Chaffin Family Orchards
Extra Virgin Mission Olive Oil
MID-SEASON HARVEST

Our Mid-Season Harvest Extra Virgin Olive Oil is still made from Mission olives but harvested earlier in the season before the fruit is over ripe. In addition some of the fruit for this varietal comes from trees are not irrigated and they only set a crop every 3-5 years. They produce exceptional oil though and usually have very high polyphenol levels. This oil has an incredibly rich aroma with smooth early notes followed by a nice spicy finish.

Slow Food has listed Mission olives on their "Ark of Taste" as an endangered variety in need of preserving. Mission olives when late harvested are known for their very mild buttery flavor with subtle floral undertones. The olives come from our 100 year old trees originally planted by a group of UC Berkeley professors. Their farm manager was Del Chaffin who eventually bought the land from the professors and started this farm. These are some of the oldest trees in production in the U.S. We also leave our oil unfiltered so its full nutrient profile is left intact. All of our olive oils are always cold pressed. And of course like everything our farm produces our olives for oil are grown with non-toxic practices.

At Chaffin Orchards we're known for our innovative out-of-the-box approach to farming and food production. Over the last decade we've drastically cut our fuel and other inputs by integrating livestock into our orchards. The livestock provide desired impacts and produce more crops per acre. The sheep and cows can be used for mowing the orchard floor; the goats actually prune away suckers and lower branches as well as eat invasive weeds like poison oak, wild grape, Himalayan blackberry, and star thistle; then the chickens come in and eat bugs and also deposit their nitrogen rich manure under the trees. Farming this way produces more crops per acre as the wool, meat, and eggs from the animals can all be marketed as well. Here's a video demonstrating how we accomplish all this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YA4QysDaLxU.

Everyone asks about storing the olive oil. Since olives are a crop that only comes once a year any olive oil worth it's weight should last up to 18 months if stored properly. Heat, light, and air are olive oils biggest enemy. For most people storing in the pantry is sufficient. However, the safest thing to do if you really want to be sure that your oil won't go bad is to transfer it into smaller glass containers. Mason jars or well cleaned out wine bottles work well and then you can transfer them in the fridge. Keep one in the pantry though because the ones in the fridge will solidify after a few days and it takes a long time to thaw them out and get back to a liquid state. No one has ever told us that our oil has gone bad and certainly not in less than a year. A lot of the ability for the oil to keep has to do with how well the olives were treated as fruit and how quickly they were made into oil. The longer the olives sit off the tree the faster all those anti-oxidants dissipate. We make ours into oil within hours of harvesting the olives. Lots of families of all sizes order between 6 and 12 gallons each year. So take advantage and order a year’s worth to be shipped all at once.

The oil comes to you via USPS Flat Rate Box so be sure to include a shipping address that the U.S. Postal Service delivers to. We also have a tin gallon available but it only fits in the single gallon shipper. Follow the link and select it from the drop down menu at purchase. You can also order a Case of Bottles in glass.

$135
Shipping Included

If you are local to our area and can pick up at the farm or one of our farmers markets then please DO NOT order here but contact me at Chris_Kerston@ChaffinFamilyOrchards.com and we will put your order together for you.