Pasolivo olive oil

Since my first post on this admittedly underused blog was about Pasolivo, it seems only fitting that I now have the opportunity to go to Willow Creek Olive Ranch [link goes to Google Map] in Paso Robles, CA, and pick olives for this year's pressing. This will be my first olive harvest. This will be my first time even seeing an olive tree fruiting; the first time I've masochistically bitten into an olive (and subsequently spit it out because it's so bitter, I'm assuming); the first time I've crushed a fresh olive in my hand and smelled it; the first time I've watched an olive press run just feet away from me; the first time I've tasted olive oil the same day it's been pressed.

All of that seems as if it should be shared, so I'll be taking a camera with me (a much better camera than the cell phone I'm using for the pictures below) and regularly posting the chronicles of my trip to here. There's supposed to be a fairly nice wine tasting occurring while I'm there, and I'll have serious foodies all around me, so there'll be more to my posts than just olive oil (though, honestly, why would there have to be; it's olive oil!).

My plane flies out on Thursday, November 30, and I arrive that evening. I'll be there until Monday, December 4.

Woo hoo!