Georgia Discusses Proposed Olive Oil Marketing Order This Week in Tifton, GA

 Farming & Gardening, Georgia, Marketing, Olive Oil Standards, Seminars, USDA  Comments Off
Apr 072012
 

I want to pass on another great bit of information about an olive business event in Georgia that is happening THIS WEEK.

Members of the fledgling US east coast olive growing and olive oil producing industries have the chance to participate in a “business-changing” event with global implications. If you are already involved or even thinking about becoming involved in growing olives for olive oil production or are interested in just the olive oil production side of the business you must attend the presentation and discussion of the proposed federal olive oil marketing order.

This important presentation and discussion will be held on Wednesday, April 11, 2012 at the University of Georgia’s, National Environmentally Sound Production Agriculture Laboratory (NESPAL) Building, 2356 Rainwater Road, Tifton, GA 31793.

If you plan to attend, please contact  Beth Oleson, Executive Director of the Georgia Olive Growers Association, by email at georgiaolivegrowers@asginfo.net or by phone at (706) 845-9085.

There is supposed to be a Google Map to the location just beneath these words but I noticed that sometimes I need to refresh my webpage to see the map. In case the map doesn’t show up or refresh doesn’t work, I added a link to the map in the address just above.


View Larger Map

May the sun shine through your branches.

www.olivecrazy.com

Olive Crazy Has an Extra Virgin Olive Oil Eureka Moment

 Health & Beauty  Comments Off
Mar 062012
 

Extra virgin olive oil is a part of my family’s daily life. During my reading for Olive Crazy I see all kinds of ways people use olive oil. Lately, the early spring has me taking over-the-counter medications to dry up my sniffles. It seems like no matter how much water I drink I can’t moisturize my mouth and throat. As a result I sleep poorly and snore worse than usual.

A couple nights ago, before sleeping, I was using my bedside bottle of California Olive Ranch Everyday California Extra Virgin Olive Oil to moisturize my face and body. I screwed on the bottle cap and thought how I would spend another miserable night all dried up and snoring. I looked at the bottle I was just getting ready to set down and Eureka – I had an idea. I unscrewed the cap to the COR evoo, took a swig, settled in, and promptly fell asleep.

The next morning when I woke I realized that I had slept through the night. I didn’t wake up once for a drink of water. Also, I didn’t have that crappy, groggy feeling you get when you’ve snored horribly all night.

I had another day of medications and tried the olive oil swig again, with the same results. I hope I’ve stumbled on to another benefit of extra virgin olive oil. I have another dry night ahead, so we’ll see.

May the sun shine through your branches.

www.olivecrazy.com

Not Sure Your Extra Virgin Olive Oil Is Real? Tips for Taste Testing at Home.

 Cooking & Eating, Taste Test, The Flavors of Olive Oil: A Tasting Guide and Cookbook by Deborah Krasner  Comments Off
Feb 232012
 

Have you kept up with all the news about fake olive oil or low-grade olive oil being passed off as extra virgin? I have and even though I just had my first official taste testing, I do test each bottle I buy. So you’re probably thinking – what do I do if my olive oil doesn’t taste right? TAKE IT BACK TO THE STORE. I do and they always take it back and refund my money.

Like with any food, trial and error is the key to finding and consuming fresh and tasty products. One important thing to remember about olive oil – it is a food and is perishable – fresh is best. It is harvested in late fall and early winter in the Northern Hemisphere and late spring and early summer in the Southern Hemisphere. There are many factors that affect flavor and quality from weather to milling to bottling to storage.

There are many books and articles on olive oil tasting, but for home taste testing I prefer the methods used by Culinary Professional, Deborah Krasner, in her lovely and well-researched book, The Flavors of Olive Oil: A Tasting Guide and Cookbook.

Deborah helps make taste testing simpler and more accessible. She developed her own classifications that focus on the flavors of oil. This is a more useful way of matching oils with foods. Her categories are:

  • Delicate and Mild – Subtle and short-lived, not to be confused with tasteless. Goes well with tender lettuces, fresh peas, mild cheeses.
  • Fruity and Fragrant – Blend of rich tastes and smells of apples and green leafy vegetables. Drizzle on pasta, mixed salads, oranges, dessert cheeses, chicken breasts.
  • Olivey and Peppery – Taste and smell begins as rich olive and finishes in the throat with a zing. Use for roasting meats, in pasta sauces, on breads, on whole grains.
  • Leafy Green and Grassy – Taste and smell of strong herbs. Dress pasta with just oil, garlic, and cheese; strong-flavored salads; garnish for bean soups.

Now that you know what flavors to look for and some of the foods those flavors enhance, follow these tips for holding your own extra virgin olive oil taste test at home.

