Brian Kenny Sends Us Off Sans Training Wheels

Look! No hands!

Not quite --but it does appear that we are riding this crazy olive oil bike on our own that Brian Kenny mostly built . Brian Kenny has turned in his Farmer Hat (though not those kooky laceless boots, I'm sure) and his Pacific Sun Olive Oil business cards. I have visions of a monumental Brian Kenny Business Card Castle... though I couldn't build one high enough nor shellac it to endure long enough to thank him for all the hard work and love he's put into this product. Anyone who knows of Brian's work for Pacific Sun Olive Oil knows that there is no justice in calling what Brian did sales, nor what he sold a product... and, from what I've heard, he sure made Farming do a double take.

Brian has moved on to a new chapter in his life, though he will still contribute to Pacific Sun Olive Oil on a contracted basis. Since the announcement of his departure, there has been much philosophizing about the nature of beginnings and endings... and I can't say that I've personally found respite in any of the explanations or ideas we've come up with. But I do know that there are times for all of us when we have to say a sorrowful goodbye to keep moving forward with this crazy thing we call time to keep growing. Actually, 'sorrowful goodbye' has been dubbed 'the ledge' in my conversations with Brian: jump and figure out how to fly (figuratively speaking, of course, --let's not have any truly tragic experiments).

Thank you, Brian, for a little piece of your life. Your passion for sustainability, delicious healthy food, quality relationships, and domestic terroir have reached far and touched many. You are missed and remembered... may your legacy continue... may you live well and drop little care packages ("contracts") on us at the farm from your flying adventures.



Contacts for Pacific Sun Olive Oil


Dan Flynn (530)276-4052
Brendon Flynn/The Farm Office (530)385-1475

Back From The Road - 7/11/05

I have been on the road off and on for the past ten days. Sorry for lack of information. Here is a quick summary of what has been happening in the past few weeks:

CROP SUMMARY:

The olives are about three to four weeks behind where they were last year. We have begun trapping for the olive fruit fly at most of the ranches. In general, it looks like we will have a good crop. The Ascolana crop looks much better than the Mission Crop, which had a bad bloom due largely to the fact that the Mission crop stayed on the tree until February.

WEATHER SUMMARY:

We are finally into Summer weather now. We had a prolonged Spring and late percepitation and this has kept the crop behind in terms of its development. Theoretically, this late rain and mild temperatures will make for the worst olive fruit fly crop yet. I will keep you posted on the details.

Brian J. Kenny - The Classicist - Sales and Marketing Manager

Report From The Field - 6/23/05 - Coke Ranch

Things are progressing nicely with the Ascolana crop out at the Coke Ranch. The latest development out here concerns the flock of turkeys that reside in the orchard. It is growing rapidly and has recently hatched-out the latest generation. We are starting to think that our limited pressure from the olive fruit fly is due to the Turkey presence in the orchard as they scratch around under the trees and eat all of the bugs living beneath the trees. The olive fruit fly overwinters in fallen fruit or in the ground until the spring. It is completely possible that these turkeys are doing our pest control work for us. I will post a pic as soon as I catch them with my camera.

Sincerely - Brian - The Classicist - Sales and Marketing Manager

18th Street in San Francisco

We love 18th Street in San Francisco. Not only is it a street on which I used to dwell, but it is also the home of both Bi-Rite Market and Tartine Bakery. If you live in San Francisco and have never been to eother of these establishments, do your self a favor an go check them out. You won't find anything bad in either of them. We want to thank both of these establishments for their support, patronage, and freindship.

It's All Good, Just try one of everything - Tartine

My Food Disneyland - Bi-Rite

Sincerely - Brian - The Classicist - Sales and Marketing Manager

Report From The Field - Meeting With Mario Andretti - 6/14/05

I had a great day yesterday and it culminated with an ollive oil tasting with Mario Andretti. He is a very nice man and the wines that they make under his Andretti are special indeed. Mario like the Manzinillo blend that we tasted and it was a pleasure to explain the Pacific Sun process to the automotive legend. I told him that I have been a lifelong fan and that I have had more speeding tickets than I can count but that is no fault of his. He graciously submitted to my photo request:

Mario Andretti joins the ranks of other celebrity types who we have met through our olive oil evangilization including Boz Skags, David Byrne, Dave Matthews, and Virgil Shaw.

Brian - The Classicist - Sales and Marketing Manager

Report from the field - 6/13/05 - Dinner At Raph's

I had dinner with my friend Raphael, one of the owner's of Bi-Rite in San Francisco. We have a common love for food and olive oil and last night we did on oil tasting and dinner. We made the simplest of meals:

Bread Salad:
1 bowl full of very lightly toasted Semifreddi's Sweet Baguette
1/2 bottle Pacific Sun Proprietor's Select Ascolana
Balsamic Vinegar to taste

Note: To get the bread just right, put in on a baking sheet under the broiler until the bread just starts to get dry.

