There are a handful of Texas olive growers who will be harvesting an appreciable crop this year, the fruits of 5 to 7 years of planning. The race is on to see who gets to market first. David and Beverley Anderson of Dilley, Texas went to one of the first meetings of the Texas Olive Oil Council put together by Trigg Dealey. They were originally more interested in how to kill a feral olive tree in their yard to put in a deck.
Once bit by the olive bug, they joined a group which imported Italian Tuscan varieties straight from Italy. Their one year old trees have been in the ground for 4 years and are getting ready to produce a large amount of olives this year.
Four
year
old
trees
on
the
Anderson
Ranch
144 Pendolino, Maurino, Leccino and Frantoio are planted in 16 x 20 spacing on a 1 acre plot of sandy loam soil. Another rancher south of San Antonio has put in over 1000 trees of varied types. Mission, Spanish, Tuscan, and even Middle Eastern varieties have been planted in this area of Texas close to the Mexican border. Test plots are being established by county agricultural extension experts based out of Texas A&M. The Andersons are "hosting" several French varieties
David
demonstrates
his
planting
technique?
Dilley is south of San Antonio at an elevation of 300 ft. and has not been plagued with the hard freezes which have frustrated fellow Texans. Jim Henry of the Austin area and Jack Dougherty at the Bella Vista ranch in the 1,500 ft hill country lost many trees to winter weather. Jim finally gave up and moved his trees further south. As far as other pests, like most Texas olive oil farmers, the Andersons have had to erect 10 ft. fences to keep out deer and feral pigs.
Most Texas olive ranchers have had to be self educated. University agricultural advisors do not have much experience with olives. Communication has been scant between Texas growers. Trigg Dealey, the founder of the Texas Olive Oil Association did arrange for Dr. Giuseppe Fontanazza of Italy to visit and lecture on his patented dwarf varieties.
Trigg Dealey has been planning a Texas olive-oil business for nearly 10 years but has been frustrated by weather extremes. Many of his own trees froze. He is currently negotiating financing agreements to use other individual's property for olive-oil production in the more hospitable area around
Dilley.
The Olive Oil Source will be installing small centrifugal presses at several locations in Texas this year.
For inquiries about the Texas Olive Oil Council email Trigg Dealey at
oliveoil@home.com
16
x
20
spacing
on
trees
gives
room
for
future
mechanical
picking
Verona - In the giant Exhibition area outside of Verona, Italy three major trade shows occurred simultaneously last month. Visitors came from around the world to learn about the two main products of the Mediterranean diet: wine and extra-virgin olive oil. It is a head-spinning amount of information to process in the brief 5
days.
VinItaly is the monster part of the show with 3,300 exhibitors from 21 countries giving tastings of their new wine offerings. Organizers call it an "around the wine world in five days trip". Huge tent after tent tempt the visitor with beautiful booths offering sips of the best wines in the world. But this article is not about the
wine.
The olive oil show, SOL, occurs in a different area of the exhibition space. Over 330 producers from 12 countries show their olive oil in an attempt to attract importers and retailers. There are guided tasting sessions, conventions, and debates on a wide range of subjects. Visitors consume large quantities of calories dipping up oil with bread, crackers, or spoons and leave with satchels weighted with free bottles of oil.
Bottle
Display
at
Enolitech
In conjunction with SOL the ninth annual “Leone d’Oro” International olive oil competition compares the world’s best oils. The jury is an international tasting panel of experts chosen by the Master Oil Producers Association. The organizers of SOL hope the competition will spread knowledge of the different varieties of extra-virgin olive oils and stimulate companies to continually improve their products. All Italian and foreign extra-virgin olive oils present at SOL2001 were admitted to the competition along with companies who applied for participation.
Pruning
Demonstration
at Enolitech
2001
Occupying a small corner of the Verona fairgrounds is Enolitech. It is a showcase for equipment for the olive oil and wine industries. 200 companies, mostly from Italy, show olive presses, bottles, bottling equipment, corks, pruners, pickers, tanks, etc.
