A Primer On the Arbosana Olive – A Little Olive That Makes a Robust Olive Oil

Posted on May 15, 2012 by consumers

Last week we took a close-up look at the Arbequina olive, one of three olive varietals we grow in northern California. Next up: the Arbosana olive. Like Arbequina, the small Arbosana olive hails originally from Spain. But it delivers a more robust flavored olive oil – one that pairs well with everything from bruschetta to chocolate.

Our Arbosana extra virgin olive oil is one of two single varietal olive oils that we produce, along with our Arbequina. Our other oils, like our Everyday Fresh and Miller’s Blend, are olive blends.

The Arbosana olive is our No. 2 olive, accounting for 19% percent of the 12,000-plus acres of trees we have under cultivation. (Arbequina accounts for 78%.) Arbosana also is California’s No. 2 olive crop.

Like Arbequina, we plant our Arbosana trees using a special system: The trees are spaced much more closely together than in a traditional olive grove. That allows us to harvest the olives more quickly and rush them to the mill to make the oil.

A 2009 report from the Olive Center at the University of California, Davis, found that Arbosana accounts for 16% of California’s olive acreage that’s planted using the same type of planting system we use.

The green Arbosana olive may be small, but it’s a productive producer of olive oil. It typically begins producing oil after two years.

Our Arbosana olive oil is a more complex, robust tasting oil than our Arbequina, which is more delicate. And while Arbequina delivers flavors of tropical fruit and fresh artichoke, our Arbosana delivers flavors of fresh tomato and almonds.

We like to drizzle our Arbosana on bruschetta with a fresh grinding of black pepper. We like it drizzled on soup, too, or a grilled ribeye steak. And we use our Arbosana oil for all things chocolate, like chocolate mousse. It’s also good in almond biscotti.

Other than flavor, how do the Arbequina and Arbosana olives differ?

“The Arbosana variety has fruit that looks very much like Arbequina, but matures about three weeks later,” writes olive oil expert Paul Vossen, farm adviser for the University of California Cooperative Extension in Sonoma County.

And while the Arbosana olive is fairly hardy against cold weather, it’s not as hardy as Arbequina.

Next up: the Koroneiki olive.

Bon appétit,

Your friends at California Olive Ranch

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This Mom Really Wants Pasta for Mother’s Day!

Posted on May 11, 2012 by consumers

We asked the Mom in our “Test Kitchen” what she’d like for Mother’s Day dinner. Mom’s reply: What she REALLY WANTS is one of the pastas from our recipe section. We’ve got several good ones on our website. It’s hard not to like any of them. Here are four you might consider preparing for Mom on Sunday.

Bucatini Amatriciana

Bucatini all’amatriciana ( photo above) is a classic Italian dish. But there’s some dispute in Italy over its origin. People in the central Italian town of Amatrice say they’re responsible for its creation. Hogwash, say chefs in Rome, who claim it as their own. Regardless, this dish is one of our favorite pastas. (Click here for the recipe.)

Orecchiette with Rapini and Goat Cheese The food gurus at Saveur magazine like using rapini – a pleasantly bitter vegetable – in a pasta combined with goat cheese, lemon zest, garlic, and red pepper flakes. Rapini also is known as broccoli rabe. (Click here for the recipe.)

Linguini with Mussels and Spicy Tomato Sauce

Photo courtesy of Monterey Bay Aquarium

Mussels taste good … and are good for the ocean. Like oysters and clams, farmed mussels help clean coastal waters by filtering seawater for their food. On the culinary side, mussels are good steamed or served with pasta. The spicy dish featured here combines steamed mussels and pasta. (Click here for the recipe.)

Pistachio Basil Pesto Pistou

This flavorful pasta takes traditional basil pesto and swaps out the pine nuts for pistachios. It’s a quick meal you can serve with a salad and a good dry white wine. And if you want to go the extra mile for Mom, make her fresh pasta to go with this pesto. (Click here for the recipe.)

