Locavores Beware!

Having had my consciousness raised by Michael Pollan and several of my favorite food blogs, I am trying to eat local produce whenever I can. I'm not as committed as some - I do sometimes stray from the dogma - but I figured that olive oil is one easy local item that I can certainly find in Northern California.

Wrong!

We are just a stone's throw from the Napa Valley, where olive trees here are as common as dirt but when I actually read the labels of several bottles of olive oil in my local store, only one had actually been made from California olives. Most were imported from Italy or Spain and a few were mixed with California oil, but none of the blended ones told what percentage was local. Huh!

So, locavores beware - even when the bottle is labeled "California," you really have to read the fine print!