Latest News
Awards season in the Olive Industry
As surely as Oscar season or, more depressingly, tax season rolls around every year, late August marks that time of the year when the harvest is in, all the oil has been bottled and the local industry gathers for a celebration of its annual best and brightest. This year the two major competitions, the Marco Zichella Awards and the SA Olive Awards were held in Stellenbosch and Laborie in Paarl respectively.
2009 SA OLIVE AWARDS
Ten extra virgin olive oils have been heralded as the finest of the current South African vintage. The results of the 2009 SA Olive Awards were announced on the 16th of September. This year entrants competed in Commercial and Boutique classes and of the total number of entries, which have grown with 53% since 2008, 10 received gold awards, while 9 earned silver and 10 bronze.
The four top achievers in the Commercial class, with four gold medals apiece, are: Kloovenburg Olives, Morgenster, Olyfberg and Rio Largo.
Half a dozen olive oils earned gold awards in the Boutique class. The achievers in this category are: Diepsak Farm, The Lady Olive, Saint Sebastian, Muiskraal, Olyven Houdt and Waterfall River who each won one gold award.
Annalene du Toit of Kloovenburg Estate has been named the 2009 ABSA Olive Achiever of the Year for her impressive passion for and contribution to the growth of the industry.
MARCO ZICHELLA AWARDS
The MARCO ZICHELLA AWARD celebrated its eighth edition in Stellenbosch on the 4th of September.
Eighteen Southern African extra virgin olive oils, pressed with the Italian OLIOMIO extraction equipment, took part in this year’s competition.
First prize went to Waterfall River, 2nd to Groote Vallei and 3rd to River Bend.
L’ORCIOLO D'ORO AWARDS
And again the South African oils did us proud at this year’s L’Orciolo D’Oro, the foremost olive oil competition in Italy. This is the 10th year that Morgenster achieved ‘Great Distinction’ in the Medium Fruity category with its Extra Virgin Olive Oil 2009 and Willow Creek’s Directors’ Reserve Extra Virgin Olive Oil won the Intensely Fruity category.
[ more OLIVE ARTICLES ]
|
Features
Featured Product
Riebeek Kasteel Kalamatas in a Blueberry Dressing
Mike & Juliana Meredith, working underneath the massive old oak tree at their Olive Boutique in Riebeek Kasteel, could not have chosen the name for their range of olive products any better – they have for years been at the forefront of innovation in the use of olives and oil in a variety of unexpected and delightful ways, making a tour down their product list a truly boutique experience.
Probably THE classic example of this is their kalamata olives in a blueberry dressing, which has almost since the beginning been the single most popular retail item in Tapenade. Pairing black olives with a blueberry dressing is one of those flavour combinations, like blue cheese and fig preserve, that sound counterintuitive on paper but in practice deliver a taste that lingers in the memory long after the last olive is picked from the bottom of the jar.
Toning down the sometimes harsh briny quality of the black olives also has the unexpected effect of turning this product into a ‘starter’ olive, the one whom we give to the un-initiated in order to turn them into raving olive lovers! However, for us perhaps the most satisfying use of a jar of these olives is simply up-ending them over a salad, turning the blueberry dressing into an instant salad dressing.
[ more PRODUCTS ]
Featured Recipe
CRISP STUFFED OLIVES
Drizzle STIR onto oven roasted potato wedges.
Ingredients
24 small green olives
8 anchovy fillets in oil, drained and each cut into 3 pieces
400g pork sausage meat, minced
125ml cake flour
2 eggs, beaten
500ml fresh fine breadcrumbs
Olive oil for deep-frying
Method
Remove stones from the olives with an olive stoner. Place a piece of anchovy in the centre of each olive. Take 5ml of mince and wrap around the olive ensuring it is enclosed. The mince should just cover the olive.
Roll the olives in flour, dip in beaten egg, and then roll in breadcrumbs. Heat oil in large pot until hot but not smoking. Fry olives until golden. Drain and serve immediately.
[ more RECIPES ]
Tapenade Olive Club
A brand new quarterly Tapenade Olive Club hamper is now available at a specially reduced price. The hamper celebrates the winners of the olive oil competitions held recently. This hamper includes extra virgin olive oil from Morgenster (best Extra Virgin olive oil at the SA Olive Awards) and Olyven Houdt (winner of Marco Zichella award), Nomu Stir Pesto (EAT IN’s best new product) and the Morgenster Nocellara green olives, winner of the trophy for Best Table Olives at the SA Olive Awards.
[ more OLIVE CLUB ]
|
