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Lance and I first learned of the Queen Creek Olive Mill back in the fall of 2005. Our good friends, Rich and Karen, introduced us to the Mill’s luscious oils and dangerously tasty olives and just that fast we were hooked. Even though we intended to take part of a day and visit the Mill we ran out of time. We didn’t forget about it, though, and shortly after returning to Tucson this fall I was fortunate to be driving to Queen Creek with my Aunt Coralie and my sister, Desiree. It was a pre-arranged girl’s outing so poor Lance was left to his own devices for the day.

It was a rather long drive from the Tucson area up to Queen Creek on the southeast side of the Phoenix valley, but we zipped right along in my aunt’s Prius. We avoided I-10 and instead took the back way—up Hwy 77 to Oracle Junction where we split off on Hwy 79 which took us up through the tiny historic community of Florence.

Poor Florence, the small town is known for just one thing: prisons. The Florence Complex, the largest in the state, consists of nine government and two privately-run prisons which can house well over 4,000 inmates. The city’s other bragging point occurred in the early 1980s when Murphy’s Romance was filmed there.

After crossing over the dry Gila River north of Florence we turned west and the rest of our drive took us through the massive “Anthem at Merrill Ranch” master planned community. The thousands of houses that we passed were all carefully arranged around a core complex which included a golf course, water park, community center, and elementary school. And that’s just the “Family Friendly” section…

The “Active Adult” side of the development boasts a “private world” full of fun with facilities such as horseshoe lanes (their term not mine), pickle ball, and bocce ball. Don’t forget the newly built nearby shopping centers which are home to all of the major retailers and dining establishments. It occurred to the three of us that the entire community was designed to ignore the local landscape. And looking around at that low-lying hot desert land I could see why. Don’t get me wrong, I love the Sonoran Desert but there are a few areas, such as that one, that are rather ugly.

Several twists and turns later we breathed a sigh of relief as the Queen Creek Olive Mill sign came into view. Whew—I hadn’t gotten us lost after all! The large metal building in front of us gave little hint at wonderful offerings inside. As we headed toward the entrance we were greeted by a small herb garden, a grassy area with tables, a covered patio, and most importantly—olive trees. We immediately joined the tour that was about to begin. Truthfully, it wasn’t a tour but it was a very informative talk followed by a trip to the tasting station.

We felt fortunate as our talk was given by none other than the Owner/Master Blender, Perry Rea, himself. His thriving business evolved from a small experiment: in 1997 Perry began curing olives and making olive oil. As he explained with a smile, it was a hobby that soon grew out of control. In the ensuing years the olive grove at Queen Creek expanded to just over 100 acres planted with 1,500 olive trees from nine different cultivars.

• Almost half of the orchard is planted in Mission olives which were originally brought to the Americas by Spanish missionaries. This varietal produces a deep purple fruit (often referred to as black, I’ll get back to that in a minute) that is good for both eating and producing oil.
• The Greek Kalamata olive is next in numbers at Queen Creek, prized for its large size and meaty fruit.
• In lesser amounts the grove has Tuscan olives like Lechino, Frantoio, Pendolino, and Lucca, all of which are renowned for their mild flavors.

• Also in the orchard are olive varietals from Spain: the Manzanillo, Sevillano, and Arbequina.

  The olive (Olea europaea) is a smallish tree native to the Mediterranean coast. Cultivated for close to 8,000 years and widely popular for its fruit and oil, the tree is also valued for its dense, finely-grained wood. A long-living evergreen (some trees are over 2,000 years old), the olive tree thrives in hot, arid conditions and the southwest is no exception. In fact, Perry claimed that Arizona might just be the best place in the world to grow olives since it is too hot for both Pseudomonas savastanoi pv. oleae, the bacteria that causes damaging olive knot and Bactrocera oleae, the dreaded olive fruit fly. As an added bonus, Queen Creek doesn’t need to use pesticides on their trees as growers in other places like California do.

  There isn’t much about olives Perry doesn’t know—as an aficionado he was enthusiastic about sharing his knowledge—and he was quick to clear up some olive-related confusion. Within minutes my sister’s lifelong love affair with black olives was shattered. There are no black olives, only green ones that can ripen into shades of purple if left on the tree long enough. Generally, most olives are harvested when green. All those cans of so-called black California olives that you buy at the grocery store are nothing more than lye-cured, chemically altered green olives! You should have seen the look on my sister’s face.

  Perry then simplified the confusing array of olive oil types, stating that the only olive oil worth eating is Extra Virgin. All EVOO is processed without heat or solvents, and though it has a shorter shelf life it has much better flavor and is healthier. All the other “grades” including virgin, light, and pure are blends of oils made primarily from the second pressing from the “pomace.” Pomace is the detritus remaining after olive oil is first extracted—a ground up mash of flesh and pit. The pomace is re-processed since it generally retains a small amount of oil.

  I think I got ahead of myself there, so let’s start the process from the beginning. First, the math: each tree produces an average of 200-300 pounds of fruit a year, and oil yield ranges from 15 to 27 percent, so that means it takes roughly a ton of olives to make 30-40 gallons of oil. At Queen Creek the olives are hand-harvested, shaken from the tree into nets. After harvest the olives are sent through a defoliator which removes any stems, leaves, or twigs. The olives get not one, but two baths before being ground whole (fruit, seed, and pit) into a thick paste. The olive paste is gently stirred to encourage malaxation, basically the separation of the various elements, like oil and water. The paste is then fed into a centrifugal decanter which spins the paste at high speeds. Water drips out the bottom, pomace oozes out one side and pure, golden olive oil drips out the other. Next the oil is filtered and decanted to remove any remaining particles or water. Finally the oil is stored in air-tight stainless-steel tanks to await the Master Blender’s touch.

  We were fortunate to visit during the last week of harvest so we were able to see the decanter at work. Since the Queen Creek orchard contains several olive varietals that ripen at different times harvesting can occur over several months beginning in September and continuing through the middle of December. The Master Blender begins creating Queen Creek’s signature Tuscan-style olive oil and other flavors in January. We learned that instead of cooking the oil with herbs or other flavorings, they actually add them to the olives before the grinding stage so the true essence of the ingredient shines through.

  In my humble opinion Queen Creek Olive Mill’s blood orange and Mexican lime flavored oils are the best I’ve ever tasted. Sound like interesting flavors? Wait until you try their vanilla bean olive oil. It is amazing! I will admit I wasn’t sure how I would use it. Thankfully, Queen Creek had a solution to my problem: recipe cards scattered throughout the shopping area full of great ideas from appetizers to entrees to desserts. Yes, there is even a recipe for a cake made with Vanilla Bean EVOO!

  Wise women that we are, we decided to order lunch at the on-site cafe, del Piero, before diving into the aisles and aisles of shopping. As we ate we compared notes on our favorite samples—a very good use of time. Speaking of time after making our purchases it was time to head home. As we watched the San Tan Mountains recede into the distance we all agreed—it was a wonderful way to spend a day!

  Photos: View our photographs from Queen Creek Olive Mill.

  Dates: We visited the Queen Creek Olive Mill on 12/13/08.