Local Olive Oil

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Over 20 years, the Rea family has grown a small family business in the Arizona desert into a 100-plus-employee operation.
Over 20 years, the Rea family has grown a small family business in the Arizona desert into a 100-plus-employee operation.
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The olive tree (Olea europaea) is native to the Mediterranean.
The olive tree (Olea europaea) is native to the Mediterranean.
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Olives thrive in the desert near Phoenix, Arizona, where Perry and Brenda Rea opened the Queen Creek Olive Mill.
Olives thrive in the desert near Phoenix, Arizona, where Perry and Brenda Rea opened the Queen Creek Olive Mill.
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'Mission' and 'Koroneiki' olives at harvest at the Queen Creek Olive Mill.
'Mission' and 'Koroneiki' olives at harvest at the Queen Creek Olive Mill.
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The Rea family cultivates more than 7,200 olive trees on a 100-acre farm in the Queen Creek valley, about 40 miles southeast of Phoenix.
The Rea family cultivates more than 7,200 olive trees on a 100-acre farm in the Queen Creek valley, about 40 miles southeast of Phoenix.
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'Mission' and 'Koroneiki' olives climb into the mill to be pressed.
'Mission' and 'Koroneiki' olives climb into the mill to be pressed.
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Perry Rea plants new olive trees close together in a hedge pattern so the mature trees can be harvested and pruned mechanically.
Perry Rea plants new olive trees close together in a hedge pattern so the mature trees can be harvested and pruned mechanically.
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Brenda Rea pours olive-oil-based candles at the family's mill.
Brenda Rea pours olive-oil-based candles at the family's mill.
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Responding to visitor feedback, the Reas opened a restaurant at their olive mill. Here, patrons eat under shade cast by 'Kalamata' trees.
Responding to visitor feedback, the Reas opened a restaurant at their olive mill. Here, patrons eat under shade cast by 'Kalamata' trees.
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Although intended as ornamentals, the olive trees along Arizona's city streets yield edible fruit.
Although intended as ornamentals, the olive trees along Arizona's city streets yield edible fruit.

Olive trees line city streets in Arizona. They thrive in yards and cast scant shade in parking lots. In spring they bloom profusely, and in fall they drop ripe fruit onto cars and sidewalks and into gutters. Olive trees are so common that most Arizonans hardly notice them, except in April when pollen causes allergies to flare up. Because olives are so easy to grow in Arizona, you’d think the place would be packed with olive farmers. Instead, “It’s me and three guys in Yuma,” says Perry Rea.

Husband and wife team Perry and Brenda Rea are the founders and operators of Arizona’s only working olive farm and mill, the Queen Creek Olive Mill. Over 20 years, they’ve grown a small family business into a 100-plus-employee operation. Their 100-acre farm lies in the Queen Creek valley about 40 miles southeast of downtown Phoenix, flanked by the San Tan Mountains to the southwest and the Superstition Mountains to the northeast. Empty creeks and washes wind their way through the wide, flat valley, where the sun shines 330 days a year. On the days it doesn’t shine, the skies bless the valley with about 9 precious inches of annual rainfall.

Most crops require a lot of attention to flourish in the desert, but olives are the exception. These desert-loving trees grow rapidly and robustly in the Queen Creek valley. Olive trees should endure some stress to produce quality oil, and that’s exactly what the Arizona climate provides. Yes, the climate is extremely dry, but the aridity discourages verticillium wilt and molds. Pesticides aren’t needed because the olive fly can’t tolerate summer’s intense heat. Olive trees can survive on minimal rainfall, although they do need strategic irrigation to produce plump and plentiful drupes (the Reas use micro sprinkling and drip irrigation). Arizona’s short winters provide the vernalization necessary for bud set — a couple of months of cold nighttime temperatures with infrequent hard freezes.

Olive trees were domesticated thousands of years ago in the deserts of the Levant (near today’s Turkey-Syria border). Spanish missionaries probably introduced olive tree cuttings to present-day California in the 1700s; these are likely the progenitors of today’s ‘Mission’ cultivar, and may have emerged in Peru as the seedling of an unknown cultivar from Spain. Whether or not this legend is true, someone certainly brought these Mediterranean natives to the New World — an account written in the 1840s describes an abandoned mission with an old and neglected but still-thriving olive orchard. By the late 19th century, olives had become a commercial crop in California. At about the same time, some of the first olive trees in Arizona were introduced on the University of Arizona campus in Tucson as part of a program to experiment with plants for desert suitability. Eventually, olive trees spread all over the urban areas as (mostly) ornamental plantings. Sadly, some urban areas have banned new plantings of male olive trees these days because of the excessive pollen they produce during bloom.

Learning on the Job

  • Published on Nov 17, 2017
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