NYIOOC BEST OLIVE OILS OF THE WORLD AWARD

 Growing up in Reidsville, Ga., Tracy Poling enjoyed frequent visits to her grandparents’ 300-acre farm, 30 miles south in Glennville. Performing a variety of tasks on the land, she acquired an appreciation for working the land. A native of West Milton, Ohio, Curtis Poling spent summers on his grandparents farm. The two met in Atlanta and married in 2001. Moving to St. Simons in 2002, Tracy worked in medical insurance and Curtis has been CEO of CN Global Partners since 2009. When her father passed away in 2011, they pondered what to do with the land, which had been in the family since 1855. Their farm was adjacent to the Woodpecker Trail, which was established in the early 1900s and ran from Virginia to Orlando, Fla. It’s now Route 121. Extensive research included trips to olive tree farms in California, Texas and Terra Dolce in Lyons, Ga. Returning to Glennville in 2014, they cleared 14 acres and planted 4,000 Arbequina super high-density trees. In Jan. 2018, over an inch of snow was on the ground for two days with a temperature of 22 degrees. 1,600 trees were lost, four survived from their second planting in 2017. Bringing in a dozen people to harvest by hand at the end of September, they were able to put olives into a refrigerated truck within 15 minutes. Taking the fresh crop to Lyons for milling, they had a bountiful EVOO first press with over 300 cases of a flavorful oil with a peppery finish and a acidity level of .03 (The acidity level required for Extra Virgin Olive Oil in Europe is .08, in California it’s .05.). They won a silver medal in the New York International Olive Oil Conference. Curtis got word out through the internet and half their sales have been outside of Georgia. “It’s one of the most exciting things I’ve done in life,” he said. “You put something in the ground, watch it survive and then have a good harvest. We take a spoonful of oil every day.” Handling the daily operations, Curtis put in 14 miles of a drip irrigation system and bought a mower from Italy to cut down weeds. The sandy loam soil is quite conducive for growing and drains well. Using lime, he brought the pH level up to 7 from 5. Last year, they bought 300 high density trees from Spain, France and Tunisia and they now have a total of 6,000 trees. Always entrepreneurial, Tracy and Curtis took year old leaves off the branches and made olive leaf tea for purchase. They project nearly 300 orders and expect more in 2021. Olive leaf tea is the healthiest of any green tea on the market. They are one of two olive farms in the United States to make this product. https://www.savannahnow.com/news/20201028/former-state-senator-among-georgia-olive-farmers-finding-successful-harvest-this-year