All You Can Eat – 500-year Old Olive Trees

Posted on March 29, 2007 by Don Genova

Img_2167This posting for volume 34 of All You Can Eat is a work in progress, as I want to add some photo albums and video clips as I go along.  So if everything isn't quite here yet, keep checking for the added content in a couple of days.  The podcast takes you through part of my most recent field trip to Puglia.  You will find a couple of other postings with photos here and here, so this one is meant to fill in some of the blanks not yet covered.  The photo you see at the right is of a traditional Pugliese song and dance troupe that entertained us the first night we arrived at our hotel.  They were truly energetic and had our class all up and dancing with them even before dinner and wine, so you know they were good.  One of their specialties was the tarantella, a frenzied dance that was supposedly invented in the 16th century to help cure victims of tarantism, supposedly caused by tarantula spider bites.  Here's a short video clip of one of the dances.  And dinner was pretty good, too.  Here's a captioned photo album of a few of the dishes we enjoyed that first night.

Img_2608 Our last day in Puglia involved a lot of raw fish.  Here is just one of the platters we were offered to eat at lunch.  The squid and shrimp were fine…but the octopus.  Well, I took too big a bite and I chewed and I chewed and I chewed, and then it started to get a little much for me so I ended up spitting it into my napkin as surreptitiously as possible.   The other platter consisted of raw mussels and clams as well as two kinds of sea urchin, one 'regular' and one that was in the midst of spawning, to the roe was milky with a spermy-looking substance.  The mussels and clams were sweet and fresh, but the urchin couldn't compare to the sweet, mango-like urchin I've had on the West Coast of Canada. Here is a clip of classmates Betsy and Daniel getting up close and personal with their mussels.  Nice face, Betsy!

Img_2678 This box of unlikely looking seafood contains something the fishermen on the docks of Brindisi were calling 'white truffle of the sea'.  Right. Not exactly to all tastes, including my own, it was very strong, but I managed to choke it down, even though what was inside the thick skin of the 'sea truffle' looked like a big ball of phlegm.  I've put together a little sequence of my tasting of this seafood in this photo album.  Photos by Betsy, thank you.  I was using my still camera when she had her own try, and I think I caught her face just at the moment when she was struggling not to throw up her particular 'ball of phlegm'. Have to wait to have the photos developed…gee, what a concept in this age of digital technology.

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The first documentary you hear in this podcast is about olive trees in two different places, the Marche, and Puglia. Two quite different groves, with the most mystique, if I can call it that, about the trees in Puglia, a grove where the age of the average tree has been pegged at 500 years.  Also just as fascinating, a trip underground to a subterranean olive oil mill…quite the undertaking for the time it was built, which was sometime before 1423.  The people who restored the mill know this, since they managed to find a document from 1423 which detailed the expansion of this mill.  When you think about it, it was a pretty remarkable feat of engineering to carve a cave out of solid rock that would fit 15 to 20 workers, a couple of horses or donkeys, and the olive mills and presses.  Why underground?  Apparently back then it was cheaper to dig than to build, easier to secure, lower, constant temperatures which were more conducive to making quality oil, and the presses could use the roof of the cave for support.
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Here is a nice wide shot of part of the mill, but it is really much larger than what you can see in the photo.  I've put together a photo album of Betsy's pictures of the olive grove and the mill, along with this short video clip of the mill owner showing how the press worked.

I also promised to repeat the tips about the purchase and storage of olive oil:

So how do you choose a good quality oil?  If it says extra-virgin on the label, that means it is the first, cold pressing of the olives. UPDATE: In studying for my olive oil technology exam today, I realize the idea of first cold pressing is out of date.  Because modern mills use a continuous centrifugal press, there is no second pressing of the olives.  To read more about the grading and production of olive oil visit the Olive Oil Source. If you choose to purchase extra-virgin, then you  need to smell and taste.  Unfortunately, it’s not like going to a wine bar where you could try 3 or 4 different wines in an evening.  Some gourmet grocery stores may have tasting stations and that’s a good start.  An oil should smell fresh, perhaps grassy or fruity, not rancid.  The taste is a personal discovery.  Some people like oils with a real peppery finish that leaves a bite in the back of your throat.  Others want something smoother.  It depends on what you are using it for, dressing a salad, drizzling over some warm vegetables or garnishing a soup.  Buy small bottles to start with until you find something you like. Keep your oil away from heat and light, and use it up within a few months. And remember, like wine, every year brings a different harvest and different flavours.

