Agritourism Takes Off at Arizona’s Queen Creek Olive Mill

Fifty kilo­me­ters south­east of Phoenix, Arizona’s only active olive mill is work­ing to pro­mote extra vir­gin olive oil con­sump­tion through agri­tain­ment.

Perry and Brenda Rea founded Queen Creek Olive Mill with their five chil­dren in 2005. Since then, it has flour­ished into a mul­ti­fac­eted farm­ing, milling and tourism oper­a­tion, attract­ing more than 650,000 peo­ple annu­ally.

“Agritourism was new to Arizona when we began our busi­ness,” Perry Rea told Olive Oil Times. ​“We wanted to cre­ate a des­ti­na­tion like one you could find in Italy, where you can see the farm, take a tour of the facil­ity, eat the locally grown food and spend a whole day enjoy­ing your­self.”

The Rea (pro­nounced Ray-uh) fam­ily started by plant­ing dif­fer­ent olive tree vari­eties to see what could work in Arizona’s desert cli­mate, typ­i­fied by extremely hot sum­mers and short, mild win­ters. The oper­a­tion grew organ­i­cally from there, Rea said.

The 22-hectare prop­erty has eight hectares of olive trees planted in medium den­sity, with nearly 10,000 Arbosana and Koroneiki trees and var­i­ous oth­ers planted around the prop­erty.

“Knowing peo­ple would have to travel about an hour out­side of any Phoenix to get here, we added a restau­rant to our small olive oil shop filled with locally curated prod­ucts, vine­gar, stuffed olives, tape­nades, and, of course, our extra vir­gin olive oil,” Rea said.

Agritourism aims to pro­vide vis­i­tors with an edu­ca­tional and recre­ational expe­ri­ence related to agri­cul­ture and rural life. It can also be a way for farm­ers to diver­sify their income and pro­mote sus­tain­able agri­cul­ture.

“Having our 56-acre (22-hectare) farm out in the mid­dle of nowhere as Queen Creek was back in the early 2000s allowed us to be a des­ti­na­tion that peo­ple from Phoenix and tourists from out-of-state would want to travel to,” Rea said. ​“Many of our cus­tomers were inter­ested in what made good, high-qual­ity extra vir­gin olive oil and the prac­tices we used to make it.”

John Rea, Queen Creek Olive Mill’s pres­i­dent, said agri­tourism cre­ates an envi­ron­ment for poten­tial extra vir­gin olive oil con­sumers to learn what sets the prod­uct apart from other edi­ble oils regard­ing its health ben­e­fits and organolep­tic qual­i­ties.

“We wanted to cre­ate a space for our guests to explore the world of extra vir­gin olive oil, enjoy healthy and local foods, and, of course, share a bot­tle of wine under the shade of an olive tree,” he told Olive Oil Times.

“We think it is vital for every­one to under­stand and appre­ci­ate the impor­tance of a high-qual­ity extra vir­gin olive oil,” Rea added. ​“We want every per­son who leaves our farm to think twice the next time they pur­chase olive oil at their local gro­cery store.”

Two-thirds of olive oil pro­duc­ers said they wel­comed tourists to their farm, mill and facil­i­ties, accord­ing to a recent Olive Oil Times sur­vey. Forty-five per­cent of respon­dents said tourism was impor­tant to their busi­nesses.

Tastings were the most com­mon activ­ity, with 87 per­cent of respon­dents offer­ing the expe­ri­ence. Sixty-one per­cent orga­nized estate or har­vest tours and nearly 39 per­cent said they ran courses or work­shops.

As Queen Creek grows, the plan is to keep up with inter­est by adding new offer­ings and oppor­tu­ni­ties through expan­sion.

“We con­stantly attract peo­ple to our farm through din­ing, fes­ti­vals, events, new prod­ucts and edu­ca­tional oppor­tu­ni­ties,” Rea said. ​“People are hun­gry for knowl­edge, and that’s what we offer. Whether through our Olive Oil 101 class, trac­tor farm tours or pizza-mak­ing classes, we are con­stantly teach­ing.”

