Our own Olive Oil

Mr. Nice

Moved to the south of France in July. Our garden has an olive tree, along with an apricot tree, banana trees, plum trees, grape vines, passion fruit vines (an annoying weed), a lemon tree etc. etc.
We got 18 kilos of top quality olives from the tree, which also provides great shade. Today I brought our olives to the oil mill and tomorrow we collect our oil. We should get around 3 litres of oil. The oil from this particular mill is excellent and retails for around €15 per litre - I can't wait to get "our own" oil even though our olives will be mixed in with others to make enough for a full pressing.

Merkin

I bet it will taste absolutely delicious! It's a wonderful thing to grow and/or catch your own food.

I'm surprised about the banana trees. Do they actually yield anything? I would have thought the south of France would be far too temperate!

Lucyn

Wow! Sounds fantastic. I bet it'll taste gorgeous. Enjoy

carolinespring

WOW!!! Really exciting, will be looking forward to hearing how the oil turns out.

Mr. Nice

One of the banana trees fruited this year but the bananas were tiny.

Mr. Nice

Woo hoo, just got back from the mill. We got almost 4 litres of oil and it only cost €5.72 (including the container). The oil is delicious with a slightly peppery aftertaste. Now I just need to call in to the Boulangerie for a couple of baguettes. If I get the timing right the bread will still be warm when from the oven when I get there.

carolinespring

Envy... much!!! Lucky you, that will be lush.

Doodah7

I'm also gladdened to see industrial quantities of Barry's Tea!! None of your French thé muck!!!

pickarooney

So is your name actually Mr. Nice?

Nice job on the olive oil. I've always dreamed of having a garden like yours but its probably another 40 years off!

Mr. Nice

The name is a "tip of the hat" to Howard Marks and a clue to my location. The garden and house are rented, cheaper than Dublin and lifestyle is better.

Kat1170

Mr. Nice wrote: »

Moved to the south of France in July. Our garden has an olive tree, along with an apricot tree, banana trees, plum trees, grape vines, passion fruit vines (an annoying weed), a lemon tree etc. etc.
We got 18 kilos of top quality olives from the tree, which also provides great shade. Today I brought our olives to the oil mill and tomorrow we collect our oil. We should get around 3 litres of oil. The oil from this particular mill is excellent and retails for around €15 per litre - I can't wait to get "our own" oil even though our olives will be mixed in with others to make enough for a full pressing.

Do these fruit or is it their lack of fruit that gets them labeled a weed.

Mr. Nice

The passionfruit vines produce fruit but they're not a very juicy variety. They strangle everything else in the garden and grow really fast during the summer. They nearly killed an apricot tree before we moved in and they even climbed up a pine tree (so did the blackberries but that's another story).
It's like "The Day of the Triffids", they just seem nasty and don't want to share the garden with the other plants.