Graber Olive House facts for kids
The Graber Olive House in Ontario, California, is a very old and famous place. It's where the longest-running olive packing business in the United States started! The Graber family home and farm are now historic sites. This business began in 1894. That was just two years after Clifford C. Graber and his brother, Charles, came all the way from Clay City, Indiana.
History of Graber Olives
When Clifford ("Cliff") Graber was 19, he bought land in Ontario. He started by growing citrus fruits. But he loved the taste of olives that local farmers prepared. So, he decided to plant his own olive trees. He began to prepare, or "cure," his own olives.
His olives were so tasty that many people wanted them. Soon, he started a small business selling them. In 1894, just two years after planting his trees, Graber began selling his special vat-cured olives.
In 1905, Cliff married Georgia Belle Noe. She also helped with the business. She would sell fresh olives right from the big vats where they were kept.
Growing the Business
By 1910, Cliff Graber had invented a special machine. It used ropes to sort olives by their size. At the same time, he started putting his olives into cans. Ten years later, he made his business even bigger. He planted his special Manzanilla olive trees in Hemet.
In 1934, Graber made his canning factory in Ontario larger. Nine years later, his sons, Robert and William, took over the business. Cliff still helped out until he passed away in 1955 when he was 83.
By 1963, Robert ("Bob") Graber became the only owner. Bob was born in the family home on the olive property. Bob and his wife, Betty, kept working in the family business. Their son, Cliff, now lives in the family home. Around that time, Bob Graber moved the olive growing to a large farm. This farm has 75 acres of olive trees in the San Joaquin Valley, near Porterville. The olive trees are still grown there today.
Every fall, during harvest season, the olives are picked in Porterville. Then, they are trucked to Ontario. The harvest season lasts about two months. This is when the olives are canned.
How Graber Olives Are Made
The Graber Olive House says their olives are special. This is because they are left on the tree until they are fully ripe. Flo Duncan, who works for the company, shared this information. She also mentioned that the business does not use computers for its main operations.
From Tree to Can
Once the olives arrive at the Ontario factory, they are first sorted by size. Then, they are placed in one of 550 large concrete vats. They stay there for three weeks to be cured. The water and salt solutions in the vats are changed every single day.
After the olives are taken out of the vats, they move along a conveyor belt. Employees then scoop the olives by hand into aluminum cans.
A special machine called a "Panama paddle packer" seals the cans. It uses 200-degree steam to seal the aluminum lids tightly. Next, giant pressure cookers, called retorts, heat the cans. They cook the olives for 62 minutes at 242 degrees Fahrenheit. After the cans cool down, a labeling machine puts on their labels. These labels show their size. The smallest olives are size 12, and the largest are size 16.
In just over three weeks, Graber Olives go from being on the tree to being in a can! In a good year, the business processes about 150 tons of olives. They send these olives to stores and customers all over the world.
