LA International Olive Oil Competition this year. The Sierra won a Silver medal.

Our Gold Series offerings are the same as last year: A Tunisian variety, Barouni, two French varieties, Aglandau and Grossane; and an Italian variety, Coratina. All these varieties do very well growing in the Mediterranean style climate of California.

We still have last year’s Sierra on sale at $16.95. It is still tasting very fresh while having mellowed a little bit.

This year’s Economy offering, Salúte, is not yet ready. We expect it to be available in April. However, last year’s is still in stock which can be purchased on our web site.

Master Chef Talks Olive Oil

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Olive Oil Times spoke with Italian master chef, Massimiliano Alajmo, often called ‘the Mozart of the stove’ due to his simple yet unique style of cooking where, of course, extra virgin olive figures very predominantly. Alajmo feels olive oil has a lot of innovative potential because it holds aromas better than butter especially when it is combined with water. Consequently he uses olive oil for a lot of his sauces replacing butter and other dairy products like cream. He is able to achieve a creamy consistency without using dairy which makes his sauces and pastries easier to digest. His three choices if he were on a deserted island: olive oil, bread, and wine. “It’s a combination of freshness, the sacred and strength,” he says.

We have found that it is much easier to make a roux with extra virgin olive oil than with butter. The flour dissolves much more easily without clumping. Also olive oil has a much higher smoking point than butter so it does not burn or bubble when making the roux.

Our 2017 Harvest Is Finished!

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The spring was wetter than usual last year, and our trees responded with an especially good crop. Harvest is over and the mill equipment is already stored away until next year. We’ve tasted all the daily batches of oil, selected the barrels for the Mistral, Sierra, and Gold Series mono-varietals, blended, and sent the oils out for Extra Virgin certification. Now, we are gearing up for bottling so that the new oils will be ready to ship as soon as possible, early in March.

We still have the Mistral, Sierra, and the Coratina from the December 2016 harvest available. They have mellowed just a bit with the same nice spiciness and bitterness from the antioxidants. Since the level of polyphenols is so high to begin with in our oils, they only reduce about 5% a year and continue to protect the oil itself, just like they do for our bodies.

Harvest Video and Pictures

We’re happy to share a few pictures from this year’s harvest, as well as a little video here.