Tucked into the West Hills of San Miguel, 1,100 Tuscan olive trees are about to bloom, and their owner is checking every branch.
“We look for the spacing on the leaves and how everything is spaced. If they stay, we’ll have a beautiful harvest,” said Richard Meisler, San Miguel Olive Farm owner.
Meisler and his wife, Myrna, have turned what were once ten vacant acres into one of the most decorated olive farms in America. This past winter, they won five more medals at the New York International Olive Oil Competition — three gold and two silver.
“With all due respect to everybody else that wins awards, we are number two in the United States,” Meisler said.
San Miguel Olive Farm is also ranked number seven in the world, according to the Olive Oil Times.
But Meisler didn’t originally come to the Central Coast to farm. How he ended up here is part timing and part luck.
He was a drummer and played in a band in Southern California, mostly at country clubs, weddings, and holiday parties. But then, at one of those parties, a home builder handed him what he still calls the tip of a lifetime.
“He says, you need to retire someday, you must buy a piece of property. He says, this tip you can put in your pocket. It’s a million-dollar tip,” Meisler explained.
That turned out to be true. The tip sent him north to San Miguel. Later, a family member suggested olive trees. Richard and Myrna planted their first tree in 2006, and they learned the rest as they went along.
“We harvest by hand. Everything is done by hand. Once they’re cleaned and iced, to the mill as fast as you can go — within three hours.”
The result of 20 years of learning is a chemistry that wins gold, low acidity and high polyphenols, the compounds linked to olive oil’s health benefits. But maybe, the most important ingredient is passion.
“The passion that people should have is missing,” Meisler said. “I dream how to get to the next level. If I don’t make a gold, I’ll make a silver.”
Lots of awards and medals later, their biggest problem now is the best problem a small farm can have.
“He says, ‘I’d like to buy your oil.’ And I said, ‘We have nothing to sell. We’re out of oil.'”
The next harvest and the next chance to buy some oil are in November. Until then, Meisler is pruning, running the tasting room with Myrna, and focusing on what’s next.
“The secret to good business is the passion. You have to be ‘steady Eddie.’ You can’t waver. If you waver, it’s over.”
Oil from San Miguel Olive Farm is sold exclusively online. And if you want some, you may want to pre-order.
Dining and Cooking