Scripps-College-Olive-OilA person can get pretty biblical talking about olive oil, but Scripps College’s Best of Show win last month at the Los Angeles International Extra Virgin Olive Oil Competition brought to mind this particular passage from Ecclesiastes: there’s nothing new under the sun (1:9).

Founded in 1926, Scripps is one of the Claremont Colleges located in L.A. County’s Pomona Valley. This little factoid bears fruit later in this story, so pay attention. Anyway, as part of a campus-wide sustainability project, students harvested and pressed the olives from the campus’ trees, some of which are over 80 years old, and many of which had been rescued from destruction in a 1960s campus protest.

Lo and behold, Scripps pulls off a miraculous hat trick—first place in the competition, first time entering the competition, and first time the school produced oil from its trees—to stun the international olive oil community in a blind tasting, reminiscent of the Chateau Montelena Chardonnay upset at the 1976 Paris Tasting.

You think this similarity is what I meant by the Ecclesiastical reference up top? That is so 1970s. When I heard about Scripps’s sweet victory with its Pomona olives, I turned not to the book about the Paris wine kerfuffle, Judgment of Paris, but to my copy of How We Cook in Los Angeles, a lavish, hardbound community cookbook published in 1894. At the front of the book is a full-page ad for Howland’s Pure Olive Oil, produced from olives grown and pressed in–wait for it–Pomona.

Howland's Pure Olive Oil ad 1894

Yes, back in those ‘90s, Angelenos were eating locally, dressing their salads with olive oil, possibly even Howland’s brand, “Strictly Pure and made with the Greatest Care.” You’ve got to love the prices: $1.50 a quart, 75 cents a pint.

It makes sense that the inland heat of eastern LA County produced abundant olives in the wide open 19th century (J.L. Howland had 160 acres of trees) and a limited batch of Scripps award-winning olive oil in the urbanized 21st.

I wish I could taste Howland’s oil now. I did snag a bottle of the Scripps, which set me back a lot more than a dollar, but the money goes to the school’s outreach programs, so, okay.

Appropriately bottled in dark glass to protect against light exposure-deterioration, Scripps College Olive Oil is a light golden green and has a buttery flavor with a hint of pepper. It won in the “Domestic Delicate” category.

Alas, the 2012 Scripps oil is all gone, and the college isn’t even sure if they’ll produce it again. So like a lot of things you read in the Bible, you’re just going to have to take it on faith that the oil was good.

You can read more about the Scripps project in Felicia Friesema’s LA Weekly story.

Scripps College olive oil salad

A Late 19th-Century Los Angeles Salad (compiled from several 19th-century California cookbooks)

Tear, do not cut, a variety of salad greens such as chicories, lettuces, and mâche. Rinse and gently dry on cotton towels. Store on ice until ready to serve. Place in a bowl with chopped chives and tarragon. Toss with the best olive oil, a little vinegar, salt, and pepper.