Olive Farming

Matt Lohse, with the assistance of his father Gus, manages the olive farming operations

Carriere Family Farms planted their first oil olives in June 2004 and have now planted 450,000 trees on 815 acres. The Carrieres selected fertile land in the Artois and Willows area which they felt had the optimum climate, soil, and water to produce high quality olive oil. This selected soil type and region of the Sacramento Valley has a proven history of table olive production and the necessary warm summer days for a successful olive orchard.

Matt Lohse is in charge of the olive farming operations with the assistance of his father Gus Lohse who manages the day to day farming operations. Matt is a fifth generation family member.

The olive farm employs six full time people throughout the year and adds six to eight additional seasonal employees from the spring pruning through harvest in the fall.

The Olive Glenn Orchards house located at our main headquarters

The Carrieres elected to plant the orchard in an innovative Super High Density configuration to take advantage of newly developed farming and cultural practices which promote the production of very high quality extra-virgin olive oil. The Spanish and Greek varietals selected were Arbequina, Arbosana, and Koroneiki. These varietals encompass the taste and aroma characteristics Carrieres believed necessary and these varietals are well suited to the super high density planting. The olive trees are planted six feet apart and at thirteen feet between the rows. The trees are tied to a bamboo stake and supported by a trellis wire. This spacing and configuration allows the trees to be trained to a hedgerow which looks similar to a vineyard.

The super high density planting configuration allows for many beneficial cultural practices not possible in typical conventional olive farming.

125 acres of new trees planted at Olive Glenn West

The olive trees can be mechanically harvested with an over the row grape harvester, drastically reducing the dependence on the scheduling of large crews of hand labor. The mechanized harvest allows for optimum control of the timing of the harvest and minimizes the harvest to processing time interval, so as the fruit retains the highest possible freshness and quality for premium extra-virgin olive oil. The Carrieres mechanically harvested 545 acres in 2009 and produced approximately 88,000 gallons of extra-virgin olive oil. Our expectations are to produce an average of 175,000 gallons of olive oil annually once the entire orchard reaches full production in 2014.

Straddling the row, this machine mechanically harvests the olives

The water and nutrient needs of the tree are provided through an efficient drip irrigation system. The timing and rates can be precisely controlled and monitored for optimum production and olive oil quality. Generally, applications of nutrients are applied only as needed through June to promote the size and quality of the fruit crop and to produce new growth for the following year's crop. Irrigation water is adequately applied through about the end July, then the trees are deficit irrigated to varying degrees as the crop matures for harvest to promote higher quality oil and less water in the fruit aid in taste and the milling extraction process.

The trees are pruned to optimize the hedgerow configuration. They are mechanically topped with a rotary saw and side lateral growth is selectively pruned by hand in the early years to gain the proper tree structure.