Posted in My Podcast, Parma Palate - My Year in Italy, Travel | 2 Comments

Food For Thought – Olive Trees and Mills and Oil

Posted on March 27, 2007 by Don Genova

Img_2289This week on Food For Thought, a visit to an olive grove with trees that are at least 500 years old, and a subterranean olive mill at least that old as well.  Here’s the audio file and a link to more photos and text from Puglia, including shots of the underground olive oil mill.

I am in the midst of creating a podcast that will feature this documentary as well as one I did a few years ago about an olive grove planted and thriving on BC’s Pender Island.  The podcast will also include some video clips of my trip to Puglia.  In the meantime, I also promised to repeat the tips about the purchase and storage of olive oil:

So how do you choose a good quality oil?  If it says extra-virgin on the label, that means it is the first, cold pressing of the olives. UPDATE: In studying for my olive oil technology exam today, I realize the idea of first cold pressing is out of date.  Because modern mills use a continuous centrifugal press, there is no second pressing of the olives. To read more about the grading and production of olive oil visit the Olive Oil Source. If you choose to purchase extra-virgin, then you  need to smell and taste.  Unfortunately, it’s not like going to a wine bar where you could try 3 or 4 different wines in an evening.  Some gourmet grocery stores may have tasting stations and that’s a good start.  An oil should smell fresh, perhaps grassy or fruity, not rancid.  The taste is a personal discovery.  Some people like oils with a real peppery finish that leaves a bite in the back of your throat.  Others want something smoother.  It depends on what you are using it for, dressing a salad, drizzling over some warm vegetables or garnishing a soup.  Buy small bottles to start with until you find something you like. Keep your oil away from heat and light, and use it up within a few months. And remember, like wine, every year brings a different harvest and different flavours.

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Parma Palate – Ah, Puglia!

Posted on March 23, 2007 by Don Genova

Img_2373Okay, so Ah, Puglia is a play on words, as Puglia used to be known, and you can still see it on many maps, as Apulia.  I thought it was an appropriate title to start this post as we enter into the last day of our field trip in this region.  Over the past couple of days we have seen the best Puglia has to offer in terms of landscapes, quaint villages dating back to medieval times, and of course food and wine.  The shot at the left (photos by Betsy Manning again in this post) was taken in a marine park where the delicate shoreline ecosystem is being protected.

Img_2331 Before heading to the marine park we spent some time in an ancient olive grove…which was also the home to some beautiful wildflowers, as ably demonstrated by classmate Jessica in this photo.  All the olive trees in this grove used to be owned by a single nobleman.  After the Second World War and Italian reformation, the land was redistributed to local farmers in plots deemed large enough to support their families based on subsistence farming.  In amongst the olive trees other crops such as peas and fava beans were planted.

Img_2289 The average age of these olive trees is 500 years.  That’s FIVE HUNDRED YEARS!  The physiology of the tree trunks are a great example of Mother Nature’s ability as a sculptor. The trees can survive almost any trauma.  Quite often they get a disease which eats away at the inside of the trunk, but the farmers do what they can to remove the dead wood and the trees continue to thrive, with an elaborate twisting of the trunk and major branches that go off in all directions.  Even if an old olive tree is burned to the ground, or chopped off, or damaged by cold weather, eventually new growth will sprout again and the life cycle continues. 

Img_2436 One of the highlights of the day was visiting a subterranean olive oil mill that was recently refurbished and turned into a museum by a major olive oil producer in the area.  We learned that many mills were built underground centuries ago for a number of reasons, one being security, another is that a cave can keep the temperature low during milling operations, or at least have temperatures more easily maintained.  When the owners of the mill were researching its history, they discovered a very important document.  This document detailed the expansion of the mill, and it was dated in the 1430’s!

Img_2472_2 This is a line of what were once 8 separate presses. The owner of the mill is demonstrating how these presses were turned by hand to extract the oil and water from a paste that was made from crushed-up olives. The paste was made by pouring ripe olives into a basin with a couple of millstones that were turned by donkeys or horses. This was one more reason why the mills were carved out of the rock.  The roof could withstand the upward pressure of the presses as they were cranked to extract the oil.  The oil and water would then drain into holes carved into the stone in front of the presses.  The oil floats on top of the water, and could then be drained off.

Img_2522 I’ll leave you with one more great shot from the "the White Town" ("La Città Bianca", in Italian), Ostuni. We stopped there for a short visit and went within the walls of the medieval city.  Check out the Wikipedia link for historical info.  Off to Brinidisi now for the afternoon fish market…more posting to come!

