UC Davis won three gold medals Monday for its extra virgin olive oil at the Los Angeles County Fair, which is sponsor of the nation's largest international olive oil competition.

UC Davis' Wolfskill oil, produced from 144-year-old trees in Winters, received a gold medal in the Mission Blend category. A second UC Davis oil, named Gunrock after the campus mascot, also received a gold medal in the Mission Blend category, along with a Best of Class award. The third oil, a four-olive blend named The Quad, received a gold medal in the Manzanillo Blend category.

Sal Genito, director of the campus buildings and grounds division, credited the expertise of Paul Vossen in blending Gunrock and The Quad. Vossen is a UC farm advisor for Sonoma and Marin Counties and the state's leading authority on sensory evaluation of olive oil.

This is just the second year that UC Davis has produced olive oil from the fruit of campus trees. The idea came to Genito when he visited an accident scene on the bike path along Russell Boulevard in 2004. A cyclist had fallen after running over olives that had dropped from the adjacent trees.

"I got to the accident and the pavement smelled like olive oil. So we improved safety and reduced maintenance costs by harvesting the olives. Now we're making a sustainable, high-quality product," Genito said.

The oils, released in a limited quantity last month, are still available at the UC Davis Bookstore (bookstore.ucdavis.edu), the Animal Science Meat Lab at(530) 752-7410 or oliveoil.ucdavis.edu. Proceeds will go to campus efforts to assist commercial farmers and backyard gardeners.

For details, visit www.fairplex.com/wine2006/wNewsroom/2006Results.asp.