  • Purchase and assemble the extra virgin olive oils you wish to test. Deborah Krasner suggests you choose oils that are estate-bottled (processed and bottled on the premises where they were grown) from at least four different countries. I recommend picking evoo from several countries around the world, not just Mediterranean. There are so many selections to choose from – be adventurous.
  • Buy a bunch of the 5oz. wax coated paper cups. The kind you find in some folks bathrooms. They are good for testing since they don’t alter the taste and conduct radical temperature changes. Make sure you buy enough so that you do not reuse a cup.
  • Pour about one tablespoon of oil in each cup. Make sure that one tablespoon is sufficient to completely coat your tongue and your throat when swallowed. You must be able to engage taste, touch, and smell with each sample. If you need more oil in your cup, add it.
  • The best time to have an evoo taste test is mid morning. Your senses are sharper at that time of day.
  • Do not eat anything spicy or strongly-flavored for several hours before a taste test and nothing about an hour before. Cleanse your palate with a green/Granny Smith apple and some plain water before beginning.
  • Hold the cup in both your hands to warm to body temperature. Cover the opening with your hands as well to trap the aromas.
  • Put your nose in the cup and smell the aromas.
  • Take a sufficient amount into your mouth to swirl around and coat your tongue.
  • Suck in a little air and swallow.
  • From the time you inhale the first aromas to the time you swallow the oil take note of the flavors, scents, and feel of the oil.
  • Record your findings. If you smell, taste or feel something different than you see listed in any olive tasting guides or glossaries, write it down just like your senses picked it up. Olive oil is produced in more and more places around the world and the sensory guidelines are bound to add new attributes and defects over time.
  • Take a bite of apple and a sip of water and try the next oil.
  • After you have completed the round, do it again, but this time in a different order. You might be surprised at the differences you pick up the second time around.
  • Now that these bottles have been opened, store them in a cool (not cold) dark place. With time the tastes you picked up may change a little or a lot. Save your notes and if you still have some oil left in about six months (hopefully not) conduct another test and you will have some good information on what an oil tastes like as it ages. Some become more mellow and others not so nice.

May the sun shine through your branches.

www.olivecrazy.com

The First Olive Crazy Non-Professional Extra Virgin Olive Oil Taste Test

 Cooking & Eating, Sensory Evaluation, Taste Test  2 Responses »
Feb 212012
 

Before my son, James, went off to Army Basic Training yesterday he helped me conduct Olive Crazy’s first non-professional extra virgin olive oil taste test. Like true non-professionals we made up our own rules and had fun with it.

First we read over the lists of positive olive oil attributes and negative attributes aka defects that we gleaned from The Olive Oil Times. Then we decided to make up our own tasting terminology and to keep it simple – either it was a keeper or it was headed for the trash bin. If it was a keeper we distinguished the oils by the way we used them, and since James and I are the big olive oil users in the house we got to pick the words that best suited our needs, likes, and dislikes.

The keeper category was divided into three sub-categories based on how we cook and consume, not which we thought was better. We found some colored star stickers in a drawer and decided to use the colors to help us remember which oil was in which category.

A gold star was given for the stronger flavored oils that James and I tend to prefer. A silver star for those that were milder in flavor but had a lot of character. A blue star was given to the oils that we would use in everday cooking for ourselves and the other members of the Olive Crazy household. We put the stars on the bottles to help guide us whenever we prepared a dish. We usually have a lot of different types of extra virgin olive oils around the house so we definitely needed some sort of system.

The ‘destined for the trash bin’ category was not subdivided. If it didn’t smell or taste of fresh olives it didn’t deserve further acknowledgement.

Our extra virgin test subjects were the seven olive oils I just purchased from the California Olive Ranch: Limited Reserve, Everyday California, Arbequina, Arbosana, Miller’s Blend, Oroville Ranch, and Artois Ranch. I had some little disposable plastic cups and a big glass of water for each of us at the ready.

We warmed the oil in our hands by cradling one cup in the  palm of one hand while covering the top of the cup with the other hand. I’m not sure if we were supposed to swirl or not but we did a little bit. It seemed the natural thing to do. We then stuck our noses into the cups and took big, deep sniffs. I showed James how to do strippaggio by sucking in the air along with the olive oil as it travels from the front to the back of the tongue. I am over zealous when I am strippaggioing and always end up choking myself on the oil flying around my mouth. James got lots of laughs out of Mom coughing on the oil which went up the back of my nose combined with the coughing at the bright peppery tang of most of the oils as I swallowed. I swear all that coughing felt like exercise.

After about a half an hour and some re-tasting I am proud to say that none of the California Olive Ranch EVOOs were trash bin worthy. Each oil had a beautiful aroma of fresh olives and while each was different, each was also delicious. Here are our very non-professional findings.

Gold Star (Stronger Flavor)

  • Miller’s Blend – This was our favorite. It had a rich olive scent that smelled like broiled New York Strip steak. It was buttery, grassy, with a strong pepper finish. James and I agreed we would use this oil in all our cooking.
  • Arbequina – The initial aroma was clean and light. After the milder scent we were surprised at the robust flavors of fruit and artichokes. It had a nice peppery finish. Again we would use this one for everything.
  • Oroville Ranch – This olive oil isn’t on the California Olive Ranch website anymore. It had a light olive scent with a powerful, bold flavor and a big pepper punch. Wonderful.

