The Olive Oil Neuvo has arrived!

Cold off the press

‘New Harvest’ Olive Oil Run to UK pushes the ‘fresh is best’ message
Around November 25 – 29th November 2008 (depending on the harvest)
November visitors to the beautiful Priorat mountains of Catalonia will see queues in the villages and towns. If they’re smart, they’ll join one. The Catalans in north east Spain are waiting for a once-a-year, taste-bud treat: daisy-fresh, new harvest, cold-pressed arbequina olive oil.

Fresh harvest oil – the juice of the fruit, straight from the tree to mill, into the bottle and into the kitchen – is a gourmet experience little known to people in the UK. Until now.
Thanks to the Mother’s Garden Mill Run, which is just days away, a few lucky people in the UK will share in an essential Catalan and Mediterranean healthy and tasty fact of life – premium extra-virgin olive oil when it is at its very freshest – and best.

During the last week of November, days after villagers hand-pick the olives, an oil delivery will depart from the village of El Masroig in Priorat. Destination: kitchens in Kent, London, Hampshire, Oxfordshire and East Anglia.
The run, and the award-winning Mother’s Garden brand (gold star in the 2008 UK Great Taste Awards and the only olive oil ingredient listed in Delia Smith’s latest cookbook), are the brainchild of Maggie Whitman and Martin Kirby.

In 2001 they left their lives and livelihoods in England and moved lock, stock and barrel to a small mountain farm an hour and half south of Barcelona. The family’s adventure was seen by millions in the first-ever Channel 4 No Going Back documentary, and the story has been read around the world in Martin’s book, No Going Back – Journey to Mother’s Garden.

“Talking to people in the UK it is clear most don’t realise that extra virgin olive oil is not a refined oil, but simply a fruit juice with the water removed,” says Martin. “The fresher it is, the better it is. Freshly pressed olive oil has an abundance of all the goodness and benefits people know about and value.
“That’s why every bottle of Mother’s Garden Priorat olive oil carries the pressing and bottling dates, so people know exactly how fresh it is. Olive oil will keep a long long time, but its quality and goodness fades, so we firmly believe that just putting a “best before” date is not enough. Do you know how old the olive oil you normally buy is?”

“We’re doing the New Harvest Run to bring the fresh olive oil message home to the UK. In January we will begin our through-the-year new harvest shipments to shops, foodies and chefs.”
Maggie believes the arbequina olive oil from the tiny Priorat mountain region is ‘truly wonderful’. “We source the best oil from the villages around us, working to give the farmers a fair price and to give people in England something that is at the heart of the Mediterranean diet,” she says.

“Actually, that’s how the business began: visitors to the Mother’s Garden holiday cottage were wowed by our home-grown olive oil and said they would love to buy it. With only 100 trees there is no way we can produce for export. So we got together with our neighbours, who have tended this patchwork land of olive groves and vineyards for countless generations, and the Mother’s Garden olive oil brand was born.”

Mother’s Garden olive oil is available through more than 50 leading delis nationwide in 500ml bottles, while a growing number of foodies and chefs buy in volume (2 and 5 litre containers).
The business also ships direct to groups who share a minimum 30 litre order, thereby cutting costs, packaging, and transport – an idea that is really catching on, with groups including singers at the Royal Opera House. (For information see the Mill Run page on the website).

The Mother’s Garden olive oil from El Masroig has grassy, apple notes and a peppery finish and new harvest oil is especially spicy.

“This potency mellows as the oil matures,” says Maggie. “It’s fun and interesting to try olive oil through the year, but fresh really is best.”

Mother’s Garden Priorat Olive Oil, available to delis through Fratelli Camisa (www.camisa.co.uk), is already recognised by foodies in the UK. As well as the Delia cookbook listing and Great Taste Gold Star, it is featured in Judy Ridgway’s ‘Best Olive Oil Buys Around The World’ (Gardiner Press, 2005).

See website www.mothersgarden.org to find out more.