Twenty-Five Years of Liquid Gold in the Santa Ynez Valley

Twenty-five years since beginning Global Gardens, Theo Stephan is no less passionate about her mission to preach the glories of good olive oil. With all of her business — the crucial club membership work, retail, product development, tastings, cooking classes — unified under one roof in a bright Santa Ynez cottage, Stephan seems pleased. Ever an educator, she says she’s achieved her goal “when people taste real food and realize how simple and easy it is, especially where we are in California. It’s far reaching — the story of olive oil goes back; you can see olive leaves pressed in Paleolithic stones.”

That doesn’t mean her work has always been a piece of delicious olive oil cake. “While our 25th anniversary of being Santa Barbara County’s first and most awarded olive oil producer is a really big deal to me,” she also points out the tougher side of a business, “Twenty-five years of climate change — trust me it’s an issue! — and perseverance as a single mom, with red tape all over the place.”

Those following the locations of her physical business have had to keep on their toes. In 2003 there was a tasting counter at Buttonwood Farm in Solvang; in 2006 she had her first brick and mortar spot on Alamo Pintado in Los Olivos, “but that got out of sight,” she recalls about the rent. Next up was a temporary café in Los Alamos (now Babi’s Beer Emporium) until 2014, when her family farm stand on the outskirts of Los Olivos became the spot. When that grew too popular for its parking spaces, she looked elsewhere, and the Santa Ynez location opened up. “To land here has been a gift, we love Santa Ynez,” she says.