This is an archived edition of our Field Report email newsletter. You can sign up at the bottom of the page!
Field Report #8
Greetings from Fat Gold!
In early September, our subscribers will receive the final shipment of oil from the 2018 harvest. That makes eight total since we mailed our first tin—TWO YEARS of Fat Gold!
We haven’t made it to this milestone alone. In our last field report, we asked subscribers for snapshots of Fat Gold tins and magnets in their homes and kitchens. Throughout this email, we’ll share a small sample of what we received, reserving our very favorite for the end.
Here’s Bryan’s magnet collection on his fridge.
Can you guess where Bryan lives? ;)
Attention, Bay Area friends! Two upcoming events of note.
Fat Gold will have a table at the 4th Annual Artisans Festival in West Oakland on Saturday, September 7. This happens at the 02AA “eco-industrial” park, a sprawling compound that’s home to a dozen or so businesses that range from seaweed foragers to high-end woodworkers. It’s a legitimately inspiring community and the festival promises to be a lot of fun. Stop by and say hello!
Later in September, the California Olive Oil Council is offering a one-day tasting seminar during which Kathryn will break down the olive harvesting and milling process. This seminar is targeted at chefs and other food professionals, especially retailers—if that’s you, consider checking it out!
We’ll send our next shipment to subscribers in the second week of September. If you subscribe now, you’ll receive that oil—it’s going to be tasty!—and then, your next shipment will be the first oil of our new harvest!
Here’s Chris’s countertop, with one of Robin’s favorite magnets yet:
Chris says: “My favorite way to use Fat Gold is on a salad for friends. It really takes simple greens and makes something interesting and notable out of them.”
Our next harvest is coming in November, and by the time we pick the first olive of 2019, we’ll have sold all our oil from 2018.
That might sound normal—“of course… you sold… your product?”—but in fact, among small producers of high-quality extra virgin olive oil, it’s not a certainty. In California, there are MANY people making incredibly good oil who aren’t able to reach the customers who would appreciate it. It’s a little bit tragic—the vision of all that delicious oil just sitting, aging, oxidizing!
Sometimes it happens because a producer only sells inside a small radius, at local farmers markets. Sometimes it happens because the quality of their packaging doesn’t quite match the quality of its contents. There are as many reasons as there are producers. In any case, we feel lucky and grateful to have sold out both years we’ve been in business.
Here’s Adam’s fridge with a line of magnets:
Adam says he recently used Fat Gold in this creamy lemon pasta and it was, ahem, very good.
P.S. eat some veggies!
A reminder: although we sell the majority of our olive oil directly via subscription, it IS available on a limited number of store shelves.
ROLL CALL!
Team Bay Area:
- Samovar's cafes in San Francisco
- Parkside in Stinson Beach
- The Local Butcher Shop in Berkeley
- Market Hall in Berkeley and Oakland
- Good Eggs, which covers most of the Bay Area
Team East Coast:
- Allium Market in Brookline, Massachusetts
- Primal Supply Meats in Philadelphia
- Riverwards Produce in Philadelphia
This year—particularly after Fat Gold was featured in Sunset magazine—we received a lot of retail inquiries. We had to turn them down, because we knew we were going to run out of oil, and we wanted to make sure the stores above—our early supporters—got all they needed. It’s these stores who have made it possible for us to sell everything we’ve produced, and we’re grateful to them!
This coming harvest, we’re going to increase our production significantly. Selling out two years in a row has bolstered our confidence. We can grow! It’s going to be a fun, exciting year—with more Fat Gold to go around.
As promised, here’s our favorite image of Fat Gold in use. Dayna writes: “Yes, I get out the can opener every time I finish a tin—”
“—because I know there’s more in there and I can’t bear to toss it.”
Let Dayna be a model for us all.
–Kathryn and Robin