Take bowl of just-dried bread and toss in oil. When all of the oil is soaked up, toss in enough balsamic to cover 75% of some of the pieces of bread (about 1/3 of the total pieces of bread is what we did).

Delicious Petite Chateau-Briand
1 1/2 Steaks for each participant
Pacific Sun Tehama County Blend (Mission/Ascolana)
Kosher Salt
1 small shallot
Balsamic vinegar
Dry White Wine
White Mushrooms

Arrange steaks on a plate and pierce with a fork. Rub them down with the olive oil. Flip them over and pierce other side. Flip back over and use steak to soak up most of the oil. Let sit for 15 minutes. Rub down top of steak with salt. Drizzle with Balsamic Vinegar. Add shallots on top of steak. Pan fry steaks top down until they are begining to brown, add mushrooms to pan and additional olive oil to coat the mushrooms. Flip steak and repeat for other side. Wjile side two is browning stip mushrooms to ensure that that are cooking evenly. Add Enough White Wine to cover the mushrooms.

When both sides of the steaks have been browned take steaks from the pan and put them on a broiling pan or a cookie sheet. Reserve mushroom musture for the Asparagus below. Briol steaks until they are cooked to your liking.

Oven-Roasted Asparagus with Mushrooms and Olive Oil
1 pound Asparagus (preferable thin spears)
1/4 bottle Pacific Sun Olive Oil Riverview Ranch Tuscan Blend
Mushroom Mixture from above

Place Asparagus in pan with mushroom mixture and lightly saute for 5 minutes (just long enough to take some of the crispness out of the asparagus). Add Olive Oil and put pan in the oven untel the steaks (which are under the broiler). When steaks are done, put asparagus pan on top rack and cook until the aspagagus have reached the desired level of crispness/softness. The oil will crisp the outsides while cooking the insides.

Serve the Steak and the Asparagus with the Bread Salad. Eat with Red Wine.

This was simple and delicious. A true Olive Oil Feast

A demo pic

I just found this picture of a pacific sun demo from a food and wine tasting in Redding, Ca last year.
For most of the several thousand guests at the event this was the first time that they had ever tasted olive oil. It was fun to see people react to the oil and assess it as they would wine.

Brian - The Classicist - Sales and Marketing Manager

The Many Terroir Of Tehama County

Tehama County is a beautiful place comprised of many different and unique Terroir.


Northern Tehama County - Jelly Ferry's Bend Area
This is the view east from the Riverview Ranch home of our award-winning Riverview Ranch Tuscan Blend. The soil here is relatively shallow, volcanic, and rocky with clay pockets in areas. Water retention is varaible here. This hillside gets full sun all day and the rocky floor of the orchard radiates heat. Thus, these olives ripen earlier here than they do in Tuscany or Napa.

Woodson Bridge, Sacramento River - Corning Area - 20 Miles South Of The Riverview Ranch
The orchards that produce our award-winning Woodson Bridge Sevillano Olive Oil are located behind the trees visible on the bank. The soils here are rich and the environment is humid. Water is well retained in the soil.

Ternero Ranch - West Corning - 10 miles southeast of Pacific Sun's Millhouse
This ranch is from where many of the Mission Olives used in our award-winning Tehama County Blend come. This ranch is situated on gradual, rolling hills west of I-5 near Corning.
This picture was taken looking south. The soil here is rocky with clay pockets and turns to a thick soup when it gets wet. Since we harvest the Mission olives late in the season when the ground is wet, it is tricky to get the olives out of this orchard. Because it is located in the valley and is exposed to the North wind, the olive here ripen slower than they do at other ranches.

Coke Ranch - 4 miles South west from the Ternero Ranch - Corning area
This picture was taken looking west from the edge of the Coke Ranch from whence our Ascolana Olives come. The mountains in the distance are the eastern edge of Mendocino county. The soil here is well suited for olive cultivation. This orchard gets colder earlier than many other ascolana orchards so the olives here generally ripen later than in other orchards.

Report From The Field - 6/6/05 Coke Ranch Corning Ca.

Here is a shot of the latest development of olives at the Coke Ranch. These are the same Ascolana Variety Olives that are shown below in the last post from this ranch. In general, the olives are developing nicely.

Here you see the tiny proto-olives developing. They are beginning to develop their pits currently and the pits should be full developed by the end of June. This event is called pit hardening and after pit hardening, these proto-olives will be fully fledged olives and will continue to develop and grow until harvest.

Notice also that there are some yellow, dried blossoms still present. These will blow off in time. In fact, the recent rains that we have experienced may have washed these blossoms off since this picture was taken.

It looks like we will have decent crop from the Coke Ranch this year.

Sincerely - Brian - The Classicist, Sales and Marketing Manager