Chaffin Family Orchards
Extra Virgin Olive Oil Futures
Reserve Gallons Now...
I hope you all had a heart-warming holiday weekend. Normally we're able to promote our mandarins at Thanksgiving but unfortunately, in addition to being the smallest mandarin crop in memory, they're also rather late in ripening. So when they're ready for shipping I'll be sure to send an email, but nothing is available yet.
Our Olive Oil Futures were a big hit last year and we've had a lot of people asking about whether we'd do it again this year. We want to give our existing customers the opportunity to reserve this fantastic oil now, before we sell out next year. Our oil is a nutrient dense product that you can always trust is truly cold pressed, 100% Extra Virgin Olive Oil. And we leave our oil unfiltered so its full nutrient profile is left intact. Our orchards comprise one of the largest old growth plantings of olive trees in North America. We make our olive oil exclusively from our heirloom Mission olives. Slow Food has listed Mission Olives on their "Ark of Taste" as an endangered variety in need of preserving. This is a very special product! Farmed with non toxic standards, these groves of olive trees are on highly mineralized volcanic soil fertilized with rotations of grassfed beef cattle, goats, sheep and pastured chickens.
Last year we had a huge olive crop to harvest, but we are now looking at an extremely small crop to harvest this winter. It was simply too wet and cold here in northern California last spring when the trees were blooming for proper pollination to occur. The state as a whole is projecting only 20% of a normal olive crop to harvest this winter. This means that while there is still some fruit available, the cost of picking is going to go up significantly with a lighter crop. We still have to go to each tree and pick all the fruit whether the crop is light or heavy. So when the crop is light the cost of picking is much much higher as it takes longer to gather all the fruit.
Our current projections show that we're going to have to raise our prices significantly. Our discounted Futures price is $120 for a 2 gallon box with shipping included. However, by being involved in discounted reserve program, you not only insure that you get fantastic olive oil, but you'll be helping us cover the heavy upfront costs of picking and pressing. Nothing about producing olive oil is cheap, especially when you're dedicated to producing a cold pressed quality product of this caliber. Think of it kind of like a CSA; you pay up front at the beginning of the harvest season and because of that you get a discounted price, and we get some help to cover our harvest and pressing costs. The last time we had a light crop we sold out the entire year's worth of olive oil in just 3 months. So feel free to order what you think you'll need for a whole year, as we will sell out. Similar oils can sell for between $80-$100 a gallon conservatively. We have two different olive oils available.
MID-SEASON: This oil is from olives harvested about 4 to 6 weeks earlier than our late harvest. These olives produce a sharper oil that has a spicy finish and slightly higher polyphenol levels. This oil is great for salad dressings and savory applications.
LATE HARVEST: This oil is harvested from olives that are fully ripe and they produce very soft mild buttery flavors. It's an extremely versatile oil and most notable for making mild olive oil mayonnaise.
So order now and then we'll ship your order when we're all finished pressing sometime in January or February, depending on how the season progresses. The oil gets shipped in flat rate boxes through U.S. Postal Service. Each box holds 2 individual gallons. Feel free to order as many or as few gallons as you'd like; there is no limit on this special. Just be sure your shipping address is somewhere that USPS delivers to.
