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GABORONE – The first commercial olive tree project in the country is in operation at the Glen Valley Production and Training Farm (PTF). President Festus Mogae launched the operation by planting one of the envisaged 2 500 commercial olive trees.

The occassion coincided with the start of the National Master Plan for Arable Agriculture and Dairy Development (NAMPAADD) week, which ends on Friday.

Minister of Agriculture, Mr Johnnie Swartz said at the event that the government is committed to agricultural development as evidenced by interventions such as agriculture support schemes and investments in agricultural programmes.

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Serves 4

1/4 cup olive oil
2 shallots, finely chopped
3 scallions with green tops, chopped
12 large fresh basil leaves, finely shredded
20 pitted Black olives
1 can tuna packed in olive oil
zest of one lemon
2 tsp fresh lemon juice
salt and freshly ground pepper
3/4 lb fresh or dried red pepper fettuccine

In a large saucepan, saute shallots and scallions in olive oil until translucent, about 2 min. Add basil, olives, tuna, lemon zest, and lemon juice. Season to taste with salt and pepper and stir until well heated. Set aside and cover to keep warm. Meanwhile, bring a large pot of water to a rolling boil over high heat. Add pasta and 1 Tbsp salt and boil until al dente. Drain pasta and add to tuna-olive mixture. Toss well and briefly reheat before serving.

Mercredi 9 mai 2007, le SION (Syndicat Interprofessionnel de l’Olive de Nice) et la Chambre d’Agriculture des Alpes-Maritimes organisent la 3ème édition du concours des huiles, olives et pâtes d’olive en Appellation d’origine Contrôlée « Olive de Nice » au Lycée hôtelier Paul Augier de Nice.

Un jury de professionnels composé de producteurs, de mouliniers, de restaurateurs, et de techniciens formés et agréés pour à la dégustation des produits oléicoles se réunit pour primer, parmi les oléiculteurs de notre département, ceux qui, par la qualité de leur travail, produisent les meilleures huiles, olives de table et pâtes d’olive AOC de Nice.

Le palmarès sera dévoilé le samedi 12 mai 2007 à l’occasion de l’inauguration du « MIN en Fête ». Le SION, la Chambre d’Agriculture et la SOMINICE remettront les prix aux médaillés.

Certains producteurs ont déjà été primés par L’AFIDOL (Association Française Interprofessionnelle de l’Olive) et la Région Provence Alpes Côte d’Azur au concours régional des huiles d’olive de Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur 2007 qui s’est tenu à l’Hôtel de Région à Marseille et au Concours Général Agricole 2007 qui s’est déroulé pendant le Salon International de l’Agriculture à Paris.

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Lately there is a lot of talk about the benefits of the Mediterranean diet. But what exactly is that?

Epidemiologic studies have shown that many people from Mediterranean countries can eat fatty diets and yet not have a high risk of heart disease.

Spaniards José Mataix of the University of Granada and Francisco Javier Barbancho of the University of Extremadura in Cáceres observe in a new book that the Mediterranean diet “is based on products derived from wheat, olive, and grape, these constituting the Mediterranean triad of bread, oil, and wine.”

In fact, Covas’ group points out that several additional features characterize diets common to the region. Among them: several daily servings of vegetables and fruits, only a small serving (100 to 150 grams) of red meat per day, few or no carbonated drinks, at least three weekly meals including shellfish or legumes, few commercially prepared pastries or sweets, servings of fowl or rabbit instead of pork or other red meats, and plenty of peanuts and other nuts.

Some studies have pointed to the alcoholic component as a substantial contributor of such diets’ cardiovascular benefits. However, others have found that people who drink as much wine and other alcoholic beverages as do Mediterranean eaters fail to get as many health benefits if they don’t follow the rest of the diet.

For instance, a separate team of all-Spanish researchers that included Covas recently reported such data in early results from the PREDIMED Study. This trial is ultimately slated to track for 4 years some 9,000 men and women at elevated risk of heart disease. Each volunteer is being randomly assigned to eat a low-fat diet or a higher-fat diet in which much of that fat, Mediterranean style, comes from either olive oil or nuts, which also are rich in heart-healthy monounsaturated fats.

