Pantry · Petaluma, California

McEvoy Ranch

Organic Tuscan-style olive oil grown and milled on a Petaluma ranch.

Founded: 1990
Founded by: Nan Tucker McEvoy
Based in: Petaluma, California

Shop all McEvoy Ranch (19)Our featured pick

Making it since

1990

Their story

Nan Tucker McEvoy, whose grandfather founded the San Francisco Chronicle and who later chaired its board, bought a former dairy farm outside Petaluma when she was in her sixties. She had no farming background, but she loved Tuscan olive oil and decided to grow her own.

In 1990 she brought in Italian agronomist Maurizio Castelli and imported 1,000 olive trees from Italy, despite local advice that the soil was wrong for olives. The first oil came in 1995. Nan died in 2015 at 95, and her son Nion McEvoy has run the 550-acre ranch since 2014, with his children now part of the business.

Only about a tenth of the land is planted, leaving the rest to the surrounding ecosystem. Alongside olive oil, the ranch makes small-lot wines and body care.

How it's made

The olives are farmed organically, picked by hand and taken straight to the ranch's own mill, where they are crushed within hours of harvest. The paste is mixed, spun in centrifuges and polished to remove the last water. Olive by-products are turned into certified organic compost for the orchards.

Our featured pick

Spicy Sweet Pepper Jam (10OZ)

$15.00

A delightful mix of peppers gives this jam the right balance of spicy and sweet. Trying mixing it with Extra Virgin Olive Oil to create a dipping sauce!

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