Liquid Gold

Olive Oil: Liquid Gold for the Heart and Soul

Every Meal A Feast had a wonderful time recently visiting Rachael Casey (see pic) at her home in the mountains above St. Helena where she and her husband Bill make their own premium extra virgin olive oil under the Poplar Hill label. It was wonderful not only to see Rachael's wonderful home and gardens and tour the olive trees, but also -- of course! -- taste their olive oil.

I learned several cool facts about olive oils, including that at olive oil tastings, judges use blue glasses to hide the color of the oil, because the color has nothing to do with its taste or quality, and that an olive oil should be used within two years of bottling, and ideally one year.

Anyway, check out their web site for other info, recipes, and of course info on how to visit or buy.

P.S. And stay tuned for a BIG announcement. (Want a hint? O.K. -- Ode to the Olive)

Olive Ole'

Yes, the 2007 Napa Valley grape harvest has come and gone, as has the 2007 Sonoma County grape harvest. But there's another harvest going on right now still: olives!

I was hanging out with my friend Maury recently, who's the groundskeeper at The Wine Country Inn in St. Helena, and he stepped me through the process they go through to harvest and cure the olives from the 25+ olive trees on the Inn's property. I found it fascinating! Hope you do too.

First, the olives are picked green. (Apparently, if they have any color at all, they're "too far gone".) Next, the olives, which are very toxic, are soaked in huge plastic garbage cans in LYE. That's right, bleach, lye, the bad stuff (the Inn uses Red Devil Drain Opener). According to Maury, you mix 8 oz. of lye per five gallons of water. The olives soak for six to eight hours in this lye/water mixture, until they turn a straw color all the way to the pit.

Next, the olives are then soaked in water for six to eight DAYS to get all the lye out. These olives need to be stirred every hour, and the water changed every four hours.

So how do you know if you've soaked out all the lye? Someone (!) has to taste them! Yes: If they burn your lips, they need more soakin!

Anyway, I found it quite fascinating. And once the olives have soaked thoroughly, they are then put into a brine/lemon juice solution and canned. And of course, you can add goodies to impart onto the olives other great flavors, such as rosemary and garlic (my personal favorite).

Needless to say, it's a pretty labor-intensive process. But Maury says these Wine Country Inn olives are the best he's ever had. And I have to agree.

BTW: Maury has his own blog about the various garden goings-on at the Inn. If you're interested, check it out.