Cal Poly hosts its first Olive U-Pick

This is a cross-published piece with Mustang News, more information can be found here.

On Nov. 22, Cal Poly Farms hosted an Olive U-Pick where community members could come to Cal Poly and pick their own olives. This was a one day only event put on by the orchard and vegetable enterprise class at Cal Poly.

Plant science sophomore Jack Gillio was in the class and helped out at the U-Pick.

“There are arbequinas and chiquititas,” he said. “The arbequinas are big olives, they need to be cured before they are eaten because there’s a compound in them, they’re very flavorful and a little spicy. Chiquititas have a higher oil content.”

These olive trees were planted back in 2020 and have had two harvests since then. Olives from the first harvest were used to make Cal Poly brand olive oil.

Another student in the class, business administration senior Courtney Osmond, said she was excited to see what pickers do with their olives.

“A lot of people have ideas of what to do with these olives cause they’re raw, they can cure them or make them into olive oil or put them in salads,” Osmond said.

Cal Poly Farms has hosted U-Pick events for other plants. Regulars like Michael Kurland were excited to get some student grown olives.

“You get to see what the produce is and what the growing is and feel more attached to nature,” he said.

The U-Pick will open up again in January for the farm’s Citrus U-Pick, which is open every Saturday during their harvest.

Cal Poly Farms said that they hope to do another Olive U-Pick in the future. In the meantime, Cal Poly olive oil can be bought at Cal Poly stores around campus.