You may have seen them at the Carmel farmers’ market and walked right by without realizing that some of California’s best olive oil comes from the hills of south Monterey County near the tiny town of San Ardo.
Olive oil enthusiasts who find themselves on the road between King City and Paso Robles would be advised to look for the 43 Ranch tasting room, just off Highway 101 at Los Lobos Road, about an hour south of Salinas. There, owners Greg and Cindy Traynor greet customers at a facility that combines a vintage industrial vibe with modern conveniences, including two charging stations for electric vehicles.
Despite the fact that the Traynors are relative newcomers to the world of olive oil—they planted their 4,800 olive trees in 2012 and had their first harvest in 2015—their artisanal olive oils are already winning major awards and attracting attention from all over the world. In fact, their premium small-batch 43 Ranch olive oils have won more awards this year than any others in the state.
“We’ve had inquiries from Europe, Canada, Japan and Mexico,” says Greg Traynor, but at present their oils are only sold in the United States. Much of that interest came when they won the Best of Show award for their Helen’s Blend at this year’s Los Angeles International Extra Virgin Olive Oil Competition.
The Traynors pride themselves on their premium extra-virgin olive oil and their ability to produce olio nuovo, or freshly pressed olive oil, at their state-of-the-art olive milling facility, which opened last fall. They’re now getting ready for milling season, which begins at the end of October and goes through mid-November, depending on when olives ripen, both theirs and those of their clients.
Under their 43 Ranch label, they currently carry four types of olive oil: Leccino, Picual and Helen’s Blend, all extra-virgin olive oils, and Mandarin, a flavored oil made from olive oil and organic mandarin oranges.
Greg and Cindy are the fifth generation of the Goutx/Aurignac/Traynor family to farm the ranch, founded by Greg’s maternal great-great uncle. A display at the tasting rooms shows family photos going to back to the early 1900s, says Cindy, and the image on the 43 Ranch tins is of Greg’s maternal grandparents, Paul and Helen Aurignac, circa 1938. What used to be a barley and cattle ranch is now being revitalized by Greg and Cindy.
Olive mills are few and far between in California, so in addition to what they harvest from their own trees, the Traynors also press olive oil for farmers throughout the Central Coast area, from Santa Cruz to Arroyo Grande. This fall the milling operation will run full-bore as truckloads of just-picked olives arrive at all hours to be pressed and made into oil. The more quickly the olives are processed, the better the resulting oil will be.
Greg, who studied olive milling locally and in Italy, says making olive oil is both an art and a science. The olives are loaded into a hopper to start the process. From there they are washed and debris is filtered out. Then the olives enter the crusher where they’re reduced to a thick paste, which is piped into three malaxer vessels, each of which can hold 1,200 pounds.
The malaxers help coax every drop of oil out of the paste through moving paddles and carefully timed temperatures. These factors must be carefully controlled to get the ideal flavor, Greg says.
“Here is where we can see the oil drops in the paste and they bump into each other, coalesce and float to the top,” says Greg.
Solids and oil are separated in a decanter vessel with a centrifuge, then oil can be filtered further, depending on the product desired. Olio nuovo is less filtered and has tiny bits of olive in it; this makes it delicious but it also has a very short shelf life as a result.
For extra-virgin olive oil, extra filtration is necessary to make it 99.9% pure and a more stable product that will keep for 12 to 18 months, as long as it is stored properly away from heat and light.
Extra-virgin olive oil (or EVOO) has to be produced according to exacting state specifications. Greg says that to be certified as EVOO in California, olive oils are subjected to a chemical test as well as taste tests by an expert panel that checks for unwanted flavors in the oil such as fustiness or woodiness. The EVOO designation is only given to olive oils that are free of defects in flavor or odor.
“EVOO certification is a measure of freshness,” says Greg. “What you need to make it is good fruit, and a mill that can process it quickly in a controlled environment.”
In addition to 43 Ranch’s olive oils, the Traynors also produce olive oil soap, lightly scented with lavender, citrus and cedar wood, and scented skin scrubs. “We try to use everything, as much as we can,” says Cindy, who says these are made from byproducts of the olive oil process.
These products and the olive oils can be purchased at the tasting room, and also through the ranch website 43ranch.com and at specialty retailers throughout Monterey County and the San Francisco Bay Area. The Traynors also sell their products at the Carmel-by-the-Sea Farmers Market each Thursday.
At their tasting room, visitors can try before they buy. “It’s so people will know what good olive oil is supposed to taste like,” says Greg.
65340 Los Lobos Road, San Ardo
831-627-2455
About the author
Kathryn McKenzie, who grew up in Santa Cruz and now lives on a Christmas tree farm in north Monterey County, writes about the environment, sustainable living and health for numerous publications and websites. She is the co-author of “Humbled: How California’s Monterey Bay Escaped Industrial Ruin.”