Alfa Laval showed its new line of high-end large capacity centrifuge decanters. Olerina introduced their larger capacity 100kg/hr small centrifugal press. The Olive Oil Source is importing these presses which were developed in conjunction with the University of Florence. Interesting features in this machine include a low speed gear type mill which prevents emulsion, and optional deleafer and final clarifier.
Please note, for fall delivery of Italian presses - the presses are custom ordered and ocean shipped. Much of Italy is "on vacation" in the summer months. We must have orders in by third week in May to guarantee you will get your equipment by harvest time.
Stainless Tank and Fusti Customers
We are taking final orders for a container leaving Italy in 1 week. Next container may not come in before harvest time.
Lago del Garda,
Italy - This resort area in Northern Italy is an hour from Verona. While covering the Verona Sol and Enolitech exhibition, my translator, Madlyn Murphy invited me to meet her Italian cousins. I was taken to Somavilla at the top of a high hill. Finding a great view of Lago del Garda and the Italian Alps is easy, getting there is hard. Heading straight up the crooked lanes, I had my feet firmly braced on the dashboard of the SUV. The road deteriorated from narrow and rocky to non-existent. From a slippery ridge, rows of olive trees could be seen below. The crop is removed by sure footed donkeys with carts.
Things are still done the old way. Pickers use a precarious pole jabbed into the ground with stubby rungs welded to it. They will wrap a leg around the pole while up about 20 feet to reach out and rake the olives. Trees are not replanted no matter how wizened or gnarled from accidents or disease.
Don't try to
drive your Cadillac
to pick olives
in the Italian
Lakes District
As usual, the people of this region proclaim their oil "the best". It is indeed very good, made in small quantities from an unusual variety seen only in this district of Brenzone in the Lakes Area.
"Cousins" Giorgio and Wanda Furioni of Assensa invited me into their farm house to taste this season's olive oil made by their family and to eat "some leftovers". I was treated to a mouthwatering spread. The olive oil was excellent with a very delayed burn. There was fresh bread to be dipped in the oil, an out of this world homemade salami, other meats, soup and salad, and lardo (smoked pork fat), spread on bread. Carpadelle was served, a delicious ball of bread, cheeses, parsley and spices held together with beaten egg floating in a fragrant
soup.
I joined a family pilgrimage to the town of Riva at the northern-most end of the lake for a special Gelato with fresh fruits and sauces. With every option it was the Italian version of a banana split.
We know that the Mediterranean-style diet helps prevent heart attacks but can it help those who have already had one? The long term GISSI study in Europe evaluated the dietary habits of 11,324 Italians after they had a heart attack. They found that patients who consumed the most butter had nearly three times the risk of dying within 42 months after their attack as those who ate a diet primarily rich in vegetables, fish, fruit, and olive oil. This just reinforces what we already know: good dietary habits are the cornerstone of heart health.
Michael
Chiarello,
chef
and
founder
of
Tra
Vigne
Restaurant
in
Napa
has
branched
beyond
his
olive
oils,
vinegars
and
spices
to
create
a
"lifestyle"
company
which
produces
books,
radio
and
television
programming
such
as
the
NPR
television
series
"Season
by
Season".
His
NapaStyle
Catalog
sells
wine,
furniture,
gardening
implements,
seeds
and
new
Meyer
lemon
and
Blood
Orange
extra
virgin
olive
oils.
Caroline
Critelli
Leaves
Calio
Groves
One
of
the
founders
of
Critelli
Olive
Oil
which
was
bought
by
Calio
Groves,
Caroline
will
join
her
husband
Nicola
in
his
new
restaurant
Vintage
Cafe
at
Manka's
Corner
in
Suisun,
CA
near
Fairfield.
The
California
olive
oil
community
wishes
them
good
luck
in
their
new
venture
Bertolli
gets
new
creative
company
Carapelli's
new
U.S.
television
marketing
campaign
may
have
stirred
things
up
at
competitor
Unilever's
Bertolli
Olive
Oil
who
has
fired
McCann-Erickson
and
hired
Bartle
Bogle
Hegarty
as
their
new
Advertising
agency,
with
an
ad
budget
of
around
$4
million
a
year
in
the
U.S.
