Paul Durant inspects the olives at his Dundee farm to see if they’re ready for harvest. Oct. 29, 2025
Kristian Foden-Vencil / OPB
Back in the 1960s, it was widely accepted that Oregon was too cold and wet for wine. Since then, the state has built a reputation internationally as a wine destination.
Now, a lot of people still think it’s too cold for olives. But scores of Willamette Valley farmers, including Dundee vintner Paul Durant, are experimenting with hardy olive varieties. And throughout November they’re celebrating the “Olio Nuovo Festival.”
When Dundee and his family invested in a new Italian olive press in 2008, the company they bought it from wanted it to work so badly that they sent someone from Italy to show the family how to mill the olives.
“His name was Duccio Morosa de la Rocca,” Durant said, “and he’s a lifelong miller.”
The miller showed Durant how to get the best oil out of the olives coming off his new 15-acre orchard. But once the mill was working properly, he also told Durant that he was missing a golden opportunity to celebrate the first olive pressing every year.
Olio Nuovo
“This new oil is really precious, and in Italy it’s a very big deal,” Durant said. “People will travel to the mills to get ‘Olio Nuovo’ or the new oil.”
Olive oil tasting bar at Durant Vineyards, Dundee, Oct. 29 2025
Kristian Foden-Vencil / OPB
He said the first pressing contains a lot more pulp because it hasn’t been filtered. So it’s really tasty, but not yet shelf-stable. The pulp ferments if not removed.
“So that’s kind of how our festival started,” he said. “It’s an opportunity for people to come out and taste the oil. And pick out which one they like the best.
“We really try to make it a celebration of the harvest.”
Olio Nuovo is the olive oil equivalent of Beaujolais Nouveau, the wine that’s made right after harvest every year in France. It allows everyone to get that first taste of the season’s produce.
Durant says the Olio Nuovo Festival gives Oregonians a chance to taste the oil before it’s filtered.
“We have three oils to taste,” he explained. “We’ll have a Frantoio, which is an Italian variety. We’ll have a Koroneiki, which is a Greek varietal. And then an Arbequina, which is a Spanish variety.”
Olive grove at Durant Vineyard, Dundee, Oct. 29 2025
Kristian Foden-Vencil / OPB
Durant says each tree produces olives with their own unique flavor.
“And that’s really the fun of it for us, because then we can talk about: ‘Oh, you’d use this Arbequina in a light pasta.’ Or: ‘You’d use this Frantoio oil because it’s Italian and it’s robust, and you’d use it with stewed meats or a nice hearty stew.”
A fun, but risky venture
Durant’s parents bought their 16-acre farm in the Dundee hills in 1973. And like many farmers in the area back then, they planted vines and were successful.
But as any farmer will tell you, relying on one crop can be financially disastrous. An early freeze or just one disease can wipe it out entirely. So Durant says as the farm has grown, they’ve diversified to olives.
“We planted a few thousand trees in 2005 and they did really well, so we put in a small olive mill,” he said. “Then in 2008, we had a horrific winter and lost a bunch of trees.”
Durant says they brought olives up from California for the mill and started experimenting with more hardy olive trees and different growing techniques.
Olives shortly before the harvest at Durant Vineyard, Oct. 29 2025
Kristian Foden-Vencil / OPB
In 2017, the Oregon State University extension service did the same thing. It’s now testing some 116 different varieties at its research center in Aurora.
Horticulturalist Heather Stoven says Oregon’s olive oil sector is beginning to establish itself, but there’s still a lot of uncertainty.
“There are definitely risks to growing olives in Oregon,” she said. “So when people call me and ask me about it, that’s something I definitely mention: that you have to be comfortable with risk.”
Oregon is at the northern edge of where olives can be grown, and the cold has killed plenty of trees. But Stoven says there’s a romanticism around the crop.
“There’s excitement about it. People want to come learn about it and come to different events that olive growers have.”
Changing climate for the industry
Back at the sunny Durant vineyard, glowing with fall color, Paul Durant says he’s comfortable with the risk of growing olives.
“2013 is 12 years ago,” he said. “That was our last hard freeze.
“We have seen climate change here with warmer, drier summers and longer growing seasons … We’re having a lot more success growing.”
That success comes with continued experimentation. In one orchard, Durant has rolled out long sheets of silver foil under his trees. It reflects sunlight back up into the foliage, helping to mimic the longer, hotter summers of the Middle East.
Still, establishing an olive orchard in Oregon is a long-term gamble. Unlike a yearly crop, it can take six or seven years for a tree to establish itself.
But after that, the olive trees are bigger and can better protect themselves against cold and drought.
There’s one other benefit to olives that isn’t true of any other fruit: centuries of potential productivity. There are olive trees in the Middle East that are over 1,000 years old and still producing fruit.
Where to find Oregon olive oilThe Olio Nuovo Festival at Durant At Red Ridge Farms in Dundee is free and runs every day, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., until Nov. 30The River Ranch Olive Orchard has tours and tastings. It cultivates both Arbequina and Arbosana varieties of olives along the banks of the North Umpqua River in Glide.Oregon State University’s Olea project supports the development of Oregon’s olive industry by testing scores of varieties. Its orchard is in Aurora. 
Olive oil for sale at Durant Vineyard, Dundee, Oct. 29 2025
Kristian Foden-Vencil / OPB
Dining and Cooking