Bon appétit,

Your friends at California Olive Ranch

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A Primer On the Arbequina Olive We Grow and Use for Our Olive Oil

Posted on May 8, 2012 by consumers

When people ask us about our different extra virgin olive oils, we begin by saying: “Think of extra virgin olive oil like wine.” Just like different wines are made from different grapes, like Cabernet Sauvignon or Sauvignon Blanc, different olive oils are made from different olives. Each olive varietal has its own flavor profile and personality, just like wine grapes. Here’s a look at one of the three olives we use: Arbequina. We’ll focus on our other two olives in future posts.

Hundreds of varieties of olives are grown around the globe. We grow three in northern California: Arbequina, Arbosana, and Koroneiki. We use the olives to make single varietal oils — namely our Arbequina and Arbosana oils — as well as blended oils like Miller’s Bend and Everyday Fresh.

The Arbequina olive originally comes from Catalonia, in Spain. The tree is relatively small. But it’s productive and produces plenty of small green olives. It has weeping branches. The Arbequina olive resists frost well. And it ripens relatively early versus other varietals.

The Arbequina oil we make delivers a very fresh and fruity taste, with flavors of tropical fruit and fresh artichoke.

Arbequina is one of the more delicate tasting olive oils. “It’s a flavor that everyone can approach,” says Nancy Ash, a trained olive oil taster and owner of the consulting firm Strictly Olive Oil. “It has a lot of good fruit aroma to it.”

Arbequina happens to be our No. 1 olive crop. We have more than 12,000 acres of olive trees under cultivation in California. And Arbequina accounts for 78% of that. Like our two other olive varietals, we plant our Arbequina trees using a special system: The trees are spaced much more closely together than in a traditional olive grove. That allows us to harvest the olives more quickly and rush them to the mill to make the oil.

Arbequina also is the top olive among olive growers here in the Golden state. A 2009 report from the Olive Center at the University of California, Davis, found that Arbequina accounts for more than three-quarters of California’s acreage that’s planted using the same type of planting system we use.

Arbequina goes well drizzled over meats to bring out the meat’s sweetness. It’s great in salad dressings and pesto. (Click here to see blog post about pairing delicate oils like Arbequina with different foods.)

We also recommend using Arbequina for baking, particularly when substituting olive oil for butter. We  like it in brownies and other chocolate dishes. It would be good in pound cake, too.

And we’ve used it to make fabulous ice cream. An added treat: Top the ice cream with a drizzle of Arbequina and a sprinkling of flaky sea salt!

Bon appétit,

Your friends at California Olive Ranch

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Celebrate Mediterranean Diet Month w/ Dried Fig & Black Olive Spread

Posted on May 4, 2012 by consumers

May is Mediterranean diet month. We’re toasting our favorite cuisine with plenty of good, healthy dishes – like this dried fig and black olive spread. It combines two fabulous Mediterranean foods: olives and figs. Only we’re putting a California spin on this dish by using Golden State extra virgin olive oil and figs. (Click here to see the recipe.)

Marie Simmons, the award-winning cookbook author, created this spread, which combines dried figs, pitted Kalmata olives, crushed fennel seeds, fresh garlic, and grated orange zest. It all comes together with a good extra virgin olive oil. (Click here for an online coupon to receive a $1.25 savings on our oil at any store.)

Marie recommends serving this spread on crostini – say with a little crumbled feta … or blue cheese. Alternatively, she suggests: “Smear some into celery boats or red pepper wedges for a quick afternoon snack.” (Click here to see the recipe.)

The recipe comes courtesy of our friends Valley Fig Growers, a California grower-owned cooperative that’s North America’s largest marketer of dried figs. We’ve teamed to promote Mediterranean diet month, the 2009 brainchild of the food think tank Oldways and the Mediterranean Foods Alliance.

Mediterranean cuisine not only tastes good, but it’s good for you: vegetables, fruit, whole grains, legumes, nuts, and seafood all cooked or served with good extra virgin olive oil.

It’s so good and healthful, in fact, that it got an official shout out from the United Nations. In November 2010, a UNESCO panel put the Mediterranean diet on its list of “intangible” world treasures.

So this Mother’s Day, do mom a culinary favor: Prepare some dried fig and black olive spread, serve it on crostini, pour a favorite libation, and propose a toast to mom – and then to Mediterranean cuisine!

Bon appétit,

Your friends at California Olive Ranch

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How Does Extra Virgin Olive Oil Differ From Other Types of Olive Oil?