Posted in Parma Palate - My Year in Italy, Travel | 1 Comment

Parma Palate – Passage to Puglia

Posted on March 20, 2007 by Don Genova

Img_2066Greetings from Puglia, the land that is sometimes referred to as the ‘heel’ of Italy because of its position in the southeast corner, with part of its borders on the Adriatic Sea.

This is a land much more full of different vegetables, fruits, cheeses and olives than our usual stomping grounds near Parma, where it seems like all we eat are many slices of cured meats and great hunks of pork and Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese.

We spent the morning at an agricultural research centre and learned how students from Mediterranean countries are learning how to deal with water shortages and use integrated pest management technology to deal with the fly, for example, that lays its eggs in olives, which then hatch into larva and burrow their way through the fruit, ruining it.  The researchers are planting cover crops such as fava beans and mustards under the olive trees to see how they may discourage the presence of flies, and they are also breeding predator flies which lay their eggs in the larva of the olive fly to kill it off.

Lunch at the research centre was a highlight as they had prepared many different Pugliese specialities for us in a buffet.  Marinated anchovies, a toothsome seafood salad, eggplant lasagna and fist-sized panzerotto pizzas, kind of like hot, fried pizza pockets stuffed with melting mozzarella. A spinach salad with a feta-like cheese and grilled baby octopus were also well-received.

Img_2071 After our tour and lunch we headed to a village called Alberobello, parts of which are totally covered with houses called Trulli, which are in the shapes of buildings that were once built by farmers in the fields to house their tools.  Now this village is a world heritage sight and we had the time to wander up and down the narrow streets and marvel at the flat stone construction of the roofs, which actually kind of remind me of a Moroccan-style tagine used for cooking couscous.  I should mention here that most of the photos taken on this blog posting come from my classmate Betsy Manning.  Her camera is broken (and still being repaired) so I lent her my Canon SD700 IS to have fun with while I worked with my Canon EOS SLR to take old-fashioned film photos and concentrate on my radio recording, thanks Betsy!  I will do a ‘Best of Puglia’ photo album at the end of our week here.

Img_2103 And I did do some radio work as we went to a butcher shop where they make a very special cured meat called Capocollo Martina Franca which is a Slow Food presidia product.

It was traditionally made from pork taken from free-range pigs which ate a lot of acorns from oak trees specific to that region of Puglia.  After the practice nearly died out, butchers are now teaming up with farmers to produce this very tasty capocollo once again.  The pigs are semi-free range, so they can still pick up the flavour of the acorns which makes the meat quite sweet.  It is brined in a cooked wine marinade, then tempered with a light smoking.

Img_2108 This butcher has been practicing his trade for the past 40 years.  He is the son of a farmer, but learned his trade from a butcher in town and is now trying to keep his traditions alive, however, he has no sons and his daughters have no interest in the trade.  But there have been some new people coming in, and with the revived interest generated in the Slow Food presidia product, who knows?

Here the butcher is salting the fresh pork which comes from the neck of the pig and rubbing it with black pepper as well as a mixture of spices including juniper berries and allspice.  After sitting for 15 days in a cooler it is put in a mixture of cooked wine and white wine for a day, then drained and wrapped in a cloth to undergo further aging.

Img_2142 Of course we got to try the fruits of their labour, and I think I actually prefer this capocollo to the much vaunted Culatello di Zibello from the north.

Img_2167 Just one more photo before we go off to a cheese tasting today.  We were treated to a very nice song and dance session of the tarantella and other Pugliese folk traditions last night before dinner.  More photos and video to come!

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All You Can Eat – Tetra Pak Wine and Natalie Maclean

Posted on March 18, 2007 by Don Genova

Nat250On this edition of All You Can Eat, you’ll hear some advice on wine shopping and her take on modern wine journalism from popular Canadian wine writer, Natalie Maclean. You can find out all about her and her take on wine by visiting her extensive website.  On her website you can also subscribe to her free e-newsletter, and make sure you check out her comprehensive food and wine matcher.

Red_and_white_1 Don’t be fooled by the ‘glamour’ photo of Natalie you see here.  She is a very down-to-earth person who carries an infectious enthusiasm for the world of wine.  To follow some of her travels, you could order her first book from Amazon.ca and save 37 percent off the cover price!  Red and White and Drunk All Over is the story of her visits to some of the most important wine production in the world. 

