California Ripe Olives: A Choice for Consumers Everywhere

The process used today for creating California Ripe Olives was invented in the late 1800s by an olive industry pioneer named Freda Ehmann.

The Silveira and Aguiar Family grows olives in Northern California and are among the hundreds of hard-working olive farming families in the Golden State. When Jeff Aguiar’s grandfather immigrated to the United States from Portugal, he took a chance on 10 acres of olives. With hard work and dedication, his family has now been growing California Ripe Olives for nearly 100 years.

California Ripe Olives cure for seven days making for a better tasting olive that is an extremely versatile and delicious addition to a variety of dishes and snacks that consumers crave. In fact, 75% of U.S. grocery shoppers prefer to buy products grown in the United States* and because nearly all domestic ripe olives are grown on multi-generational family farms in California, they’re a great choice for customers.

Drive a short distance from Jeff’s family farm to Orland, California and you’ll find another stunning olive orchard belonging to his cousin, Mike Silveira. Mike was just 10 years old when his family decided to pursue growing California Ripe Olives. His first job on the farm was picking olives, and it didn’t take long for him to realize how many it would take to fill one box!

Today, Mike and his wife Susan take pride in their agricultural lifestyle, putting a lot of love into their farm, and getting delicious California Ripe Olives out of it!

We invite you to learn more about the Silveira and Aguiar family and other California Ripe Olive growers here.  

*Based on results from a 2013 survey with 1,000 grocery shoppers across all 50 states and the District of Columbia.