Ojai Olive Oil

I posted a while back on olive history and have previously offered a couple of recipes that include olives. (Just type “olives” into the search bar at right, if you’re interested.) They are tremendously important fruit, especially among Mediterranean cultures. News of their health benefits has given olives and olive oil a great boost in the last decade or so in the United States. Countries with the right, Mediterranean-type weather, including Australia and South Africa, are now growing olives and producing excellent olive oils. Happily, the Mediterranean climate of parts of California have made that state a wonderful producer of olives and olive oils, as well.

While I loved the book store mentioned in the last post, it wasn’t my reason for visiting Ojai. The Ojai Valley has a great climate for olives (as well as oranges and avocados), and it was the region’s fruit-growing, especially of olives, that had brought me to town. The Ojai Olive Oil Company not only produces world-class, award-winning oils, it also offers free tours twice a week, and that was where I headed the day after I first arrived in Ojai. This operation is sustainable, organic, and family owned. It’s also remarkably beautiful, if a little hard to find. (If you go, be sure to follow the directions on their website, as a GPS can lead you to the wrong side of the sprawling ranch.)

Ojai Olive Oil has olive trees from several of the major olive oil regions of Mediterranean Europe, including France, Spain, and Italy. Apparently, both the soil and climate are ideal for the olives, and the trees show their gratitude by producing abundant olives, all hand picked.

In addition to being shown around the orchards, we also got to see the crushing equipment and then, best part, got to taste about a dozen different olive oils. Wow. We were told that the intense, complex, fruity, peppery flavor of course reflected the health and quality of the trees and the care of the process, but also demonstrated the difference freshness can make. Any olive oil shipped from Europe, unless you had it air freighted yourself, will likely be many months old by the time it reaches the grocery store shelf. It will still be good, but it probably won’t be great. For great olive oil, you not only want to buy good quality but also as fresh as possible. I had always wondered why olive oil I had in places around the Mediterranean always tasted so much better than oils I had at home, and now I knew why.

(The stuff on the grocery store shelf is fine for pan frying, by the way, or using in a marinade, but if you’re going to be dipping bread or drizzling it on a salad, that’s when you want the really good stuff.)

Because of the freshness factor, a California olive oil may offer your best opportunity to taste how good this oil can be. Of course, I can offer from experience a definite thumbs up for the oils from Ojai Olive Oil, but it is not the only good olive oil company in the U.S. But you owe it to yourself to try to find something really fresh and brilliant, so you know why olive oil is so revered in so many places. But if you are interested in seeing what the Ojai operation offers, here’s their website: Ojai Olive Oil Company. Enjoy.

New Favorite Book Store

When I headed for Southern California last autumn, I had a good idea what I was going to do: for work, visit an olive oil farm, do some research, and connect with some business associates, and for fun, attend my college reunion. One of things I hadn’t planned on was running across an incredible store for secondhand books.

Bart’s Books dates to 1964. It bills itself as the world’s largest outdoor bookstore, though I find it hard to imagine it has too much competition in the “outdoor” category. Bart’s has nearly a million books crammed into a maze of al fresco book shelves. Attractive seating areas with umbrellas for shade on sunny days and brick ovens for warmth when the weather turns chilly invite hanging around. The variety of titles is stunning. There is actually a small house at the center of the sprawling “store,” but even it is filled with books (cookbooks in the kitchen and dining room, of course).

If you find yourself in Southern California, I encourage you to at least consider a side trip to Ojai–a charming, mountain-cradled town filled with artists and surrounded by orange, avocado, and olive orchards. And if you love books, then definitely seek out Bart’s Books. You never know what treasures you might find, but even if you find nothing you need, you will have been to one of only a handful of bookstores that might be considered destinations.

Radio Interview

I was recently interviewed by the lovely folks at InPrint Radio. This is a station that features Midwest writers, not just to promote the writer’s work, but also to encourage other writers. InPrint Radio is operated by a Rockford, Illinois-based writers group, also called InPrint. I don’t actually live anywhere near Rockford, but sometimes encouraging other writers is worth a long drive.

Because this is an interview geared for writes, rather than for the book-buying public, we spend a lot more time talking about things that would help other writers, from guidelines about editing to newer options for publishing to rules for writing and even ways to stay motivated. Which is not to say we don’t talk about my work. Waltzing Australia, which is supported by my other blog, gets a bit of time, as does my next book, on the history of corn, which won’t be out for a few more months yet, and general comments on my life as a writer. But the intention is definitely to encourage and guide other writers. Hope you find something useful.

In Print Radio, Episode 42