Posted on 09/02/2012 1:44:20 PM PDT by muawiyah
"Spain, Italy and Greece, who together dominate global production of the Mediterranean staple, are being threatened by tough competition from their New World rivals.,P> The growing olive oil market in the US is poised to be a "battleground" between the historic European producers and their new challengers from California, Chile and Australia, according to agricultural analysts at Rabobank."
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
Giant had a sale on one of those super omega 3 blends not too long ago. Been trying it. Taste is a tad different but there's no smoke ~ meaning it boils at a higher temperature.
We've gone over to an all olive oil kitchen and after several years we can finally taste some of the differences.
Good now if the WTO doesn’t step on our necks over it.
I’ve pretty much given up on vegetable oils - corn, safflower, peanut, canola, etc.
I use olive oil for dressings, etc. But I don’t cook with it.
For cooking, I use Coconut oil. It handles the heat better.
I wonder if it’s unrealistic to expect most of our olive oil to come from California....I don’t know anything about the economics of agriculture. As much as I despise California lefties, I try to buy as many American products as possible. I actually found an avocado from California recently and about fell over from shock.
The only olive oil I like is made in CA, I have it shipped to my house, six bottles at a time.
It’s payback time, baby! Europe sells it’s old olive oil to us thinking we won’t know the difference.
But the nice thing about an olive tree is its long productive life.
Nothing worse than bad olive oil, nothing better than good.
Everyday: Trader Joe’s California Estate olive oil $ 6
Splurge: McEvoy Ranch $ 22
“The only olive oil I like is made in CA, I have it shipped to my house, six bottles at a time.”
What brand is it? Do you get Extra Virgin? How do you buy it, online? Thanks.
We took a CA Central Coast wine-tasting tour recently (same locale as the movie “Sideways) and nearly all the vineyards offered proprietary olive oils for tasting along with the wines. There are really good ones but they still aren’t getting their brands into our CA supermarkets. For convenience I still buy an Italian brand for cooking but plan to check out TJ’s offerings.
Ojai Olive Oil online. I get the Ladera style evoo in the blue bottle. Its sweet and gentle.
Thanks muchly. Will find it now on-line.
The oil that the Euros send over here has no olive taste at all - junk!
When I was a kid, I could tell from my bedroom when my mother had opened the bottle of olive oil.
A Santa Barbara avocado costs about $3 here in Ca.
The avocados from Chile have little flavor, and they’ve been in refrigeration for weeks when we get them.
Americans really shake up things when they start producing what had been a traditionally European product, because they innovate at an incredible clip.
While they will likely soon be doing this to olive oil, the most recent example was of a Louisianan who became a great entrepreneur of Absinthe, which is just a good example of how this works.
A consummate scientist, he had a dozen spectrometers in his house, paid premium prices for surviving authentic Absinthe samples, and became a master of an American Absinthe so good that it was soon winning awards in Europe for its superior quality and exceptional flavors. It is now being manufactured in France to his recipe and process.
Quickly the floodgates were opened and now there are a large number of equally dedicated American Absinthe masters, Absinthe societies, and numerous American brands, many of which are top shelf.
So, imagine this now happening to olive oil.
Likely they will quickly figure out the very best soils, fertilizers, production techniques, etc., to produce very flavorful virgin oils with minimal oxidation, mature oils that are full bodied, oil blends with other exotic oils and flavors to produce delicious cooking varieties. Who knows what?
Coconut oil has a great secret, however, that you should be aware of. It is about 2/3rds medium chain triglycerides, which are very different from other oils and fats.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medium-chain_triglycerides
“MCTs passively diffuse from the GI tract to the portal system (longer fatty acids are absorbed into the lymphatic system) without requirement for modification like long-chain fatty acids or very-long-chain fatty acids.
“In addition, MCTs do not require bile salts for digestion. Patients that have malnutrition or malabsorption syndromes are treated with MCTs because they do not require energy for absorption, utilization, or storage.”
What this means in practical terms is that Coconut oil is the preferred oil for people who have difficulty in absorbing or digesting other oils.
“Some studies have shown that MCTs can help in the process of excess calorie burning, and thus weight loss. MCTs are also seen as promoting fat oxidation and reduced food intake.”
The very best oil for popping popcorn!
I am of mixed minds about using oil to pop, or added after air popping.
Oh well, “Half of one, six dozen of the other.” - Joe Garagiola
Hope the CA olive oil is less nasty than their wine.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.