Got Olive Oil?: Charles Crohare Does

From olive oil to banking, Charles Crohare's family has had an impact on the Livermore community for generations. A fourth-generation Livermore resident, Crohare has seen the city go through its share of changes - but he maintains it also retains its rural character and small-town charm.

"Certainly we've all seen development in the area, but the thing that amazes me is that Livermore still retains that small-community feel," Crohare says, adding that he and his father, Charles Crohare Sr., enjoy seeing friends and townspeople at the Livermore Farmer's Market. "You see people (everywhere) who you know. You'll see them going to stores, going to the Farmer's Market. If you ever have the chance to be here on a Thursday evening from May through October, my father and I will be out there with different varietals of olive oil. We love to see the people in the community who we've known over the years, as well as some recent transplants who are growing roots here."

Crohare's family owns and operates The Olivina Ranch, a well-regarded premium olive-oil manufacturer nestled along the slopes and hills of the southern Livermore valley. Known locally as "The Olivina", the ranch got its start in 1881 when industry pioneer Julius Paul Smith carved out 2000 acres in order to cultivate olive oil, along with wine grapes and walnuts. "Smith was one of the brothers who established the Borax Team back in 1881," Crohare says, adding that the Borax team began as a mining claim in Nevada and eventually grew famous as the Twenty Mule Team Borax. "He and his wife planted grapes and olive trees, a lot of which are still out on the property."

Crohare's grandfather, Charles D. Crohare, bought a large chunk of the estate in 1940. That property was mostly used for cattle operation until the "Olivina" part of the Olivina Ranch was established in March 2001. "We just recently in the last half decade really started with the existing olive trees that have been producing since 1881, and have continued to produce some wonderful olive oil, spectacular olive oil," Crohare says. "We planted newer trees about eight years ago, so now we have 11,000 trees on our part of the property. All the olives are hand-picked in mid- to late November - some will be picked earlier, some will be picked later. Usually olives are picked right after the grape season because of their maturity - they're all hand-picked, so during harvest time, we have people out there picking each tree by hand."

Time, Crohare adds, is of the essence when it comes to great olive oil: "The ideal is within hours from after it's been picked to when you have it in the mill, where the olives are literally crushed. That produces the extraction of the oil from the crushed olive."

The olive oil produced at The Olivina is renowned both locally and internationally. "The Olivina is a well-known name in the Tri-Valley," Crohare says. "It's also shipped all over the world. We've been very fortunate that there are people who have requested it all over the world."

Because of its high quality, the olive oil produced at the Olivina has been shipped as far away as Europe and Israel.

The olive varieties that are planted on The Olivina's property include 3,000 Mission trees, more than 1,500 Arbequina trees, 242 Lucca trees, 80 fully aged Picholine trees, and about 6,000 Frantoio trees. In May, The Olivina received two gold and two silver medals from the L.A. International Olive Oil Competition, competing in an international taste panel against more than 360 applicants from 19 countries.

Apart from The Olivina, Crohare's local work includes serving on the board of a new bank owned and operated by the community, Tri-Valley Bank. "I've been banking in Livermore going on 23 years," he says. "I was originally with Cenral Bank, Bank of the West, and the new bank that was just recently established (Tri-Valley Bank) asked me to come on board and help it (get started)."

Crohare says he was happy to help launch the community banking effort. "Our president is a resident of Livermore, has been for twenty-plus years, I believe, really understands the community, is well connected to Livermore," he says. "I'm very excited and very happy to be part of this."

Tri-Valley Bank offers a standard slate of deposit, lending, and cash-management services, and specializes in specializes in financial services and banking solutions for individuals, businesses and non-profit organizations within Alameda, Contra Costa, and contiguous counties.

It's just the latest way for Crohare and his family to contribute to the community that has been their home for four generations - a place that they not only love, but are actively working to continually improve. It's a labor of love. "We've had a lot of history with our family here," Crohare says.