Mother's Garden Extra Virgin Olive Oil
How often do you pick up a (very expensive), bottle of extra virgin olive oil without a single thought as to how fresh it is?
The answer for most of us is probably every time, but you can in fact, buy fresh olive oil from one of Delia's favourite producers - Mother's Garden.
Based in the Piorat mountains in Catalonia, Martin Kirby and Maggie Whitman left the UK rat race in 2000 to set up their farm of olives, almonds and wildlife. Since then, through hard work and many challenges, they now produce their multi-award winning olive oil with the main focus being on freshness; each bottle is date stamped with its pressing and bottling date, so that it can be enjoyed at its best, which is one year from bottling. This ensures the olive oil is at its absolute peak of freshness and quality, although olive oil can be kept for two or three years, you have no way of knowing how old a bottle is on the shelf of a supermarket, but with Mother's Garden you will be guaranteed the oil is at its best.
The arbequina olives are picked and cold pressed on the same day, the juice of the crushed fruit has the water spun out in their village co-operative mill, then stored in the same room until it is bottled and shipped. This quick and careful process means the olive oil is used while it is still rich in antioxidants and nutrients and before its flavour and goodness are diminished by long storage and exposure to light.
Visit the Mother's Garden website to read more about Martin and Maggie's journey and find out why freshness matters.