At the beginning of this podcast I mentioned a fun way my wine journalism instructor Richard Baudains taught us of doing a blind wine tasting that can also reveal how different, or similar, your perceptions of wine colour, aromas and tastes are to your friends.  I would say having about 10 people to do this would be fun, but you could go even higher and put people into groups of two.  Here’s what you do:

  • Buy five bottles of red or white wine.  They should all be the same colour, and there should be some variety in the way they taste, but not that much.  Try mixing different vintages, and varietals. 
  • Cover the bottles in foil or paper and number them 1 to 5. 
  • Then give each taster five pieces of paper on which they will describe each wine in three different categories:  Colour, aroma and taste.  Make sure they are smaller pieces of paper so they don’t go wild!  Each taster writes their name on each piece of paper.
  • But they don’t write the number of each wine on each description.  They make themselves a letter key.

The key would look like this, for example:
1  2  3  4  5
D O N N  Y   

  • So when they describe wine number 1, on the sheet of paper they write ‘D’, on the next sheet for number 2 they write ‘O’, and so on.  For the descriptions, colour could contain red, dark red, ruby red, brownish red, etc.  Aroma could be tobacco, fruit, blackberry, etc.  Taste can be tannic, soft, acidic, plummy, jammy, etc.  There are really no rules as to what you write down for the descriptions.
  • When everyone has finished tasting and writing throw all the descriptions into a hat.  Then each taster picks out 5 descriptions, none of which can be his or her own.  Then after reading the descriptions each person writes the number of the wine they think it is, and write their own name beside the number they think it is.  Then everyone returns their descriptions to their respective owners.
  • The fun begins when you see whether people have recognized the wines they tasted by the way the other people described them.  The better the job you do describing your wines, the more people should guess which is which, right?  Well, maybe not…that’s where the fun comes in when you discover whether your describe your perceptions in the same way as your friends or colleagues.

Frenchrabbitad_2 In this podcast I also talked about Tetra Pak wines and how they are turning up more and more often in liquor stores and wine shops not only in Canada, but around the world.  Here’s the Tetra Pak story of how French Rabbit wines in Tetra Paks first came to Canada. If you go to this link on the BC Liquor Distribution Branch website you can download as a pdf file the spring edition of Taste, which is relatively new publication from the LDB, very ably put together with help from my friend at the branch, Anne Gilmour.  Nice work, Anne!  On page 61 you will find a feature about the new line of Tetra Pak wines you can find soon in BC Liquor stores, and even if you’re not from BC, check out Anne’s very useful story on outfitting your bar with glassware depending on how much space and how much money you have!  That’s on page 30.  Update: The Globe and Mail’s wine writer, Beppi Crosariol, just wrote an amusing little feature with a hint of insouciance on wines in boxes and plastic bottles.  Here’s the link.  Hopefully it will remain active and not go immediately into the ‘pay’ archives of the newspaper.  Let me know if it goes down….

thanks to my sponsors for this week, Folgers Gourmet Selections and GoDaddy.com.

For free samples of Folgers Gourmet Selections coffee, visit www.folgers.com/podshow.  While quantities last, act soon!

And to take advantage of GoDaddy.com offers such as 10 percent off any order, use this code when you check out:  eat1

 

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Food For Thought – Tetra-Pak wines

Posted on March 18, 2007 by Don Genova

FrenchrabbitadThis week on Food For Thought, why you will see more and more Tetra-Pak wines on the shelves of your local wine or liquor shop in the years to come.  The boxes look cool, does the wine match up to the packaging?  Listen to the audio file, and for more information, here’s the Tetra Pak story of how French Rabbit wines in Tetra Paks first came to Canada. If you go to this link on the BC Liquor Distribution Branch website you can download as a pdf file the spring edition of Taste, which is relatively new publication from the LDB, very ably put together with help from my friend at the branch, Anne Gilmour.  Nice work, Anne!  On page 61 you will find a feature about the new line of Tetra Pak wines you can find soon in BC Liquor stores, and even if you’re not from BC, check out Anne’s very useful story on outfitting your bar with glassware depending on how much space and how much money you have!  That’s on page 30.

Update: The Globe and Mail’s wine writer, Beppi Crosariol, just wrote an amusing little feature with a hint of insouciance on wines in boxes and plastic bottles.  Here’s the link. Hopefully it will remain active and not go immediately into the ‘pay’ archives of the newspaper.  Let me know if it goes down….

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