One of the more positive economic aspects of the gaming profits of the Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation near California’s Bay Area is growing an extra virgin olive that is a favorite with San Francisco chefs.
The tribe, based in Yolo County’s Capay Valley has been producing Séka Hills extra virgin arbequina olive oil since 2011. It opened an olive mill in 2012. It has a wine and olive oil tasting room in a large faux barn that it opened last year.
For the past decade and more the nation has purchased land in the valley, with its holdings growing from 1,000 to 14,000 acres.
The tribe once farmed on much of this land before being forcibly removed by the U.S. government and relocated to less fertile land. It won relocation in the 1940s to better land, but because the tribe only has about 100 members found it difficult to operate the large scale farming that is necessary to make a profit from such lands.
The tribe opened a bingo hall in 1985 and its $200 million Cache Creek casino and hotel in 2004. At first they acquired adjacent farmlands as a way to avoid being over sprayed by pesticides. Then it became natural to begin using them for farming.
They phased out tenant farmers and brought the farming operations within the tribe about ten years ago. When they acquired pastureland near the town of Guinda the land and climate were just about perfect for growing olives, a climate that many consider a “perfect Mediterranean climate,” according to the Sacramento Bee. They planted 82 acres in arbequina trees.
In 2015 the mill processed 55,000 gallons of olive oil, the great majority of which came from its own olives, with about 20 perfect for neighboring growers. Each crop has sold out by the time the next harvest has come around.
The olive oil produced is a median-priced oil, but one which is considered delicate but with a “buttery, grassy and peppery flavor,” according to an area chef.