Deal
reached
on
olive
cannery
Olive
growers
have
reached
agreement
to
reopen
a
Madera
cannery.
A
new
cooperative,
California
Olive
Growers,
will
buy
the
processing
plant
from
bankrupt
Tri
Valley
Growers.
It
bought
the
former
Oberti
Olive
plant
for
$1,
but
assumed
nearly
$10
million
in
costs
to
clean
up
contaminated
drying
ponds.
Backers
of
the
new
cooperative
say
they
hope
the
plant
can
reopen
in
time
to
process
this
year's
crop.-
Farm
Bureau
Federation
Big
storm
losses
in
Tulare
Another
Central
Valley
county
reports
multi-million-dollar
damage
from
early
April
weather.
Tulare
County
agricultural
officials
estimate
nearly
$7
million
damage
from
frost
and
hail.
Tree-fruit
crops
suffered
most
of
the
losses.
Overall
damage
to
grapes,
tree
fruit,
cotton
and
vegetable
crops
now
exceeds
$30
million
in
the
central
San
Joaquin
Valley
alone
-
California
Farm
Bureau
Federation
A
reader
asks:
What
antioxidants
are used
in the
olive
industry
to retard
rancidity
and
Oxidation.
Also, I
understand
that
crushing
of the
seed
releases
enzymes
which
directly
impacts on
the
stability
factor.
OOS
replies:
Olives are loaded with natural antioxidants
such as polyphenols and tocopherols.
See last month's newsletter.
As for the pits, far less than one percent of the olives made into olive oil have their pits removed before processing.
Companies which do remove the pit
claim that
their oil is better.
I am not
aware of
any
studies
that show
this to
increase shelf life and I
have yet
to see a
preponderance
of these
oils
winning awards in blind tasting competitions. The only thing we use to retard oxidation is cool,
dark
storage and filtration of the smaller pulp fragments.
Paul
Asks:
I have a quantity of ripe black olives that
I
want to cure - I've read a lot of recipes and and have a couple of queries:
1. Most say you should "crack open" or "slice" each olive - I don't recall seeing cuts in olives that I buy? Is this necessary?
2. Many of the recipes say "change the water each day for about 14 days" 0thers just say "soak in water for 14 days" - Is it necessary to change the water each day?
3.
For salt
dry cured
olives -
Do these
olives
turn out
to be
"very
salty"?
OOS
replies:
The "ripe black" olive industry actually uses olive picked green and unripe which are put into sophisticated mixing tanks with paddles and aeration. The olives are cured in several short lye baths and then rinsed in a total of a few days. The aeration changes them to black even though they were picked green. The olives are soaked in increasingly concentrated salt baths for about 2 days, then canned and heat processed. As you can see, this does not resemble your average home olive making process.
You wouldn't want to lye cure a truly ripe olive or it would fall apart. You either brine cure or dry cure in salt. You will usually see slits in a commercial brine cured ripe black olive like a
Kalamata. This speeds things up tremendously. Without the slits it may take over a year to cure, with the slits, just a few months.
If you are attempting the "Water Cure", then you must change the water frequently. There is no brine to prevent spoilage. Many people change the water several times a day. Water curing olives is one of the quickest ways of curing but it is labor intensive. The flavor is supposed to be excellent and it doesn't require as much salt at the end.
Dry curing ripe olives in coarse salt is easy and fairly quick. After a few weeks they will have absorbed some salt and lost the bitter chemicals. The saltiness is what keeps them from spoiling. Before eating them some people soak them in water for anywhere from an hour to 24 hours, then briefly dry them in the sun or oven. Or they roll them around in a hot pan on the stove with a bit of garlic and olive oil for a minute to plump them up. Once "de-salted" they must be eaten quickly or refrigerated to keep from spoiling. Olives aren't a great food for someone watching their salt intake.
Deadline
for
submitting
oils to
the Los
Angeles
County
Fair's
"Olive
Oils of
the
Americas"
competition
May
1
Gourmet
Food
Product
to
Marketplace
Workshop"
May 5-6
UC Davis
- Learn how
to get
your gourmet
food
product
from the
kitchen to
the
marketplace
at a
workshop
presented
by the
Department
of Food
Science
and
Technology.
