Oregon’s Willamette Valley is renowned for producing award-winning Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and other varietals popular with wine connoisseurs. But the region is also home to a small but intrepid group of farmers who are cultivating olives, a crop more associated with the Mediterranean climate and hills of Tuscany than the hills of Tualatin.

Paul Durant is an olive farmer and wine maker whose family has been growing olives and making oil at their mill in Dayton since 2008. In April, Durant Olive Mill won three gold medals and a silver medal at the New York World Olive Oil Competition. Beth Wendland is the owner and operator of Coyote Hill, a third-generation family farm in the Tualatin Valley where three acres of different olive varieties are being grown. Olea, a project started in 2017 by Oregon State University, has been helping advise farmers like Durant and Wendland on olive cultivation methods and soil suitability. Scientists at Olea have also planted more than 100 varieties of olive trees to see which ones might best be suited to survive winter freezes. Heather Stoven is a community horticulturalist and small farms extension agent at OSU conducting research for Olea. They join us to talk about the pitfalls and potential for growing olives in Oregon.