The climate of South Georgia can never pass for that of the Mediterranean. Humid and ferociously hot in the summer, prone to extended frost in the winter, it’s not exactly a beach vacation on a Greek isle.
Yet the Mediterranean’s most famous crop — the olive — has taken root in Lakeland, near the Florida border, and with it comes the beginnings of a new olive oil industry for the state.
While the first harvest this year was a relatively tiny four tons, or just enough to create about 500 8.5-ounce bottles of the green-gold elixir, production will likely jump exponentially in coming years.
And this has people talking.
The first bottles of oil from Arbequina olives are not yet 2 months old, yet the product has already been the subject of a session at the Southern Foodways Alliance annual symposium and several articles in the national press. Southern chefs who like to source their ingredients close to home, as well as consumers who pay dearly for the best Italian and Spanish oils, are all angling for the last few bottles.
As much as we use olive oil in America, we press less than one-tenth of 1 percent of the world’s production. Most comes from California, with some from Texas and Arizona.
Spearheading the Georgia project is Jason Shaw, an insurance agent and freshman representative in our state’s Legislature. Along with family members and neighbors, Shaw has formed a cooperative of five properties, Georgia Olive Farms, to coordinate the planting of high-density olive groves and the bottling, marketing and distribution of oil. He has also been instrumental in the establishment of the Georgia Olive Growers Association, a trade group for farmers, would-be farmers and various stakeholders who want to encourage the planting of olives throughout the state.
“I hope domestic growers in the South can one day supply at least 25 percent of the extra-virgin olive oil market on the East Coast,” Shaw said after conducting a tasting at Emory University this month. “We feel like that is possible and hope that Georgia Olive Farms will be at the forefront of making that happen.”
After telling the assembled crowd of students and food fans how well the 3-year-old olive trees survived last winter’s frost and managed to bear fruit a full season earlier than anyone expected, Shaw demonstrated how to taste the oil, forcefully slurping in air to aerate it and reveal the flavors on the palate.
Compared to some high quality Mediterranean oils, this one didn’t have that peppery bite or astringent catch in the back of the throat, which indicates a higher concentration of a compound called oleocanthal that often comes from less ripe fruit.
Yet it tasted astonishingly fresh without the slightest trace of rancidity. Shaw attributes this quality to the short time between the harvest in South Georgia and the pressing, a couple of days later, in Texas. “There’s not a fresher olive oil on the East Coast right now,” Shaw said.
He and his partners are working to build presses in Georgia to come online as production ramps up.
Discuss all things food and dining on John Kessler’s blog: www.ajc.com/go/foodandmore.
