I didn’t know that this was a thing, but now that I do…it’s horrific. Fundy baby voice. New House Speaker Mike Johnson just gets creepier and creepier.

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After all was said and done last week, we got 17 gallons of oil from the partial olive harvest. We did a little tasting of our oldest oil (from a harvest three years ago), Costco EVOO, the fresh oil, and this Spanish oil selected as one of the best in the world. Our new oil had the strongest taste (it always does just after pressing), but in general it was very good compared to the others. I’m pretty sure as it mellows a bit it will be great. So mission accomplished.

One thing I’m puzzled about is how the growers in Temecula seem to have trees with pristine olives – no bug bites at all, no olive fly damage. I saw their trees during my journeys to deliver our olives to the processor. Most of the trees weren’t even sprayed with clay. I’m thinking a pesticide has to be in play. This fight against olive fly infestation is the single largest challenge in olive production. It’s very stressful to irrigate, trim, and then spray trees with clay and still wonder if the flies will ruin your crop. Looking at the Temecula growers’ trees, I can’t help but think I’m missing something important.

Unlike most growers in Europe, I don’t have generations of knowledge or experience to guide me – it’s just me, an aging neophyte grower learning everything for the first time. And I won’t be passing anything I learn on to a next generation. That’s a sad side-effect of our mobile American lifestyle.

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More common sense from uber-engineer Casey Handmer. Solar farms in the desert make a ton of sense. Doh!

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Next week could be a big week. First, rain returns to Socal late in the week. Second, Starship is rumored for a second launch soon, maybe next week. Finally, UK plays #1 Kansas on Tuesday. We’ll see what kind of 2023-2024 team we really have via that opponent. A big week, for sure.