A crop for the next generation & top choice for shoppers

Sponsored by: California Ripe Olives

Rick Benson vividly remembers the day he convinced his father that the next crop at Benson Farms should be California Ripe Olives.

“They’re heat tolerant! They’re salt tolerant!” Benson mentioned to his dad. Those two factors are among the most important when deciding what crops to bring to their Imperial Valley farm in California, which lies adjacent to the desert.

That was 12 years ago, and the Benson family has been growing olives ever since. Though they are seasoned farmers, the Benson family is new to olives, and they have brought an innovative way of harvesting to the decades old industry.

There are about 16,000 acres of olives in California, many of which were planted before mechanical harvesting was possible. That means that California Ripe Olives remain a primarily hand-harvested crop. The Bensons' young grove was planted with the intention of harvesting mechanically. As more and more olive groves are planted across California, mechanical harvesting is slowly but surely being implemented.

“It’s a labor of love,” Benson remarks. “We view olives as our crop for the next generation.”

Take a drive 12 hours north from the Imperial Valley and you’ll find the Nerey family in Corning, Calif.

Juan Nerey’s father brought his family to the United States several decades ago to work as a laborer in the olive groves of Northern California. With hard work and financial assistance from family members, Juan was able to buy his first grove and harvest his own California olives.

Today, Juan’s son Pablo is teaching his own son about growing California Ripe Olives.

“It makes me feel good to be out there teaching him what my father taught me,” Nerey says. “Hopefully, he continues doing that and makes it even better.”

Whether the olives are picked by hand or harvested mechanically, grown in the southernmost corner of California or in the Northern California growing region, only the best olives are sent to be cured using a method developed in the 1800s. In each and every stage of the olive’s journey, from farms like those cared for by the Nerey and Benson families to the dinner table, a lot of tender loving care goes into them.

Ripe olives grown in California particularly appeal to shoppers. In fact, based on results from a 2013 survey of 1,000 grocery shoppers across all 50 states and the District of Columbia, 75 percent of U.S. grocery shoppers surveyed indicated they prefer to buy products grown in the United States. And because nearly all domestic ripe olives are grown on multi-generational family farms in California, they’re a great choice for your customers.

Whether consumers are enjoying their favorite California Ripe Olive snack, using them in a new recipe or garnishing their libations, they can trust that hundreds of farming families have put their all into giving them the best quality olive possible.

Learn more about the multi-generational California Ripe Olives farming families at http://calolive.org/.

Sponsored by: California Ripe Olives

Social Media Links: Facebook (@CaliforniaRipeOlives), Instagram (@CalRipeOlives), Twitter (@CalRipeOlives), Pinterest (@CaliforniaRipeOlives)

URL: www.calolive.org and www.calolive.org/meet-our-growers