Archive for the ‘Long Meadow Ranch’ Category
Posted on December 8, 2010 - by napavalleyolivegrowers
2010 Olive Harvest
Hello everyone! We’re midway through harvesting season and check out what some of our growers are saying about it:
Rela Gleason of Gleason Olive Oil:
This year our harvest was prolific. In fact we had such a huge crop that we are going to leave some trees unpicked. This is a wonderful “gift” after last year when there was not enough fruit to make it worth harvesting. We are excited about this vintage, which due to our unusual temperature patterns over the past year, promises to be as wonderful as the wines of 2010
Ernie Weir of Hagafen East Side Olive Oil:
The biggest and best olive harvest in many years
Ted Hall from Long Meadow Ranch:
We will be beginning our olive harvest tomorrow (December 7th) which we expect will be our largest ever. The olives were late ripening because of the long cool growing season, but we are expecting very high quality. We have seen very little activity by the Olive Fruit Fly and the olives look to have a high quantity of oil. We have had a little damage from frost on the valley floor where we have a few orchards, but our primary orchards on the hillsides above Rutherford (where they were first planted in the 1870s) look fabulous. We notice that many of our neighbors seem to have begun harvest at the “normal” time – perhaps because of the requirements imposed by the availability of labor and previously reserved processing windows. We have the luxury of timing our picking with the needs of the variable seasons because we operate our own estate frantoio (since 1996). We are looking forward to the next four weeks with high expectations for a great vintage.”
Kris Jaeger of Jaeger Family Olive Oil:
We harvested our olives this year on the 29th of November. Our trees were very fruit-heavy and the fruit looked beautiful. Wehad high expectations for a bountiful and super-quality harvest. Our Italian and Spanish cultivar fruit was picture perfect. We harvest the fruit and had it milling within hours. The resulting oil is excellent – we are delighted. One hundred percent of the olives that we harvested from our French cultivar, Boutillan, were damaged by frost. We did not press the fruit but had to bury it. This is the first time that our harvest has had damage due to frost. We are grateful for the bounty and the excellent quality of the fruit that was hearty enough to survive the frost. We look forward to a great year ahead.
Tell us about your progress! Email nvolivegrowers@gmail.com
Posted on May 25, 2010 - by napavalleyolivegrowers
Long Meadow Ranch
Known as Long Meadow Ranch since at least the turn of the century, the Ranch is dominated by a long, elegant meadow nestled into the foothills of the Mayacamas Mountains. The distinctive meadow is surrounded by hills and plateaus that, according to historical records, provided opportunities to cultivate grapes, apples, olives, and hay as well as to raise livestock. (Apparently the Ranch at one time even included a goat milk dairy)
Olives and grapes may have been supplied to a facility on adjacent land to the west, the Hassenmeyer Winery, while other crops went to market by horse-drawn wagon down the winding narrow road serving the Ranch. Farming on the Ranch was disrupted by the onset of Prohibition and the original vineyards and olive orchards were abandoned after about 1920. While the ranch was used intermittently for cattle and horse grazing in the years that followed, it ceased all commercial operations in the 1920s and its farmlands began a long, slow decay.
Meanwhile, a new, substantial residence was constructed on the property in the late 1920s using a unique manufactured limestone block developed at a local Napa Valley building materials company, the Basalt Rock Company. For the next sixty years,the residence was used primarily as a weekend home.
In 1989 their family acquired the property and began to lovingly restore the Ranch to its turn of the century status as an important Napa Valley farming operation.
Long Meadow Ranch makes two outstanding organic extra virgin olive oils: Prato Lungo, their estate oil from Napa Valley’s oldest olive orchards and Napa Valley Select, a blend of organic olive oils crushed and blended by them.
Prato Lungo
The 2008 vintage presents with a wonderfully fresh nose of green grass, green apple, and a touch of citrus. The entry into the mouth is silky smooth and the peppery after tastes reinforce the oil’s role as the perfect condiment.
Napa Valley Select
The perfect “gourmet” extra virgin olive oil for everyday use. This flavorful oil has been featured on the regular menu at Brennan’s in Houston and as an ingredient by top chefs like New York’s Alfred Portale.
From organically farmed olives, Napa Valley Select is the ideal mixing oil. The Manzanillo, Mission, Frantoio, and Lecchino olives included in the blend provide a touch of natural bitterness that goes well with greens. Its natural peppery character adds a rustic feel that is perfect with many Tuscan recipes.
http://www.longmeadowranch.com/