Read more about the mediterranean diet and its benefits in Food For Thought

The theory goes that when life gives you lemons, you make lemonade. Good thing Kathy Rose had a different plan. When faced with a family crisis, Rose lost her parents to heart disease and cancer this former nurse took her passion for Europe and good-for-you food stuff and created City Olive, a cozy shop in Andersonville with a soft spot for olive oils.

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Ingredients:
1 (16 ounce) package fettuccini pasta
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 clove garlic, sliced
4 ounces blue cheese, crumbled
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
2 cups heavy cream
1 tablespoon Provencal Basil In Pesto
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Cook pasta in boiling water for 8 to 10 minutes, or until al dente; drain. Heat olive oil in a small skillet over medium heat. Saute garlic in olive oil until golden. Remove garlic, and reserve oil. In a medium saucepan over medium-low heat, combine blue cheese, Parmesan cheese, and cream. Stir until cheeses are melted. Stir in the oil from the garlic pan. add pesto and season with salt and pepper. Toss sauce with hot pasta, and let stand 5 minutes before serving.

This was dinner in our house this evening and unlike some meals where 3 different meals are cooked only one was needed this evening.

Some options for this recipe include adding sauted sea scallops, or bay shrimp or a combination of both.

Fresno State Orchards Estate Reserve Olive Oil has won its second consecutive medal and will be showcased at the Beyond Extra Virgin: Italo-Californian Olive Oil Conference on May 22-23 in Davis.

The 2006 harvest olive oil produced by students at California State University, Fresno won a bronze medal at the Yolo County Fair competition judged in April. The medal will be presented at a VIP dinner on Aug. 14, a day before the fair begins in Woodland.

Fresno State’s first olive oil was pressed in fall 2005, released in March 2006 and awarded a bronze medal last November at the prestigious San Diego Bay Wine and Food Festival.

The inaugural Fresno State olive oil sold out during the winter holiday season. The 2006 crop, whose production was about one-third of potential because of unfavorable weather conditions, is in short supply.

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1 Tbsp. Extra Virgin Olive oil
1 1/2 cups Diced yellow onion
2 tsp. Minced garlic
1 qt. Low sodium chicken broth
2 cups Cooked barley
1 cup Corn kernels
1 cup Frozen peas
1 cup Green Pitted Olives (sliced)
1/2 cup Thinly sliced green onion
2 tsp. Ground cumin
1 tsp. Ground achiote
Kosher salt and ground black pepper to taste
1 Tbsp. Lemon juice

Directions:
Heat oil in a large saucepot over medium high heat. Add onions and sauté until golden for 4-5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add garlic and continue cooking on medium heat for 1-2 minutes until golden. Pour in chicken broth, barley, corn, peas, California Ripe Olives and green onions and bring to a boil. Stir in cumin and achiote and season to taste with salt and black pepper. Turn heat down to simmer and cook for 10-15 minutes. Stir in lemon juice just before serving. Serves 6. *Serving suggestion: Garnish with diced avocado or crumbled cotija cheese

By Malcolm Moore,

The secretive world of Italian olive oil will be laid bare after the government insisted that every bottle should show where it comes from.

Large olive oil brands, such as Filippo Berio and Bertolli, have long cultivated the image that its oil comes from rustic, rolling groves in the Italian countryside.

Instead, it often arrives in Italy in tanker trucks from destinations as diverse as Tunisia, Turkey, Greece and Spain.

According to EU laws, foreign oil can be sold as Italian olive oil if it is cut with a small amount of the domestic product.

Only four per cent of olive oil leaving Italy is pure Italian oil.

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Available at target and Sharly loves it

Olives are harvested in September but available year round to make a zesty addition to salads, meat and poultry dishes and, of course, pizza.

Olives cannot be eaten right off of the tree; they require special processing to reduce their intrinsic bitterness. These processing methods vary with the olive variety, region where they are cultivated and the desired taste, texture and color. Some olives are picked green and unripe, while others are allowed to fully ripen on the tree to a black color. Yet, not all of the black olives available begin with a black color. Read more about what world health foods has to say about olives.

