Tuesday, November 18, 2008

New Olive Oil Tuscany Italy

Cari Amici (Dear Friends),

The new olive oil is here in Tuscany now and it is delicious! My padrona Doria shared some with me last week when her nephew was visiting from north Italia. Honestly, before I lived in Italia, I had no idea that olive oil was green! I had only seen the yellow variety in the States. Ah, but that is “old” oil. And the oil Doria bought from a Tuscan-living Italian friend is so good I was licking it off of my plate – not behavior my mother taught me!

This past weekend in Piazza Santa Croce here in Florence, Italy, there was a festival celebrating Tuscana’s organic olive oils and wines. There were also hand-made salsas and soaps in this “XXXVI Rassegna dell’Olio Extravergine di Oliva di Reggello” that celebrates “Oro verde” (green gold).


While everything was good that I freely tasted, I sometimes wondered if the vendors were making poor choices in the breads for dipping in the oils. There is not much Italian bread that I am fond of and I worried that their qualities might influence the flavor of the oils. No one else seemed to mind though. I wrote down prices and information for this blog, but now cannot seem to locate it. My room is chaos!


Anyway, in a bottle that is similar to a gallon (probably 5 liters), olive oil could be bought for around 50 euros. (What is that now - $70 US?) I must admit I was not able to purchase anything, but dreaming and tasting was fun. An interesting side note for me was that one of my friends from Algeria said that they do not celebrate the new olive oils as they do here in Italy. They actually prefer the older oils, like a good wine, I suppose.

Buon appetito!



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1 comment:

Anonymous said...

This is really Cool, Kelly.
Keep enjoying it for all us stuck at home.
I am using more olive oil all the time and it seems to help my cholesterol too.
Thanks, Gene P.