Despite its biannual schedule, the Scripps College olive harvest tradition was postponed last fall due to less rainfall, according to Scripps’ Landscape Operations Manager Joya Salas.
The olive harvest tradition began in 2012 after Core II students proposed the idea of harvesting the olive trees lining the school’s Humanities Building rather than spraying them with chemicals to prevent fruit production.
On the day of each harvest, 5C students, faculty and Claremont community members gather together on campus to pick and sort olives that will later be turned into Scripps’ award-winning olive oil.
The olives are then driven to a local mill and processed into oil within 24 hours of being picked.
Prior to the harvest, Scripps hosts a design contest that welcomes Scripps student and alumni art submissions to become the official label for the olive oil.
Previous harvests took place in 2012, 2013, 2015 and 2016, but paused in 2014 and for another two years in 2017 and 2018 due to drought and the previous organizer’s departure.
In an email to TSL, Salas said that she revived the olive harvest tradition in 2019 and also hosted it in 2021 and 2023. However, dry weather continued to pose a challenge last fall, disrupting the biannual schedule.
“I was planning to organize a harvest for fall of 2025, however, our trees didn’t produce enough olives due to [a] lack of winter rain,” Salas wrote.
Each year, Salas decides whether or not there will be an olive harvest by observing the trees throughout the year and anticipating their fruit yield.
“I begin observing flower development in early spring and monitor the trees throughout the summer. If there is a healthy amount of fruit development, we begin planning for a harvest,” she wrote.
Sophia Heffner SC ’26 attended the harvest in 2023. She checked in, received gloves and saw olive branches laid out everywhere. The facilities team had set them out on tarps in preparation for the event. She said there were about 10 harvesting stations around campus. After pulling olives off the prickly branches, they sorted the olives into piles of ripe or rotten fruit and loaded them into a truck.
Her harvesting group included a family of community members from Rancho Cucamonga whose kids have grown up participating in this olive harvest.
“I always like having a chance to talk to community members at Scripps,” Heffner said.
Salas also values the community-building aspect of this tradition.
“While our award-winning olive oil is the end product, the best part of this tradition is the harvest day when everyone comes together to gather olives, chat with friends, and make new ties,” she wrote.
According to Salas, their biggest challenge is getting people to attend the harvest.
“The grounds department facilitates everything and is very active during the event, but we need as many hands as possible,” she wrote. “High participation equals more olives, and that’s what we need to produce a high number of bottles. We sell out every year.”
Executive Vice President of Scripps Associated Students Rebecca Yao SC ’26 said she thinks students would be more likely to attend the harvest if the college promoted it more directly and engaged with students more.
“In the future, if they have low attendance or if they want to promote it more, they could have a student be more involved in the process,” she said.
Neither Yao nor Heffner has tasted the olive oil, but both expressed interest in a taste-testing event. They also both shared an interest in connecting the event with other edible plants around Scripps campus, like kumquats and lemons.
“I think just in general there isn’t too much education about the different food resources on Scripps and the fact that it is technically an edible campus, and that’s a rare and cool thing,” Heffner said.
Salas hopes the conditions will be right for the olive harvest tradition to continue in the fall of 2026.
“Given the generous amount of rain we’ve had this winter, I am cautiously optimistic we will have enough fruit for [the] fall harvest in 2026. That will be very timely and special as it will be the college’s centennial celebration,” she said.
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