Posted on May 1, 2012 by consumers

What exactly is extra virgin olive oil? Good question, given how olive oil fraud seems rampant.  A recent study, for instance, noted olive oil is among the top food items on your supermarket shelf likely to be bogus, because it gets adulterated with cheaper oils like safflower oil. Author Tom Mueller, in his book Extra Virginity, called the United States “an oil criminal’s dream.”

Moreover, when you buy olive oil at the grocery store you face a dizzying array of choices – often more than a dozen different bottles or cans. Extra virgin olive oil. Pure Olive Oil. Light Olive Oil. What’s it all mean?

Here’s a rundown:

Extra virgin olive oil: The top grade, delivering the best taste and the full health benefits of olive oil. It typically commands the highest price. True extra virgin must meet a battery of chemical requirements (like specific free fatty acid and peroxide levels) set by the International Olive Council, the European Union, the California Olive Oil Council, and other bodies. To be certified extra virgin, an olive oil also must pass a panel of professional tasters who detect desirable attributes like olive fruitiness; the tasters must not find any taste flaws.

Unlike other grades of olive oil, extra virgin hasn’t been extracted through the use of excessive heat or solvents. And it’s unrefined. “Extra virgin olive oil is essentially the naturally extracted juice from fresh olives,” Australian olive oil expert Richard Gawel writes. Unfortunately, extra virgin olive oil in this country is subject to fraud and mislabeling. And, Tom Mueller notes, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration considers olive oil adulteration a low priority; so it’s not busy policing the supermarket shelves.

Pure Olive Oil/Olive Oil: Oil that’s been refined to remove any defects. It’s typically blended with a little extra virgin olive oil to add flavor.

Light Olive Oil: Not a diet product. It’s basically the same as “pure” olive oil. According to the University of California Cooperative Extension, the oil is made from refined olive oil that’s “light in flavor” – not calories or fat.

Pomace Olive Oil: Obtained by mixing solvents into the olive pulp. The pulp is a byproduct of the milling process. Heat is then used to extract additional oil from the pulp.

Here are some other things to keep in mind. When shopping for extra virgin olive oil, look for a harvest date on the bottle. That shows when the olives were picked. You can find the month and year our olives were harvested by looking at the label on the back of the bottle.

Also on our label you’ll see the “Best By” date by which we recommend you use up the oil. This date assumes the bottle has NOT been opened. Our Limited Reserve olive oil, for example, shows a November 2011 harvest date and a August 2012 “Best By” date.

Also, look for an extra virgin olive oil that’s in a dark container, like a green or brown bottle. “Light causes olive oil to degrade. So dark glass that filters out light is very important,” Extra Virginity’s Mueller notes. “A metal container also is good. Clear plastic and glass are to be avoided.”

Bon appétit,

Your friends at California Olive Ranch

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Sustainable Seafood Recipe: Linguini w/ Mussels & Spicy Tomato Sauce

Posted on April 27, 2012 by consumers

Mussels taste good … and are good for the ocean. Like oysters and clams, farmed mussels help clean coastal waters by filtering seawater for their food. On the culinary side, mussels are good steamed or served with pasta. The spicy dish featured here combines steamed mussels and pasta. (Click here to see the recipe.)

Photo courtesy of the Monterey Bay Aquarium

The mussels are steamed in a piquant tomato sauce and served with linguini. The tomato sauce features fresh thyme, white wine, capers, and red pepper flakes for heat. Before its served, the dish gets a sprinkling of freshly chopped parsley. Click here to see the recipe

The recipe comes from the Monterey Bay Aquarium, a crusader for sustainable seafood through its Seafood Watch guide.

The aquarium rates farmed mussels a “Best Choice,” because they’re “raised in an environmentally responsible way. Mussels don’t rely on fishmeal or fish oil as part of their diet.”

The aquarium also notes that “diseases are rare, so antibiotics and chemicals aren’t necessary and the farming operation often benefits the surrounding marine habitat.”

Kristine Kidd, the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s food editor who developed the recipe, offers these tips for buying and handling mussels:

  • When you get the mussels home, remove them from the plastic bag, half fill a bowl with ice and place the shells on top. Serve them that same day. Mussels are cooked through when they open; discard any that do not open.
  • To prepare mussels for cooking, scrub the shells with a stiff brush. Remove any threads extending from the shell (called beards) by grabbing with fingers or a cloth and pulling towards the hinge end of the shell.

