Occidental’s Office of Sustainability hosted the college’s second annual Olive Harvest Fest at Mullin Grove Nov. 1. This year’s participants picked 1,190 pounds of olives, more than doubling the 500 pounds picked during the 2023 harvest.
Assistant Sustainability Coordinator Isa Merel ’23 said several people are to be credited for the event’s success. Merel said Director of Facilities Management Dave Caldwell, Grounds Manager Lola Trafecanty and Associate Professor of Economics Bevin Ashenmiller were integral to the event’s success.
According to Merel, the staff hosting the olive harvest had collectively planned the inaugural event last year to fulfill a longtime wish of the Facilities Management department.
“I think a lot of people knew that we had olive trees and wanted to see something happen to the olives, rather than just letting them fall to the ground as they’ve been for years,” Merel said.
According to Merel, the majority of olive trees in Mullin Grove, at the main entrance to campus, were planted in 1936. Others were planted as early as 130 years ago.
According to Grounds Manager Lola Trafecanty, the first harvest in November 2023 was located at the olive trees by Thorne Hall, rather than Mullin Grove. Trafecanty said the olives by Thorne Hall ripened too quickly because of the August 2024 heat wave.
Merel said this also caused the Olive Harvest Fest to be moved up from Nov. 8 to Nov. 1 so the olives could be picked before they were too ripe. According to Merel, a professional tree management team pruned the branches that had the most olives and placed them on tarps for the olive harvesters to collect. Merel said the olives were then driven to Ojai Olive Oil, an olive oil manufacturer in Ojai, California, where they will be cold-pressed and turned into olive oil. This olive oil will be ready sometime in January 2025 and sold at the Occidental Bookstore, according to Merel.
Those who participated in the olive harvest enjoyed a specially curated sustainable lunch that featured olive oil from the 2023 harvest. Merel said she left this task in the hands of Director of Culinary Services Nathan Martinez, who created a menu of grilled carrots with arugula and mint, seared trout with herb sauce, greens and beans with fried bread, blistered tomatoes with marinated feta, radish rainbow salad, olive oil cake and hibiscus agua fresca.
“We wanted to emphasize plant-forward foods [and a] pescatarian Mediterranean diet to really [highlight] the health benefits of olive oil, the uses of olive oil [and the] environmental sustainability of that food and that diet,” Merel said.
Giselle Reyes (first year) said they attended the event because of how fun it sounded and because they were curious about how many olives could be picked.
“It was really relaxing and meditating to be picking olives over and over,” Reyes said.
According to Trafecanty, people enjoy discovering Occidental’s olive trees, what they look like and the benefits of olive oil. She said her favorite part of the Olive Harvest Fest is the community that is built and the label design contest for the Occidental olive oil bottle. According to Trafecanty, Occidental’s olive oil label is made by a student to represent the spirit of Occidental. This year’s olive oil label was created by Levi Lee (sophomore).*
“I think [my favorite thing] is the community building — the bonding between [students and staff] that don’t always work together on campus in a big project,” Trafecanty said.
Merel said the goal of the olive harvest fest is to foster this community as everyone works together to harvest an unused resource on campus.
“We really wanted it to not just be something where you’re coming and picking olives,” Merel said. “You’re coming, you’re picking olives, you’re meeting new people, you’re having a good time and hopefully you’re learning a little bit about our campus landscape.”
Merel said she hopes the olive trees will become more embedded in Occidental’s culture and daily life. She said she would love it if students used the olive trees and oil to conduct research, specifically about the effect of rainfall, carbon sequestration and nutrient concentrates.
“I would love to see this become a campus tradition,” Merel said. “I don’t just mean that we host it every year, but that people look forward to it every year and that people want to collaborate more each and every year.”
*Levi Lee is an illustrator for The Occidental
Contact Ava Anderson at aanderson5@oxy.edu
