All events are subject to change.

Caltech Alumni register for events here.

Thursday, November 6, 2008

Ladder Safety Training

By Appointment, email oliveharvest@caltech.edu to schedule.
Olive Walk
Ladder safety training is required for using ladders, though using a ladder is not required to participate in the harvest. There will be ~15 minute training sessions all day Friday or by appointment for groups of 6 or more on Thursday.

Friday, November 7, 2008

Ladder Safety Training

All Day
Olive Walk (morning) and Court of Man (afternoon)

Olive Harvesting

8:00 am – 3:00pm
Olive trees around campus (Registration Desk on Court of Man)
On the day before the harvest, the 'Grounds Department will prepare many of the trees to be harvested by placing tarps, ladders, buckets, rakes and other harvesting supplies near the trees. Harvesters will be assigned in teams of 3 to individually-numbered trees correlated to a map with locations and numbers. Teams will include pickers and ladder holders as well as runners. The harvest will begin at the Olive Walk and will then sweep through the rest of the campus, focusing especially on the trees lining the lawn in front of Beckman Auditorium, which are especially productive this year. Harvesters will collect olives by hand into 5-gallon plastic buckets, or will use rakes to drop olives onto tarps spread beneath trees. Some trees can also be picked by hand. The treetops will be denuded of olives using three cherry pickers after the lower segments have been picked. Harvesters will transfer picked olives to large crates supplied by the Santa Barbara Olive Company, which will be fork1ifted into trucks and sent to Santa Barbara for pressing and bottling.

Curious-Powering the Planet

10:00am – 11:00am
Beckman Auditorium
Presented by the creators of emmy-nominated “Curious”, a two-part TV series about research at Caltech, this mini documentary should teach you all about how we power our planet and the efforts being made to do it better. A short film will be followed by a discussion led by Caltech Chemistry grad student Jillian Dempsey. Tickets at $5, contact Mary Herrera (mhh@caltech.edu) to purchase tickets.

Olive Milling, Pressing, and Brining/Pickling

10:30am – 4:00pm
Court of Man
Last year, the George Housner Student Discovery Fund granted funding to design and construct a mill and press. Constructed at Centerline Welding, a metal shop in El Monte, California. It was tested with olives during last year’s harvest and produced several pints of oil that were enjoyed at the Harvest dinner. It is designed to be operated by hand (pushing 1600-pound wheels) and can be operated by 10 people at once. The whole process will require the olives to be washed, loaded into the mill, crushed, transferred into cheesecloth bags, pressed, collected, centrifuged, and the oil skimmed off. The machines themselves will also need to be assembled, cleaned, and disassembled.

Tastings & Sustainability Exhibits

11:30am – 4:00pm
San Pasqual Mall
Escargot tasting hosted by the Caltech Meat Club; Olive and olive history exhibits with tastings featuring assorted marinated olives, tapenade, LaBrea Bakery bread, olive oil and infused olive oil; Various exhibits by student clubs promoting sustainability

Edible Tour of Campus

12:00pm – 4:00pm
Around Campus (meet at San Pasqual mall)
Tom Mannion will be leading a tour around campus to show people to find, recognize and prepare the plants and herbs around campus. Specific locations have been mapped using Google Earth so that Caltech students can use this resource in the future as a local alternative to shopping for certain foods in the supermarket.

“Green” Tour of Campus

12:00pm – 4:00pm
Around Campus (meet at San Pasqual mall)
Pasadena’s largest-ever solar facility is being completed atop Caltech’s Holliston Parking lot. John Onderdonk, Caltech’s new Manager for Sustainable Programs, will lead tours of the facility while also discussing other efforts on campus toward sustainability such as several new clubs and three new LEED gold certified buildings that are under construction.

Caltech Jazz Band

12:00pm-1:00pm
Red Door Cafe
Come watch musicians chosen from the Caltech Jazz Bands, directed by Bill Bing. The Caltech Jazz Bands' next formal concert is on January 23, in Beckman Auditorium. The guest soloist at that concert will be the great bass player, Flea, better known for his work with the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

Ice Sculpture Carving

1:00pm – 1:30pm
San Pasqual Mall
An ice carving demonstration will be presented by one of the sous chefs from The Athenaeum.

Harvest Festival Games

1:30pm-2:30pm
Court of Man
There will be a variety of Festival games to play in the theme of the Olive Harvest. Olive Branch Limbo, Hot Olive (Potato), Olive in a Spoon Races, and more. The winners of each competition will receive a certificate to pick up a free bottle of the Caltech Olive Oil when our crop returns from being pressed.

Olive Harvest Dinner

5:00pm – 7:00pm
Olive Walk/Athenaeum Lawn/Outside Winnett
A Mediterranean-themed dinner will be prepared by the Chefs from The
Athenaeum and Caltech Dining Services. Undergrad student waiters will be assisting in serving the family-style dinner. There will be bread and olive oil, beef and vegetable skewers, greek salad, and baklava. Sit near the Athenaeum lawn to see a performance by select members of the Caltech Jazz band.
*Note: Seating at the dinner is limited and priority will be given to students and volunteer Olive Harvest participants. Dinner starts promptly at 5pm. Those who arrive late may be turned away.*