The Olive Plantation owner Dave Fenton and his daughter Jenna Kofler place freshly harvested olives into their olive oil making machine during a Saturday, Nov. 16, harvest at their family olive farm. Shane Gibson photo
The harvesters start in sections as they begin, laying down green mesh netting that will catch all of the olives as they are picked off the trees. It’s Saturday, and the workday will begin early in the morning and won’t stop until dusk at The Olive Plantation in Temecula Valley Wine Country.“When we get to roughly 450, 500 pounds of olives, we’ll start putting them in the mill,” Jenna Kofler, daughter of The Olive Plantation owners Lori and Dave Fenton, said. The mill, which is from Italy, is a large machine that transforms olives to olive oil through an intricate process.“It first goes into the de-leafer and washer,” Kofler said, adding that air blows through the washer and pushes the leaves out. “Once it goes into the washer and gets washed, it gets pushed up the
