My Town Monday: Ontario, CALIFORNIA

I spent most of the weekend at a water polo tournament in and around ONTARIO, CALIFORNIA. Which was named after ONTARIO, CANADA by the two Canadian engineers (George and William Chaffey) who helped develop the area.

In NINE days, I'm heading to ONTARIO, CANADA.

Ontario, California is obviously calling to me as a My Town Monday post. Obviously.

So, early Sunday morning, while our water polo players slept in, Child #4 and I snuck out from the hotel room for a very interesting visit to...

The Graber Olive House

The Graber Olive House is famous for its gourmet olives. Crossing the threshold of the Graber Olive House is like taking a step back in time. Graber olives have been cured and canned here since 1894. The operation is still very much hands-on. To the point that government health inspectors always think they've arrived at a museum and not the actual canning facility!

Spanish missionaries planted the first olive trees in 1769 at the Mission San Diego de Alcala. The Franciscans then traveled north to establish more missions and they planted olive groves along the way. The Graber olive ranch is located about 250 miles north of Ontario, in Lindsay, at the foot of the Sierra Nevadas.

So, what makes a Graber olive special? Well, these olives aren't picked until they're cherry-red ripe. A tree might be visited 7 or 8 times before all its olives are removed. This ripeness factor results in a meatier, nutty-flavored olive. VERY delicious!

Here's the process:

This is the grading line where women stand at the conveyer belt, on the lookout for olives with bruises, lumps, broken skin. Olives that remain on the conveyer belt are sorted according to size. #16 is the largest Graber olive. At times, there's a waiting list for cans of #16 Graber olives. The grader was built in 1932.



550 concrete vats in the Vat Room soak the olives for 3 weeks in a secret brine. The brine is changed daily.




Women hand-scoop the olives from the rotating filling wheel into cans. There's a can under each hole. The women fill about 45 cans per hour. If the Graber Olive House switched to machines, they could fill about 1500 cans per hour. There are no plans to switch.



Olives are packed in 200-degree-Fahrenheit water. The Panema Paddle Packers slap on the lids. No photo. Sorry. I guess I forgot to take one. I am so not a reliable photographer. Neither was my mother. It's genetic. In fact, when my mother took a picture of me on my first day going to university, she inadvertently chopped off my head. Not a prophetic shot, as it turns out.



Child #4 is examining the label machine. A label is applied to each can. The labeling machine is from the 1940s. It's only operated during after-school hours. When the local high-schoolers are available to work.



The cans of olives are sterilized in here at a high heat (I forget how high) for 62 (I think) minutes. Child #4 was beginning to wane at this point in the tour. Which means I wasn't as focused as I could be.

Here's the Graber Olive House info:
315 East Fourth Street, Ontario, CA
1-800-996-5483

If you want to see the grading and canning process in action, call ahead to find out which week in October the plant will be running. It all depends on when the olives ripen. Besides the "plant" (now located in the NEW building which was built in 1921 and has one original wall from 1894!), the grounds include a one-room museum, a couple of gift shops, a picnic area, a video of the olive canning process, some very nice people AND OLIVE TASTE TESTING.

In addition to producing world-famous olives, the Graber Olive House doubles as a halfway house for abused animals. This is, after all, California with all her idiosyncrasies.

AND if you comment on this post between now and Wednesday, July 23 @ midnight Pacific Time, I'll send you a can of Graber olives. For real. I bought an extra one. Just for you bloggy people. I'd post a picture, but blogger is way slow and lazy tonight.

Thank you once again to Travis Erwin for spearheading My Town Monday. We're glad he's back in his leadership role this week. And that he'd didn't lose the family fortune in Vegas last week. Click here for Travis' post on Amarillo, TX and for links to the other My Town Monday participants.

My Town Monday: Gold Mine, Julian, CA

If you're up in the mountain town of Julian, CA (located about 60 miles northeast of San Diego), the Eagle and High Peak Mine is a must-visit. The mine is at the end of C Street. I'd definitely phone ahead for the hours of operation (760-765-0036).

The Eagle and High Peak Mine offers hour-long tours through the tunnels where the guide will regale you with facts about gold mining and stories of days gone by. The tour isn't too expensive (about $10/adult and $5/child). And it's really, really interesting. By the end, you'll be tossing around terms like sluice box and rockers and stamps and placer gold. Our guide was bitten by the gold bug several years ago and actually pans on her days off. Sometimes successfully.

When you've finished the tour, you can pan for gold yourself, then shop at the Company Store.

And, now, a little history for you. A.E. Coleman discovered gold in Coleman's Creek in 1869 and started a mining camp which later became Julian. Julian is named for Mike Julian, an ex-confederate soldier from Georgia who came to find his fortune in the California mine fields after the Civil War. $5 million in gold was taken from the Julian environs between 1870 and 1880. Albert Robinson, a freed Missouri slave and the first black man to serve on a jury in San Diego County, built the Julian Gold Rush Hotel in 1897. It's the oldest operating hotel in Southern California. (www.desertusa.com, www.glitter.com, www.julianhotel.com)

This isn't history, but it is a fun bit of trivia: Each October, 10,000 apple pies are baked here!

So, while you're waiting for the night sky and star gazing at the Observer's Inn planetarium, go visit the gold mine. You won't be sorry.

Thanks, once again, to Travis Erwin for hosting My Town Monday. For Travis' entry and links to the other participants, check Travis' blog.

My Town Monday Night Sky Gazing, Julian, California

Julian, California is a mountain town located about sixty miles northeast of San Diego. It has a population of about 1600. Among other things, it's well known for apple pies, tours of a real gold mine and beefalo burgers. Julian also has an amazing used book store--the Julian Book House.

And, surprise, surprise, there is an awesome private planetarium located in Julian. It's The Observer's Inn. You can choose to stay there (we didn't) or just reserve time in the evening to stare at the heavens through their powerful telescopes (we did). These "sky tours" conducted by Mike Leigh are a once-in-a-lifetime experience.



Leigh, an astronomy afficionado for years, built his observatory at an elevation of about 4300 feet, high up enough that he can take advantage of the clear night sky. Then he got a few high-end telescopes. We're talking truly research grade here. As in, at least one is a telescope fit for a small country. This telescope is so good, you can make out details on spy satellites. Which has earned Mr. Leigh a couple of chats with the FBI. (from the San Francisco Chronicle)



Each sky tour is different. Each sky tour comes with Mike's wonderful commentary. And what might you see? Various planets, constellations, stars, double stars, comets, other galaxies. It's truly incredible. And there aren't many places in the world that give you this kind of a show. For about $20 a person. Observer's Inn is actually internationally known.

We went a couple of winters ago. Not to sound corny, but for my little family, it was an out-of-this-world experience.

(And, besides the magical sights from the telescopes, my kids didn't think the little room with hot chocolate and cookies was too shabby!)


My Town Monday comes to us via Travis Erwin. Thanks, Travis! Click on his site to read his post about Charles Goodnight and find links to the other participants.