In California, many olive farmers are scratching their heads after a series of unusual weather events has left this year’s olive harvest 25 percent lower than last year.
We are speculating a very warm period in February woke the trees up and a freeze in March shut them down.
“I have zero olives and will not harvest anything,” Jeff Martin, an olive farmer and award-winning producer based in Santa Clara County, told Olive Oil Times.
At his farm, roughly 35 miles south of San Jose, an unseasonably warm period at the end of winter caused the olive trees to bloom. These blooms were then damaged by an early spring frost, which rendered the trees barren for the rest of the harvest season.
“We are speculating a very warm period in February 2018 woke the trees up and a freeze in March shut them down,” he said. “In farming, you just have to live through the down years.”
Martin’s case is not an isolated incident. Many counties across California, but especially in the north and center of the state, were affected by these temperature fluctuations. Even some growers as far south as Ventura County reported frost damage.
“We won’t harvest for a couple of months still, but it is easy to tell that [our yield] will be much less, probably a 50 percent reduction,” Phil Asquith, the owner of Ojai Olive Oil, told Olive Oil Times. On top of the temperature fluctuations, Asquith said the hot summer took its toll on his trees as well.
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