The Olive Connection

Today was delivery day for the Carmel Valley Co-op vegetables. I pick up vegetable boxes from Catalan Family Farms in Hollister, and shuttle them out to Carmel Valley. Today's boxes have delicious cherry tomatoes, and some wonderful green and purple peppers. I look forward to stuffing them with lentils and spice! You can find more information about organic food boxes and subscriptions at: http://www.carmelvalleycoop.org/

What does that have to do with olives? Well, nothing. But on the way back, I stopped by Alfred and Kathy's farm. They have an olive farm and make the most wonderful olive oil you can imagine. Each bottle is like pure liquid olives. Fantastic if you have the chance to try it (their oils can be found at many small stores around Carmel Valley including the Carmel Valley Village Market). My visit, however, was not to sample olive oil. Kathy has a wonderful patch of lavender. It includes species as Angustifolia, Grosso, Twickle Purple, Provence, and Lisa Marie to name a few.

Kathy is interested in distilling oil from her lavender. Having just recently come into possession of an essential oil distiller :) she asked me to stop by and take a look. It most definitely is ready for harvest! After a brief conversation, a lovely tour of the wild olive trees that Alfred has propogated and been nurturing, and some delicious apricots from their tree, we settled on Sunday. They will bring the crop by then and we will distill from three different varieties, the Grosso, the Provence, and the Angustifolia. This should give us some nice oil samples. Regardless, Sunday promises to smell wonderful around Lavender Hill!