Hare Hollow

PRODUCTS: Olive Oils: California Bread Dipper, Three-Varietal, California Unfiltered Sevillano, Organic Late Harvest Mission, Herbs d'Provence Extra Virgin Lemon Oil      Vinegars: Fig Date Balsamic, Ginger Blackberry Balsamic Vinegar, Apple Pomegranate Balsamic Vinegar, Mango Chili Vinegar, Pear Raspberry Champagne Vinegar

PEOPLE: Esther Pruitt along with three part-time employees

ABOUT: In 1996, after a 17-year career as a travel agent, Esther decided to go back to school to study horticulture. There, she met a group of people who were trying to promote olive cultivation in California, and eventually began working at an olive press where she learned about growing and processing olives. In 1998 she began her own business, bottling and flavoring olive oils and vinegars.

Oils are pressed according to Esther’s specifications, sometimes with other fruits like lemons for flavored oils. Her products are bottled at the Sciabica & Sons commercial kitchen in Modesto. All other products are made and bottled in Napa. All Hare Hollow products are made in small batches. Esther develops her own recipes, relying heavily on feedback and ideas from chefs and farmers’ market customers.

SOURCING: All Hare Hollow’s oils are made from Mission, Manzanillo and Sevillano olives grown in California, primarily in Calaveras County. Esther belongs to an olive cooperative wherein she buys into the crops of many olive farmers whose olives are taken to a central processing facility in Modesto. Vinegars are primarily from Napa-based wineries, but occasionally from Italy if California vinegars are not available. Fruits and fruit purees are mostly from California (items like mango and vanilla are the exception), and sometimes organic.