A 2026 Harvest Update from the Grove
The fall season has arrived, and I’m starting to get calls about olive U-Pick and Olio Nuovo. Unfortunately, I’m having to share some difficult news: we don’t have an olive crop in 2026. Farmers around the world are dealing with unpredictable, unseasonal weather, and we are no different. A record-breaking heat wave in March induced our olive trees to bloom a month earlier than usual, in April. A series of wet storms in late April brought intense downpours that knocked the blossoms off our trees. We have around a thousand trees, but no olives to be found. No U-Pick in 2026 With no crop to harvest, there will be no olive U-Pick this year. We know many of you look forward to visiting the grove, picking olives, and curing them at home. We’re disappointed too. Our olive-curing recipes and guides/u-pick are still available if you’re able to find olives elsewhere. What this means for Olio Nuovo We won’t be producing estate-grown 2026 Olio Nuovo. For you Nuovo fans, we’re going to try to find another grower who has not suffered the same fate and see whether we can procure some of their fresh oil. That possibility is not confirmed yet. We’ll send another newsletter when we know whether it’s possible. Any oil sourced from another grower would be clearly identified as such. Get Olio Nuovo updates and sign up for our newsletter/olio-nuovo. Our 2025 award-winning oil is still available While there’s no new crop this year, we still have some of last year’s gold-medal-winning oil available in our online store. Shop available 2025 olive oil/store. Join us at Open Farm Tours on October 10 We will still be participating in Open Farm Tours on Saturday, October 10, 2026, from 10am to 4pm, alongside other farms in southern Santa Cruz County. We’ll be offering tours of the grove and olive oil tasting, and we’ll have some of our 2025 gold-medal-winning oil available for sale. This is a chance to visit and taste—not a U-Pick event. Other participating farms will also be offering tours on Sunday. For tickets, participating farms, and the latest details, visit the official organizer: Open Farm Tours — information and ticketshttps://www.openfarmtours.com/. You can also read more about our farm-tour participation/blog/open-farm-tours-2026. Thank you for supporting our grove. We look forward to seeing you at the farm tour and sharing another Olio Nuovo update when we have news.