In Season - TM
November 2010 
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Limited Reserve
Previously Called Olio Nuovo



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Events in Season
Fifth International Conference for Food Safety and Quality
Redondo Beach, CA
Nov. 2-3

Worlds of Flavor
CIA Greystone
St. Helena, CA
Nov. 4-6

Pistachio Festival
Newberry, CA
Nov. 6

Women Chefs & Restaurateurs National Conference
Pasadena, CA
Nov. 6-8


 The Fall Harvest
It's harvest time.Olive Harvest

And our own fall olive harvest has just begun. It's a huge time of year for a small company like ours. It also means we're about to start preparing our Limited Reserve extra virgin olive oil. Formerly known as Olio Nuovo, it's the freshest EVOO we produce and goes straight from the press into the bottle.

The California Olive Ranch team bottles Limited Reserve just once a year. The limited supplies don't even make it to store shelves.

Like fall, this EVOO is fleeting. Its eight-month shelf life is less than half that of our other oils. When you put a spoonful of Limited Reserve in your mouth, you experience a peppery, fruity, pleasantly bitter burst of fresh olive oil taste. It goes well with fall cuisine.

That cuisine is special, too, and not so readily available at other times.Milling Process 

We love roasting fresh carrots, saut�eing rapini, or serving braised meat with pungent wild mushrooms. We're thinking ahead to our favorite food holiday and a Thanksgiving table that celebrates the bounty of the harvest: a warming buttnernut squash soup, Brussels sprouts tossed with plenty of garlic and pancetta, spit-grilled turkey, and vanilla-spiked pumpkin pie.

The fall harvest is a particularly active time for us. Our harvesters are gathering the olives, which  are promptly trucked to our mills. There, Bob Singletary, our veteran miller, and his team take delivery of tons of olives each day which they press into fresh extra virgin olive oil.

"It's the busiest time of the year," Bob says. He expects to put in 15 hour days, seven days a week.Pieter Brueghel Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

We're not the only ones who are busy. Farmers, growers and foragers are harvesting apples, broccoli, mushrooms, wine grapes, winter squash and more.

"The flavors of autumn evoke the same feelings as putting on your favorite wool shirt for the first time. They are tastes you can't have other times of the year," says Napa Valley chef Michael Chiarello in his book, The Tra Vigne Cookbook: Seasons in the Wine Country (Chronicle Books, 2008). "For me the perfect autumn dish begins with a mushroom hunt in the surrounding hills with a novice hunt from my staff."


 Featured Harvest Recipes
Recipes Courtesy of Our Featured Chef Karl MaceFarro and Roasted Butternut Squash Karl Mace

Farro and Roasted Butternut Squash


Roasted Venison Rack




Additional Recipes


Lamb Shanks with Mushroom BologneseMichael Chiarello Lamb Shanks
Recipe credit: The Tra Vigne Cookbook: Seasons in the California Wine Country (Chronicle Books, 2008), by Michael Chiarello with Penelope Wisner
Reprinted with permission from Chronicle Books




Julia's Essential Rapini Recipe
Recipe credit: The San Francisco Ferry Plaza Farmers' Market Cookbook (Chronicle Books, 2006), by Peggy Knickerbocker and Christopher Hirsheimer
Reprinted with permission from Chronicle Books




Roasted Pear-Butternut Soup with Crumbled StiltonPear and Butternut Squash Soup EatingWell
Reprinted from EatingWell in Season (The Countryman Press, 2009)
Courtesy of The Countryman Press




Saut�ed Carrots with Warm Olive and Mint Dressing
Recipe Credit: Susie Middleton, Fast, Fresh & Green (Chronicle Books, 2010)
Recipe courtesy of Chronicle Books




Warm Quinoa Salad with Orange Blossom VinaigretteWarm Quinoa Salad Chef Ray Garcia
Recipe courtesy of Chef Ray Garcia of FIG Restaurant, Santa Monica




Carrot and Cashew Soup with Parsley Oil
Recipe Credit: Anna Getty, Anna Getty's Easy Green Organic (Chronicle Books, 2010)
Recipe courtesy of Chronicle Books



Roasted Pumpkin Risotto with Feta and Spinach
Recipe courtesy of Allie Wigley and An Apple a Day




 Featured Chef
Karl Mace
Union Bluff Hotel
8 Beach Street
York Beach, ME  03910
(207) 363-1333     
When Karl Mace got word that he'd be the featured chef at the James Beard House, he wanted to be sure the seafood he prepared was fresh. To be absolutely certain, the Maine chef borrowed a refrigerated truck from his local fish purveyor in York, Me., and loaded it with local lobsters, mussels, Chef Karl Macemahogany clams, and cod. Mace got behind the wheel and drove to New York City in time to cook dinner.

"I parked the truck outside the hotel," recalls Mace, a Maine native. The dinner proved to be a hit. "It was sold out in the middle of winter," Mace says. "It was fun."

Mace is the executive chef at the upscale Union Bluff Hotel in York, Me.  He uses local seafood, vegetables, fruits, and "whatever people say is the freshest." Mace particularly likes the seasonal cuisine he can prepare this time of year. "The food is a little more comforting in the fall," he says. "It brings you to your roots." Chef Karl Mace recipe

Mace also capitalizes on the availability of our Limited Reserve EVOO. "I toss a lot of my greens with it," Mace says, adding that he uses it to make a dressing with Banyuls wine vinegar from France. He finishes dishes with a drizzle of Limited Reserve. He saut�s Brussels sprouts in the EVOO, and he uses it to sear and poach fish such as cod and haddock.

The 32-year-old Mace caught the cooking bug early in high school. While other students were going to algebra class, Mace wandered elsewhere. "I decided to go hang out in the home economics class," he says.

Mace essentially taught himself how to cook, starting with basics such as brownies, jam and roast chicken. Like many a home cook, he pored over cookbooks and cooking magazines, including Cook's (now Cook's Illustrated) and Better Homes and Gardens.Karl Mace - James Beard House

His restaurant career had a humble start. He first took a dishwashing job at the York Harbor Inn in the mid-1990s, at age 14. "I want you to teach me everything you know," the young Mace told the chef. "I don't care what I get paid." He worked his way up the line to the saut� station.

Mace's career path changed in 1999. He got married and moved south, to Savannah, Ga., where his uncle lived. Mace liked the area and was interested in southern cooking.

Mace landed a job at the Sapphire Grill as a "round cook" preparing food at multiple stations. Chef Christopher Nason heads the acclaimed eatery. "He opened my mind up more because of the products he used," Mace says, citing ultra-fresh meats and fish as well as local ingredients including wild boar, squash, different mushrooms, and watercress.

The South exposed Mace to new dishes. He visited poor neighborhoods where restaurants served "wicked good meat loaf and unbelievable fried chicken. The collard greens were the best thing I'd ever had."Chef Karl Mace

Mace stayed three years at the Sapphire Grill before taking a sous chef job at West Virginia's luxurious Greenbrier resort. He stayed about six months before returning to Maine, to his hometown of York, in 2005. He helped his mother open her first restaurant there, Stolen Menu Cafe.

The restaurant, which is still open, garnered good reviews. But Mace and his mother "parted ways" after a couple years.

"She didn't want to do dinner. I really pushed for it," he says.

Mace took his current chef job at the Union Bluff Hotel in 2007. He keeps striving to be creative in his cooking. But now he's turning his attention to keeping his food costs down and revenue up. 

"I've proven that I can cook," he says. "Now I have to learn my numbers."  

 
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Stay Healthy in 2010 with California Olive Ranch!


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