| Nion McEvoy's Ranch |
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Page 1 of 2 San Francisco Chronicle scion Nion McEvoy has turned his playground retreat into serious business 
Nion McEvoy has always marched to the beat of his own drum. Fortunately, he’s an experienced percussionist. Photo by Todd Hido
Beyond the gate topped by a fat bronze rabbit, up the winding dirt road lined with olive trees, past the Joel Shapiro sculpture and the blue BMW 740 parked in front of the California ranch house, through the door, and up the stairs, Nion McEvoy is trying to take a shower. “Nion!” yells ranch contractor Jeff Callinan, pounding on the bathroom door. “You have a visitor!” It appears the 56-year-old CEO of Chronicle Books and co-owner of McEvoy Ranch, a 550-acre Marin County property that produces organic olives, doesn’t get much privacy. McEvoy needs time to towel off before our interview, so I take a stroll outside. I walk beside a pool that overlooks a pond, which is backed by rolling hills covered in olive trees. If I weren’t walking toward a Chinese pagoda with a giant copper lizard scaling its roof, I’d swear I was in Tuscany. On the opposite end of the courtyard sits a lacy Victorian building that houses a cherry-red Yamaha piano signed by Elton John. The eclectic surroundings reflect the tastes of McEvoy, the great-grandson of San Francisco Chronicle founder Michael de Young. The inspiration for the purchase of the former dairy farm belongs to his mother, Nan Tucker McEvoy, who decided to buy the property so that her grandchildren, Helen, Griffin, and Nion Jr., would have a place to run wild. There was only one minor detail: Because the land was zoned for agriculture, the McEvoy family would have to find a crop to cultivate. “Olives amused me,” Nan likes to say, so in the early nineties she imported 3,000 trees from Italy. She and Nion also imported Maurizio Castelli, an olive guru from Tuscany who quickly helped turn the farm into the largest producer of estate-grown organic olives in California. Their McEvoy Ranch Traditional Blend and Olio Nuovo oils have been such successes that the ranch recently launched an olive-oil-based skin-care line. When I wander into the kitchen, Mark Rohrmeier, one of two full-time chefs, interrupts his celery-root chopping to offer me a piece of steaming baguette slathered in . . . butter. “Don’t tell the boss,” Rohrmeier says. 
A pagoda on the property? Yes, because they can. Photo by Todd Hido.
“I’m a drummer,” McEvoy later tells me. “I set the beat and create the space for other things to happen.” What’s happening at the ranch right now is harvest time. There’s a tangy scent of crushed olives in the air as John Deere tractors zoom around the 80-acre grove harvesting seven varieties of olives and putting them through the state-of-the-art Rapanelli Sinolea extractor, which gently draws out the oil from the paste without using heat or pressure. The end result is certified-organic virgin olive oil so rich and flavorful that it regularly wins awards, such as the 2005 Gold Medal at the L.A. County Fair. In a week, the McEvoys will throw their annual Harvest Party, with tyco drummers, zydeco bands, belly dancers, and a guest list that includes their 50 employees and friends such as Mickey Hart of the Grateful Dead and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. |
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