According to Perry Rea, who recently com­pleted the Olive Oil Times Education Lab Sommelier Certificate Program in New York, adopt­ing agri­tourism is a nec­es­sary syn­ergy for olive oil pro­duc­ers to suc­ceed in a highly com­pet­i­tive busi­ness.

“We would not have suc­ceeded if we hadn’t cre­ated an agri­tourism busi­ness with our olive oil pro­duc­tion,” he said. ​“It’s not enough to make high-qual­ity extra vir­gin olive oil; you also have to evolve into some­thing that will make peo­ple want to come to the farm and bring their friends and rel­a­tives from out of town. Create some­thing unique that is hard to find out­side of Europe.”

According to the local news out­let, Queen Creek Tribune, the Queen Creek Olive Mill recently received new zon­ing cer­ti­fi­ca­tion that cleared the way for a 13-hectare expan­sion. The Queen Creek Planning and Zoning Commission noted that the expan­sion would help pro­mote the area’s agri­cul­tural her­itage.

The agri­tain­ment zon­ing cat­e­gory was non-exis­tent when Queen Creek opened to the pub­lic. Seeking approval for plans became prob­lem­atic as the town’s exist­ing zon­ing cat­e­gories did not cover the types of expan­sion sought.

John Rea said Queen Creek is proud of its rich farm­ing his­tory and is going through dra­matic growth like many towns in the greater Phoenix area. ​“There just needed to be a zon­ing cat­e­gory that would accom­mo­date the type of busi­ness we had cre­ated,” he said.

The solu­tion adopted by the zon­ing com­mit­tee was to allow the own­ers of busi­nesses in Queen Creek to help write a new zon­ing cat­e­gory called agri­tain­ment, allow­ing for var­i­ous uses, includ­ing retail, restau­rants, hotels, res­i­den­tial and venue spaces.

“We have a few things in mind, but the imme­di­ate future will be a build­ing expan­sion, allow­ing us to have more ware­house space, a more exten­sive pro­duc­tion facil­ity and a big­ger over­all foot­print,” Rea said. ​“We are con­sid­er­ing adding more eater­ies, con­cepts and venue spaces in the slightly more dis­tant future.”

“We are a very com­pre­hen­sive busi­ness. Farming, har­vest­ing, milling, bot­tling, and sell­ing,” he added. ​“We carry it fur­ther by offer­ing an on-premise restau­rant, pri­vate venue areas, a two-acre (0.8‑hectare) pic­nic area under olive trees that can accom­mo­date 600 peo­ple, cof­fee roast­ing by Infusion Coffee Labs, a selec­tion of wines, and local craft beer.”

Along with 32 extra vir­gin olive oil and olive oil-based prod­ucts, Queen Creek Olive Mill imports and blends its bal­samic vinai­grette from Modena, Italy. Still, Perry Rea sees tourism as a demand dri­ver for these prod­ucts.

“Agriculture is fun­da­men­tal in the shap­ing and birth of Queen Creek,” he said. ​“We aim to honor that through our olive farm and agri­tourism des­ti­na­tion. We do this through our sus­tain­abil­ity ini­tia­tive, edu­ca­tion, and future growth.”

John Rea added that focus­ing on sus­tain­abil­ity is also essen­tial, demon­strat­ing to vis­i­tors that extra vir­gin olive oil ben­e­fits their health and the envi­ron­ment.

“We believe giv­ing back to the earth is impor­tant, which is why we com­post, use drip irri­ga­tion, have solar pan­els, and we’ve even built a 3.5 mil­lion gal­lon (13 mil­lion liter) irri­ga­tion pond on our farm,” he said. ​“As cus­to­di­ans of Queen Creek’s agri­cul­tural legacy, we aspire to har­mo­nize tra­di­tion with con­tin­ual strides in inno­va­tion.”

• Queen Creek Tribune