Queen Creek Olive Mill

I've had a recent kick of checking out new and local restaurants, coffee shops, and businesses. Stemming back to last week when I visited Pizzeria Bianco, and finding that chef Chris Bianco uses all local produce and food for his cooking, I have been looking into local farms and whatnot. I found the oil mill that he gets his oil from, Queen Creek Olive Mill. We took a small tour to learn about the mill and the olive oil process.

Stretching the limits of the Valley, this mill is located in Queen Creek, Arizona. This oil mill was opened in 1998 and is family owned and operated. Over the past year they have grown from 800 olive trees to about 1700 trees. They have a meticulous process of hand picking the olives from the trees, and taking gentle care to make sure that every olive that is pressed has not touched the ground. Queen Creek Olive Mill produces organic olive oil and olive products and does not use and pesticides while growing the olives, nor do they use and additives or chemicals in the pressing process and create only extra virgin olive oil.

Inside there is a small retail shop where they sell their bottled oils and products. There is a room full of different oils from straight extra virgin olive oil to many different infused oils like garlic oil and pomegranate infused oils. On the shelves there are also tapenades and stuffed olives. The shop also features locally grown foods. There are local jams, honeys, almonds, and pastas available for purchase. Likewise, there are bottles of wine that come from vineyards here in Arizona. The owner’s idea for this is to bring together local farms and businesses to promote food that is made within the state. This is another great sustainable idea which does and will continue to help out the local economy. There is also a small sandwich shop in the storefront that serves all sorts of sandwiches and lunches that feature some of the foods grown on the mill, and around the state.

I feel that it is small businesses and farms like this that can help bring communities back together and create a more personal interaction between producers and consumers. It also brings back the genuine quality of products because these small businesses can make things correctly, and with a passion to perfect their product rather than mass produce them.

Finding out that these olive trees can grow and survive for thousands of years, such as ones still found in Israel, shows the magnitude of God's glory in creating such a durable tree that will abundantly provide for his people.