Par Vincent Noce,

Jean-François Margier, oléiculteur à Auriol, près de Marseille, ne décolère pas contre les panneaux publicitaires qui annoncent comme «provençales» des huiles en réalité venues d’Italie ou d’Espagne.
Longtemps, il a suffi de conditionner l’huile, en bouteille ou en bidon, en Provence pour se targuer de l’appellation régionale, même si les huiles provenaient des pays voisins. Il faut dire que la production d’huile d’olive en France couvre à peine 5 % de la consommation.
Espagnols et Italiens ont de l’huile à revendre, et elle se retrouve en masse dans les fausses huiles «de Provence», écoulées notamment dans les magasins pour touristes. Elles n’ont pas en général la finesse des huiles d’olives noires mûres, l’ardence des huiles d’olives vertes et la fluidité de certaines huiles amoureusement produites dans le pays.

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Ingredients
18 baby artichokes
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
3 large carrots, peeled and cut into small dice
3 leeks (white part and 3 inches green), well rinsed, dried, and chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
1/2 cup dry white wine
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
4 ounces Montrachet or other soft mild chevre
Black Olives Nicoise Style (garnish)

Instructions
Cut the stem and 1/4 inch of the top from each artichoke. Trim the tough outer leaves with a scissors. Heat the oil in a saucepan large enough to hold all the artichokes upright over medium-high heat. Add the carrots, leeks, and garlic and saute, stirring frequently, for 10 minutes. Season to taste with salt and lots of black pepper. Place the artichokes upright on the bed of vegetables and pour in the wine. Sprinkle the lemon juice over the tops of the artichokes. Cover the pan and simmer over medium low heat for 20 to 25 minutes. Remove from heat and cool to room temperature.

Remove the artichokes from the vegetables and set aside. Crumble the chevre into the vegetable mixture and fold gently together. Spoon the vegetable mixture onto a platter or 6 individual serving plates. Arrange the artichokes on top of the vegetables, spooning a few vegetables over the tops. If you are serving on plates, allow 3 artichokes per serving. Garnish with olives and serve at room temperature.

Yield: 6 servings

Olive oil comes in many varieties. Extra-Virgin, Virgin, Pure, Extra-light and just simply Olive Oil, so many varieties which one do you pick?

Before picking an oil at the retailers a bit must be know as to how each variation comes to be. Olives are pressed to obtain the oil from them, picture Lucille Ball and Ethel in the vine vat. Well not quite but you bet the idea.

The important thing about the right extra virgin olive oil is that to be termed extra virgin the oil must contain less than 0.8 percent pre-fatty acids. Why is this important, one might ask.

Extra virgin olive oil, however, is stocked with nutrients that are both heart-healthy and that prevent the formation of free radicals. “The body of evidence is vast that a diet that uses extra virgin olive oil as its basic fat reduces bad cholesterol and increases good cholesterol,” says Daniel Graeff of Lucini Italia, an Italian olive oil company with offices in Miami and Chicago.

Why the benefits…after all extra virgin olive oil doesn’t contain high amounts of omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids. What it does contain, however, are high amounts of polyphenols, potent antioxidants that scavenge disease-producing free radicals in the body.

So the next time you go to the grocer, pick the extra virgin instead of the pure, which has had most of the benefits removed as well as other things.

Certains exportateurs vendent à des prix inférieurs de 20 % aux moyennes internationales

Les sociétés mixtes tuniso-italiennes continuent à saper les cours et à exploiter le manque de liquidités. Les recommandations de rééchelonnement de la Banque Centrale sont toujours ignorées par les banques.

A la fin de la semaine dernière, un lot de quatre mille tonnes d’huile d’olive tunisienne a été bradé par deux exportateurs à 2,1Euros (3,570d) pour la qualité Extra et à 1,9 Euros (3,230d) pour la qualité normale.

Ces prix rappellent les cours des dernières ventes de la saison écoulée (septembre, octobre) lorsque les exportateurs et les oléifacteurs se sont retrouvés avec près de 70.000 tonnes d’huile d’olive encore en stock à un mois de la nouvelle saison. Ils étaient donc obligés de les vendre aux prix proposés sur le marché à ce moment. Mais la situation n’est pas similaire aujourd’hui, la nouvelle saison ne fait que commencer et les prix moyens à l’échelle internationale sont actuellement de 2,5 Euros (4d250), qu’est-ce qui pourrait donc justifier un tel bradage et quelles sont les mesures à prendre pour éviter l’effondrement de ce marché qui a rapporté durant les trois dernières années une moyenne de 700 millions de dinars de recettes en devises ?

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