Silver Star (More Complex Flavors)

  • Arbosana – A light, fresh olive smell. The flavor was very distinctive unlike any of the other oils. We tasted strong fruit, nuts, and green vegetables. There wasn’t much pepper at the end. It was a favorite.
  • Limited Reserve – A rich olive aroma. Sharp with a mixed green vegetables flavor. Had a great chewy feel. Lots of bold pepper going down the throat. Amazing.

Blue Star (Mild and Less Complex)

  • Everyday California – Buttery, slight fruit but almost sweet. Some surprising pepper. I do use this extra virgin every single day.
  • Artois Ranch – Like the Oroville Ranch it isn’t on the website any longer. This was by far the mildest of all the oils. Light aroma, less viscosity, very little pepper. An excellent all around olive oil and great for evoo beginners.

As you may have guessed the color of the stars doesn’t have anything to do with how good the olive oil is but with flavor categories. I just happened to have an abundance of stars in these three colors.

Taste testing these California Olive Ranch Extra Virgin Olive Oils was a fun and interesting activity for a Mom and her now soldier son. Hooah!!

May the sun shine through your branches.

www.olivecrazy.com

 

And One Olive Thing Leads to Another

 Australia, Cooking & Eating, Olives and Olive Oil in General  Comments Off
Jan 212012
 

After I wrote my sci fi fantasy olive article yesterday, I was doing research for another, more tame, Olive Crazy article. This time I wanted some technical stuff so I went over to the Australian Olive Association site for a look around. There it was – an article aptly named Technical Information. I started reading the technical information, but didn’t get far.

Somewhere after Corregiola and before Frantoio in the first sentence of the first paragraph I got hungry. It was time for lunch. Then I remembered that I’d run out of most of my extra virgin olive oil stash and needed to get some more. Hells bells! I really loved the California Olive Ranch Limited Reserve Extra Virgin Olive Oil that was about to run out so I went to the COR shop and started to agonize.

Me to me: Should I get the Limited Reserve again?

me back to Me: Well duh! It is Limited therefore it is cool and besides it tastes really good.

Me: Okay, I’ll order a six-pack this time. Mouse poised over “Add to Cart” button.

me: Whoa Me! They’ve got some other extra virgins to choose from. Let’s check them out.

Me and me: Ooooooo! Ahhhhhhh!

Me: Good idea me. I’m going to get one of everything and the biggest bottles they have.

me: Good job! Now get back to work so we can go eat.

For those of you who are curious here is what I bought. While you look, me and Me are going to step into the kitchen and eat a leftover hamburger patty and eggplant slices, gently warmed in the microwave and doused in what is left of the Limited Reserve.

Limited Reserve Extra Virgin Olive Oil (500 ml bottle) 1 17.97
Everyday California Extra Virgin Olive Oil (750 ml bottle) 1 15.99
Ranch Selects – Medium and Fruity Extra Virgin Olive Oil (500 ml bottle) 1 15.99
Ranch Selects – Mild and Buttery Extra Virgin Olive Oil (500 ml bottle) 1 15.99
Arbequina Extra Virgin Olive Oil (500 ml bottle) 1 13.99
Arbosana Extra Virgin Olive Oil (500 ml bottle) 1 13.99
Miller’s Blend Extra Virgin Olive Oil (500 ml bottle) 1 13.99

 

Okay, I’m back (Me and me agreed to return to I). Lunch was divine. Now for the technical stuff straight from the AOA website. I think it is very interesting. Fatty acids are amazing!

“About 90% of Australian olive oil is produced from 10 major varieties of olives, which include Arbequina, Barnea, Coratina, Corregiola, Frantoio, Koroneiki, Leccino, Manzanillo, Pendolino and Picual.  Olive oils contain phytosterols which are well known for their nutritive value which helps with the reduction of cholesterol absorption. Australian olive oils generally have high levels of sterols.

The recognised low levels of free fatty acids (FFA’s) and peroxide value (PV) in Australian EVOO’s indicates the high quality of harvesting, processing and storage.

Olive oils also have 13 other beneficial fatty acids including oleic, palmitic, linoleic and linolenic acids.

Oleic Acid:  Oleic acid is named after olive oil (olea).  Monounsaturated oleic acid is known to have health benefits. The content of oleic acid in Australian EVOO’s varies significantly and makes up 55% to 85% of olive oil.

Palmitic Acid:  This saturated fatty acid provides stability in oils which leads to a longer shelf life.  Australian EVOO’s are unique in providing the consumer with oils that produce very low levels of saturated palmitic acid.

Linoleic Acid:  Linoleic acid can vary from 3% to 23% depending on different regions and cultivars.  Linoleic acid is a polyunsaturated fatty acid that is less stable than saturated and monounsaturated fatty acids. By selecting the fatty acid profile of the oil to suit the purpose, the best outcomes are achieved with the benefit of the optimum, nutritive olive oil.

Linolenic Acid:  Linolenic acid is an omega-3 acid, as it is found in fish oil fatty acids EPA and DHA. Linolenic acid is less stable and olive oil has useful levels of this fatty acid.”

May the sun shine through your C-C-C-C-C-C-C-C-C-C-C-C-C-C-C-C-C-COOH producing branches.

www.olivecrazy.com

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