Learn
marketing
principals,
food
safety,
government
regulations,market
trends and
more.
92nd
American
Oil
Chemists'
Society (AOCS),
Annual
Meeting
& Expo
May
13-16,
2001,
Minneapolis, Keynote
speaker
for
Business
Meeting
and Awards
Recognition
Breakfast:
F.
Guillaume
Bastiaens,
vice
chairman
of Cargill,
Inc.
Los
Angeles
County
Fair's
"Olive
Oils of
the
Americas"
competition
May
16 - 18,
2001
All
Things
Organic:
Organic
Trade
Association
(OTA)
Trade Show
May
17 -19,
2001
(event
location
in Austin,
Texas).
Open for
anyone
involved
in or
interested
in the
organic
industry.
Contact:
(517)
327-9207.
Olive
Business
2001, May
18-20 Melbourne
Show grounds
Exhibition
Centre,
Melbourne,
Victoria,
Australia
Sunset
Magazine
Celebration
Weekend May
19 &
20,
Palo Alto,
Ca This
year
St.Pierre
and
Supremo
will be
there
offering
olive oil
tasting.
Olive
Oil and
Aging
conference
May
in
Pescara,
Italy
EXPOLIVA
International
Olive Oil
and
Related
Industries
Exhibition,
May 24 -
27, Jaen
Spain
SALON
DE L'HUILE
D'OLIVE - June
21 and 24
olive oil
exhibition
to promote
the
richness
of olive
oil, open
new
markets
for
producers
from all
around the
world,
help
purchasers
to find
new
products
and
concentrate
their
search.
Paris,
France http://jiho.pointfr.com
July
Summer
NASFT
Fancy Food
Show - July 8-10, 2001(Su-Tu)
New
York, NY -
Jacob
Javits
Convention
Center
International
Wine
Farmers
and Fruit
Growers
Exhibition
- July
31 -
August 2,
Cape Town
South
Africa
August
September
24th
World
Congress
and
Exhibition
of the
International
Society
for Fat
Research (ISF)
September
16-20,
2001,
Berlin,
Germany
More than
500
delegates
and 50
supplier
booths
expected
13th
International
Exhibition
of Natural
Nutrition,
Health,
Environment
(SANA) 13
- 16
September
2001
Bologna,
Italy
contact:
Fiere e
Comunicazioni
srl., Via
San
Vittore
14, 20123
Milano,
Italy fax:
+39-02-8645
3506 /
e-mail:
info@sana.it
Carmel
TomatoFest
Sunday,
Sept 16
12:30-4:30
at the
Quail
Lodge
Resort -
Tasting of
specialty
foods and
olive
oils,
Italian
Pavilion,
premium
wines from
Monterey
county,
music,
etc.
Tickets
$65
support
local
charity
and
usually go
by end of
May.
Fifth
Annual
Consorzio
Cal-Italia
Tasting
Saturday,
September
29,
2001
Trade
and
Media
only:
1:00
pm
-
3:00
pm
Consumers:
3:00
pm
-
6:00
pm
Herbst
Pavilion,
Fort
Mason,
San
Francisco,
CA
Over
twenty
Italian
varietals
produced
by
sixty-six
of
California's
finest
wineries
will
be
poured.
Sample
foods
prepared
by
well-known
Bay
Area
food
purveyors.
and
olive
oil
by
local
producers.
$30
in
advance
and
$40
at
the
door
includes
a
complimentary
copy
of
the
cookbook,
"Companions
at
Table:
Food
to
Serve
with
American-Grown
Italian
Varietals"
by
Margaret
Smith.
email
info@cal-italia.org
or
call
877-CAL-ITAL
(877-225-4825).
October
American
College of
Nutrition
Annual
Meeting October
4-7, 2001 :
Orlando,
FL (727)
446-6086
Natural
Products
Expo East October
11 - 14,
2001 Washington
Convention
Center
Washington,
DC USA
call:
303.939.8440
or click
for info