Bon appétit,

Your friends at California Olive Ranch

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Michael Chiarello’s Take on One of Our Faves: Clam Pasta (He Adds Sausage)

Posted on April 24, 2012 by consumers

Clam pasta is no doubt one of our favorite pasta dishes. It’s also a favorite of Michael Chiarello. The Napa chef says clam pasta with spicy sausage has been a part of his cooking repertoire for a quarter century. (Click here to see the recipe.)

“Like many of my favorite dishes, this one began with fisherman,” Chiarello writes in his cookbook Bottega (Chronicle Books, 2010), where this recipe appears. “They brought dried sausages on their boats, caught clams, and cooked the two together for supper.”

Chiarello says “you’ll find variations of this shellfish-and-cured-pork idea in China, Portugal, Spain – in just about every fishing village around the world.”

Chiarello says you can use Manila or cherrystone clams for this dish. From a sustainability standpoint, the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch guide lists farmed Manila clams as a “Best Choice” and wild-caught U.S. Atlantic cherrystones a “Good Alternative.”

The clams are cooked in extra virgin olive oil and garlic until open. Dry white wine is added to the pan. The cooked clams are set aside on a baking sheet. (Click here to see the recipe.)

Diced sausage, basil and black pepper are added to the pan, along with any additional juice the reserved clams have released. Partially cooked pasta also is added, along with the clams and parsley. The ingredients are tossed together and cooked until the pasta is al dente.

Chiarello suggests tossing the pasta with additional extra virgin olive oil. You could use a fruity oil like our Arbequina.

Bon appétit,

Your friends at California Olive Ranch

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Chef Trey Foshee’s Sardine Crostini w/ Homemade Tomato Conserva

Posted on April 20, 2012 by consumers

What do you get when you cross a classically trained chef with a Hawaiian-born surfer dude? Trey Foshee. The San Diego chef heads the kitchen at the acclaimed George’s at the Cove, in La Jolla. Thanks to his ocean roots, it’s not surprising Foshee does amazing things with fresh seafood – like the sardine crostini featured here. (Click here to see the recipe.)

These toasted crostini are topped with fresh sardines marinated overnight in extra virgin olive oil, an avocado slice, and a homemade tomato paste known as tomato conserva.

The crostini reflect Foshee’s approach to recipe development. The Culinary Institute of America graduate told us “the ingredients” typically are what inspire him to create a particular dish.

In this recipe, the sardines are marinated overnight in the refrigerator in extra virgin olive oil, toasted fennel seeds, chili flakes, and garlic slices. (Click here to see the recipe.)

For the conserva, pureed tomatoes are baked slowly in a 300 degree Fahrenheit oven until they dry out and thicken into a paste. Extra virgin olive oil and chopped basil are added. (The conserva will keep at least a week in the fridge.)

To assemble the crostini, baguette slices are brushed with extra virgin olive oil and browned on a grill or in the oven. Each toasted slice is topped with a smear of tomato conserva, marinated sardine, and an avocado slice.

From a sustainability standpoint, you could use wild-caught Pacific sardines. The Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch guide labels these a “Best Choice.”

Kitchen tip: You could marinate the sardines in our Arbequina extra virgin olive oil. Before toasting the crostini, you could deliver another flavor kick by brushing them  with one of our robust oils, like Miller’s Blend, Arbosana, or Limited Reserve.

Bon appétit,

Your friends at California Olive Ranch

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Sustainable Seafood Recipe: Mahi Mahi Skewers w/ Tomatoes & Orzo

Posted on April 17, 2012 by consumers

Mahi mahi means “strong strong” in Hawaiian – underscoring that this fish is a powerful swimmer. It’s also flavorful. The lean meat, notes one chef, has an “almost lemony” flavor. We made memorable fish tacos using mahi mahi deep fried in extra virgin olive oil. The fish takes well to the grill, too, like with the mahi mahi skewers featured here. (Click here to see the recipe.)

