Blackrock Rd Salted Olives

Jeanette picking for salted olives

 Two delights from our olive grove are producing our own oil, and our salted olives. This year we picked for oil on 17 - 18th May. We let the olives ripen for two more weeks so they were dark red and juicy then David, Jeantte and I, helped by cottage guests Libby and Mark, picked over Queens Birthday weekend for our salted olives.

 Olive oil corner in the kitchen

We picked 50kg on one day, then Jeanette, David and I sorted them. We chose the largest plumpest olives. This meant close to 25 percent of what we had picked were discarded. These olives were either flawed or had bruised. With the remainder we layered olives and salt and then left them to drain, turning the buckets every few days.

Now they are ready. I rinse the salt off the olives and leave them to dry. After 48 hours,  I sort them again. I sort the large from the small - about 10% are small. The olives have dried massively in the salt. The others are plump and wrinkled. Any that have been bruised in the processes are discarded too.

Olives ready to go into the jars

I smother these in our fresh olive oil then store them in jars. Each jar has 200gms of olives and includes more or less 100 olives!

These olives are whole food/vegan of course. The whole process is kept below 60 degrees, and only NZ sea salt, our organic olive oil, and our organic olives! How good is that. Theses taste fabulous. Neighbour Mena calls them Moroccan sucking stones...pop them in your mouth, eat the olive, then suck on the stone. Comforting and delicious. Variations include adding preserved lemon or orange rind, warming the olives for 15  seconds in the microwave, and adding fresh chopped thyme, or your favourite fresh herbs.

Whole food juices for breakfast and lunch

In 1972 I had a month in Indonesia and then Singapore. Amidst all the chillies and spices, I loved the fresh juices, especially freshly made watermelon juice. I bought a trusty juicer (right) for around $40, duty free, and it is still going strong.

I notice with whole foods, I am eating more carbohydrates with cereals, corn breads and buckwheat blinis. Every now and again I just feel like nutritious juices, and yes I have read reboot with Joe and his inspirational story.

Now I know my way around Commonsense Organics which stocks seasonal products, so my winter juices are fantastic. Usually a base of kale which comes out bright dark green, looks amazing and tastes earthy. I add cucumbers from time to time.  Then I make a mix of carrots, root ginger, apples, persimmons, oranges. sometimes I add a lemon, or kiwifruit. I usually put 20% vegetable juice in with the mixed fruit juice. The final colour is nothing to write home about - khaki - but looking down on the juice you can see the oranges, yellows and greens of the different ingredients. And it tastes divine and feels decidedly nutritious.

More recently I came across organic powdered kale, and if I haven't had a chance to buy fresh kale, in goes a teaspoon or two of this. Not quite the same as fresh, but good enough for now and then. I sprinkle a teaspoon of this onto a small amount of juice and let it sit, then stir it in, then add the rest of the juice.

Yes it does seem odd having a powdered organic version of a delicious fresh vegetable, but, there you go.

Also just read in Organics NZ (birthday present from neighbour Jane) that Remuera New World directly contracts 30 -35 organic growers for direct supply. Best news is they commit to selling the produce at the same price as non-organic. And, they have noticed sales of organic produce has gone up from $1000 a week three years ago for organic produces to $35,000 currently. How good is that? New World Remuera also stock over 250 Ceres (organic) products. We are lucky to have Commonsense Organics in Wellington with their amazing range of fresh products sourced from all over NZ and other organic products sourced from all over the world. I love doing my weekly shop there.

In praise of Ottolenghi - three great winter dishes

Cauliflower bake

 Winter meals are always a treat. Nothing like a warm, soft, nutritious dishes for cold winter nights. And so much better if they are easy to make. Having discovered Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi's recipes, there is no looking back. I have bought two of their books, Plenty and and The Cookbook. And I have bought both the Kindle versions for when we are over at the farm, and the hard copies for when I am in town!

Their dishes are simple, made with in-season fresh vegetables, and dashes of magic. Here are three I have made recently. These first two dishes are definitely not vegan, just vegetarian as cheese, cream and/or eggs feature. Delicious treats.

Ottolenghi is wonderfully generous and you can find some of their recipes here: http://www.ottolenghi.co.uk/recipes

Ottolenghi's name for the cauliflower bake is Smoky Frittata. How can anyone resists that. Just gorgeous on its own, or with green vegetables.

Ottolenghi's Herbed Mushroom Polenta

the ultimate winter couscous

 The herbed mushroom and potenta dish is one of those which quickly became a favourite.I use my winter thyme and rosemary straight from the garden together with Parkvale tiny bronw mushrooms. Such a fantastic Friday evening dish, relaxing by the fire after the weeks work. This takes about 25 minutes to prepare. You can find the recipe here: http://www.ottolenghi.co.uk/recipes/mushroom-and-herb-polenta-shop





 Couscous dishes have been favourite of mine for a while. this one is vegan and Ottolenghi's version is distinctive with the vegetables gently roasted with cinammon sticks, star anise, bay leaves, and ginger, tumeric, paprika and chilli flakes together with the magic of saffron threads and fresh corriander sprinkled on at the last minute.You can find this recipe here:
http://www.ottolenghi.co.uk/recipes/ultimate-winter-couscous-shop