Not sure where you are, but there are olive presses scattered throughout California. You go there with your load, and they will give you the oil (and keep the pomace as well as some of your money). An olive press is much more complex and expensive than an apple press. It will be 10 years before you are up to 30-40 lbs of olives per tree per year (and those 100 lbs will give you only 10-20 lbs of oil, which is very little. My family of three uses 30-35 lbs a year. If you do the pressing yourself, you may only get 5-10 lbs). In the intervening time, I would just eat some fresh (fresh olives fried with a drop of oil and salt are wonderful, and not bitter at all while hot), freeze some (they are great in all sorts of stews and braised meates) and cure most of them. Middle Eastern friends do the curing in their bathtub. For bigger crops, water in May through July, but withhold water later.

I got a small Arbequina which is supposed to be a good variety for the PNW from Burnt Ridge for $15. I planted it by my concrete house wall on the south side of my house, so hopefully it will like it there. I will have to let you know next year how well it survives the winter. I have a Loquat on the other wall and it does fine but doesn't bloom, so I may have to be content with using the leaves for medicinal purposes. It would be cool to get fruit but then I would have to figure out how to cure olives. Anyone get fruit? The vendors at the home and garden shows bring in large ones loaded with fruit but I don't know how they were grown.

I agree with nmgirl, there have been rumors on this forum of olive trees in protected microclimates in Albuquerque, which is pretty incredible, but that is still a good zone or two warmer than 6. Potted plants may be the only surefire way to go, especially if you want fruit... I had some small potted olives in a sunroom for a while, but they never flowered, showed slow growth, and were very susceptible to scale. Other plants, like pomegranates, citrus, guava, mango, have done much better under the same conditions. Incidentally, pomegranate is another Mediterranean fruit that would have a better chance for you outside in the ground. It's much hardier than sources say, sprouts back easily from the roots, is smaller and easier to cover for protection, and is deciduous, which means that it goes fully dormant in the winter. A nurseryman in zone 6 Moriarty, NM is trialing some pomegranates that survived last winter's record low of -34 there! Back to the olives on a different note: if you read accounts of the early Spanish settlement of Santa Fe, you find that their plans included olive groves on every land parcel. Obviously they tried it and quickly discovered that olive trees could not survive here. I can see say with confidence that there are no true olive trees grown outside here in Santa Fe to this day. Similarly, almonds were initially grown here by the Spanish, and supposedly there were still almond orchards in Northern NM until the trees were killed by some intense winters sometime in the mid 1900's. I'm sure you could still find the occasional backyard almond tree, but they are apparently even more susceptible to late frosts than the locally widespread apricot.

Well, the trip to my friend's house was enlightening. She has a pale, creamy yellow from Lowe's, Churchill Hotel Hazy Yellow. I was expecting the cabinet to blend too much up against it, but it really didn't. It didn't POP like it would against a green, but it didn't look bad either...I kinda liked it. I think her cream seems a bit too light, I would prefer something a bit more gold, but I think the color in general is a possibility. I didn't think my backsplash tiles would work with the yellow either, but they looked quite nice too. The yellow made the blues and greens in the tile pop more which could be nice for using those colors as accents in window treatments, etc. Lastly, was the floor tile (Yes, my friend thinks I am nuts for lugging all my samples over to house, but she's a brutally honest person so I trust her opinion). She has natural maple wood floors and my tile is almost the same tone as her wood...kinda funny. We decided the tile looked fine. If the walls were any more yellow, the floor might look a little dingy, but I think I would be ok if I stay with a creamy, yellow/gold. Also, the same friend has a pretty olive green in her family room. So, she hunted down the paint and guess what it was...Nantucket Gray! Funny bc even she thought the Nan. Gray was much more brown in my house. I guess it's all about lighting. So, where does this leave me? I think I am going to sample a few creamy yellows in my space just to see. Just like the Nantucket Gray looked so different in our homes, so could the yellows. I have not ruled out the idea of a green bc I do think it could look awesome if I wasn't so color-challenged. You have all given me so many great colors to sample. As Amysrq said I should pick a couple sample colors that scare me and one of them just might be it. Thanks again. I promise to post once I decide and absolutely once the kitchen is done!