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NOVEMBER 2014

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LIMITED RESERVE

Limited Reserve is the freshest extra virgin olive oil we mill. It's available only for a limited period, starting in the fall. Sign up for our VIP List to be among the first notified of when this special oil is available.

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PHOTO CONTEST


We're hosting a photo contest and giveaway to celebrate our olive harvest. Winners receive our Limited Reserve extra virgin olive oil. The contest runs through Nov. 15.

HARVEST UPDATE 
 
Read our Blog for an update on our harvest and learn how the drought affects when the olives ripen. Plus, find out about our annual harvest beard contest involving our harvest and milling teams.  
 
PRIMER ON THIS YEAR'S LIMITED RESERVE OIL


Among our favorite things about fall and Thanksgiving: making our Limited Reserve extra virgin olive oil. It's the freshest oil we mill. And it's bottled soon after the olives are crushed, delivering a "burst" of flavor intensity. We asked our Master Miller Bob Singletary and our Technical Service Manager Mary Bolton - a food scientist and olive oil tasting expert - to tell us about this season's batch of Limited.  
 
How has the drought affected the characteristics of this year's oil?
 
It has affected our milling facility. We've have made strides to reduce our water usage at the mill. And, over the past two years, we've noticed a change in timing of when the olives ripen. We've started our harvest earlier, because the drought has affected fruit ripening.  We've done this to ensure we can still maintain the flavor profile we want in our oil to give a consistent product year after year.
 
When choosing the best pressings to make Limited Reserve, is there a general flavor profile you try to achieve each year?
 
Mary Bolton and Bob Singletary


We typically incorporate our three olive varietals - Arbequina, Arbosana and Koroneiki - to make a balanced blend of our favorite oils.  This year is an exception, as we had some phenomenal options in Koroneiki that we could not resist.  We usually go for a more robust oil to have a strong, healthy (by way of high polyphenols), flavorful oil.  Typically, we meet a few weeks before we've planned to bottle the oil. We review the various oils we've made, and make various blends with our tasting team. We then choose the best.
 
What olive varieties typically are used to make Limited - and why?

Traditionally, we use all three. Arbequina provides a lot of fruit flavor and herbaciousness. The Arbosana always gives a lot of floral notes and contributes to the medium bitterness and pungency we like to have in the Limited Reserve. And the Koroneiki gives us that real kick in the back of your throat pungency, as well as a very banana flavor at the beginning. 

This year, however, we decided to go with a blend of all Koroneiki oils from two separate ranches that we have.  One of the Koroneiki oils provides the strong pungency that we love in our Limited Reserve, with a hint of the green herbaceousness.  The other Koroneiki  is from a younger orchard and gives the milder tones with the green tea, green fruit (apple and banana) characteristics that we absolutely love.

The taste of Limited can change from year to year. Why is that?
 
We try to select our favorite oils throughout the season. It depends on the age of the orchard, the time we are able to harvest, and what "wows" us.  We stick with the same idea each year. However, some ranches can bring amazing oils that we didn't see the year before.
 
What is your favorite way to enjoy Limited Reserve?
 
Because it's so fresh and flavorful, it's always nice with a fresh winter salad to bring out the floral and pungent characteristics of the oil. It's also good with a salad combining spinach, cranberry, walnut, a dash of balsamic glaze, and goat cheese. Another alternative would be to saut� some squash with a pinch of salt.
 
Are there any foods or dishes that go especially well with Limited Reserve?
 
Limited Reserve usually has a very fruit forward flavor and typically is on the intense side.  Any dish that you want the olive oil to make its presence known and to deliver a flavor impact would be great for this oil.  Risotto is a great winter dish for Limited Reserve, as are grilled or saut�ed vegetables. A favorite at Bob's house is chicken picata with some lemon juice and capers.   
ENJOYING LIMITED RESERVE WITH THANKSGIVING

November is our favorite time. It represents the culmination of our fall olive harvest. And, when we sit down at our Thanksgiving table, we enjoy a truly special extra virgin olive oil: Limited ReserveLimited is the freshest oil we make. It goes directly into the bottle, without spending time in a storage tank where fruit particles can settle and be removed.
 
