A Beautiful Harvest | Livermore Olive Harvest at Olivina

For me there are two exceptionally exotic trees-palm trees and olive trees.  Being Canadian and growing up reading the Bible, palm trees and olive trees were the stuff of historic, exotic locales.  The first time I set my eyes upon a true palm oasis in the California desert I was 16 and just about keeled over with delight.  When I first sighted Spanish olive groves from a bus window while backpacking through Andalucia, I revelled in the realization that I was somewhere truly foreign.

So you’ll imagine my sheer pleasure when four years ago, I discovered that I had moved to a region of the United States that produced olive oil.  Every time I drove or hiked past these humble yet luminous trees, with leaves flickering like silver pennants in the breeze and blackish-purple fruit weighing down the hearty branches, I longed to spend more time among them.  Sounds silly I know, but maybe it’s because I’m from a country so thick with trees and sparse with humans that I find trees to be friends of a simple sort!

This past year I had the privilege of shooting on a couple of occasions at Olivina, an historic, family-owned and operated olive oil producer, right here in Livermore.  Much of the land near Livermore’s Sycamore Grove Park was split between two families in the 19th century, the Wente and the Crohare families.  The Wente family is noted for its outstanding winery that can make the claim of being the oldest, family-owned, continuously-run winery in the nation.  The Crohare family, just across the road, makes some well-renowned, top-notch olive oil.  If you’re looking for a unique gift, or enjoy supporting local agriculture, definitely check out Olivina at the local farmer’s markets in the East Bay or local gift shops.  And if you get the chance to dine at Wente’s beautiful restaurant which prides itself on using local, organic ingredients (some grown in the restaurant’s on-location garden), take note of the olive oil used in the cooking and flavouring of the food–it’s source is just across the road!

Here is a sampling of photographs taken this fall during the annual olive harvest.  I love olive groves so much, and really enjoy supporting the local growers, that I strapped on a couple of cameras and my two-month old daughter Lauren, and headed out amongst the olive trees one afternoon to chat with the harvesters and observe the picking process. These photos were shot on both digital and 35mm film cameras (with Fuji 400h) and all negatives were developed and scanned by Photovision Prints.

Enjoy!

Jaime