Photo courtesy of the Monterey Bay Aquarium

The skewers are served with orzo pasta as well as chopped fresh tomatoes and herbs  dressed with extra virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Any of our oils would work well for the dressing. (Click here to see the mahi mahi recipe.)

This dish comes courtesy of the Monterey Bay Aquarium, a crusader for sustainable seafood through its Seafood Watch guide.

Mahi mahi, is considered a good choice because it’s abundant. The  Seafood Watch guide, in partictular, says the “best choice” is mahi mahi that’s pole-caught or trolled from the U.S. Atlantic. Other U.S.-caught sources are considered a “good alternative.” By contrast, the guide recommends you should “avoid” all imported mahi mahi caught with a longline.

Mahi mahi tastes succulent when cooked properly; but it can dry out when overcooked, notes Kristine Kidd, the aquarium’s food editor who created this recipe. “Watch it carefully,” she adds.

One other tip: “If there’s a line of darker meat running down the center of the fillet, cut it away for a milder flavor,” Kidd advises.

To see other seafood recipes, check out our April eNewsletter, where we showcase sustainable seafood.  (Click here to see the April eNewsletter.)

Bon appétit,

Your friends at California Olive Ranch

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Olive Oil, Milk, Honey Among Top Items Involved in Food Fraud – Researchers

Posted on April 13, 2012 by consumers

Sobering research just out: Olive oil is among the top food items on your supermarket shelf that’s likely to be bogus. Also joining that list: milk, honey, saffron, orange juice, coffee, and apple juice. That’s according to research published in the April Journal of Food Science.

Among the adulterants found in extra virgin olive oil: cheaper ingredients like hazelnut oil, sunflower oil, refined olive oil, palm oil, peanut oil, and olive oil from a “non-authentic geographic origin” (translation: not the country the oil is said to be  from). The list goes on.

“There is a general sense that food fraud is a major global problem for the food industry,” Jeff Moore, one of the researchers, tells MSNBC.com. “But no one knows the size of the problem. No one has collected and compiled all the information in the public domain on this topic.”

In the new analysis, researchers combed through hundreds of reports on food fraud contained in the first known public database on food fraud. The database includes 1,305 records for food fraud. The records were culled from 660 academic studies and media reports. The U.S. Pharmacopeial Convention (USP), a nonprofit scientific organization, created the database. (Click here to see the database.)

For our part, we go to great lengths to ensure the oil we make is of the highest quality. It’s certified as true extra virgin by the California Olive Oil Council. The oil must first pass rigorous lab and taste tests to earn that certification.

Food fraudsters often are out to make a buck, replacing an expensive material with a cheaper substitute, researchers note. One example they cite: the partial substitution of olive oil with hazelnut oil.

But the substitution also can unleash a health issue – like the adulteration of pet food in 2007 and infant formula and powdered milk in 2008 with the potentially hazardous chemical melamine.

“Food fraud and economically motivated adulteration have not received the warranted attention given the potential danger they present,” one of the researchers, John Spink of Michigan State University, says in a news release. (Click here to see the news release.) “This database is a critical step in protecting consumers.”

We’ve known the “extra virgin” olive oil on the supermarket shelf often isn’t the real thing. But this new report concludes olive oil is among the food items most likely to be a fake.

A U.S.-Australian study last year suggested that “most” top-selling European “extra virgin” oils sold in California supermarkets “regularly” fail to meet international standards for extra virgin. Extra virgin olive oil is the top grade, delivering the best taste and the full health benefits of olive oil. It also commands the highest price. (Click here to read the study.)

The researchers found that nearly three-quarters of the top five imported brands failed to pass “blind” taste tests conducted by two panels of professional tasters.

Writer Tom Mueller calls the United States “an oil criminal’s dream.” Mueller, an investigative journalist, is the author of an important new book that digs into the fraud that’s wreaking havoc in the olive oil business – in this case, smelly, rancid and outright bogus oils that are peddled as pricier extra virgin olive oil. (Click here to read a blog post about the book.)

Mueller, whose book was inspired by a 2007 New Yorker article, blames loose laws and lax enforcement for oil fraud here. “Much of the fake olive oil sold in America is imported,” he writes in his book Extra Virginity (W.W. Norton & Co., 2012).

Your friends at California Olive Ranch

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