We bottle this seasonally available oil just once a year. And the fruit particles in the oil deliver amazing flavor. When you taste a spoonful of Limited Reserve, you experience a "burst" of fresh olive fruitiness, followed by a pleasant peppery tickle in your throat.
 
We use Limited with all kinds of dishes at Thanksgiving. We drizzle it on roasted vegetables like Brussels sprouts and cauliflower. We blend it into mashed sweet potatoes instead of butter. We drizzle it on freshly sliced pieces of turkey. We've even drizzled Limited on pecan pie. The oil's peppery kick delivers a nice counterpoint to the pie's sweet flavor.
 
Limited is great with other dishes, too. Drizzle it on bruschetta rubbed with garlic. Toss it with pasta and sauteed garlic to create that classic Italian dish, spaghetti aglio e olio. Below, you'll find a selection of recipes that would be suitable for Thanksgiving and/or Limited Reserve.

But here's our best advice when it comes to Limited Reserve: Let your imagination run wild! 
DISHES THAT PAIR WELL WITH LIMITED RESERVE
Brussels Sprout Salad

The sprouts for this salad are sliced thinly and combined with sliced pear. The dish comes together with a dressing made from fresh lemon juice and extra virgin olive, such as our seasonal Limited Reserve or fuity Arbequina. It gets a grating of Pecorino Toscano, an Italian table cheese from Tuscany.     

  Get recipe
Roasted Beet Salad   

"Roasting brings out the sweetness in most vegetables but especially root vegetables like carrots, parsnips and beets," says the creator of this dish, blogger Karista Bennett. The salad includes fresh shallots, Gorgonzola cheese, balsamic vinegar, and extra virgin olive oil. For a peppery note, try our Limited Reserve with the dressing.

Get recipe

Cranberry and Quinoa-Stuffed Turkey with Herb Rub  

This succulent turkey - from our friends at Alter Eco Foods - gets rubbed with a pesto-like paste made from olive oil, parsley, celery, basil, thyme, lemon zest, and lemon juice. The bird is stuffed with a flavorful, festive quinoa combining cranberries, pecans and parsley. Drizzle the sliced turkey with our Limited Reserve to add some robust olive and pepper notes.  

Get recipe

Chicken Roasted Over Potatoes and Lemon  

The small stoves Christopher Hirsheimer and Melissa Hamilton use in their test kitchen at Canal House lack a rotisserie. "So when we want to 'rotisserie' a chicken, we put the bird directly on the oven rack and slide a pan of sliced crusty bread, root vegetables, or potatoes and lemons onto the rack below to catch the flavorful juices," they write in their book Canal House Cooks Every Day, where the recipe appears. Give the sliced chicken a finishing drizzle of our robust Limited Reserve.   

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Pecan Pie Tart  

Blogger Alice Choi reinvented the classic pecan pie with this tart. The crust is made with extra virgin olive oil - not butter. "I'm obsessed with olive oil pastry crust," Choi says of this dessert. . "I love the flavor, texture, taste, everything about it. And it works amazingly well in this pecan pie tart." Give the tart a finishing drizzle of our robust Limited Reserve to provide a contrast with the pie's sweetness.   

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Pappardelle alla Boscaiola   

Mushroom enthusiasts, in particular, will like the pasta featured here. It showcases shiitakes and less common varieties such as brown clambshell, chicken-of-the-woods, gamboni, and trumpet. The result: an earthy dish combining broad ribbons of pasta and rosemary-scented mushrooms. Give the pasta a finishing drizzle of our Limited Reserve to draw out the earthy flavors of this pasta, which appears in The Glorious Pasta of Italy.    

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