Olive tree’s cool-weather offshoot

February was one of the warmest on record in Oregon, appropriate for the end of an unseasonably dry, balmy winter. Everywhere the Willamette Valley farm crops have started to bud out, ready in the next couple of weeks to burst forth in the full regalia of spring. Those gathered at the 2015 Pacific Northwest Cool Climate Extra Virgin Olive Oil Conference represented a new branch of a burgeoning industry.