Town Grove Rated 'Remarkable'.
Tue, 2010-07-06
Story by George Atsalis. Published in the Australian & New Zealand Olivegrower & Processor - July 2010 Ed.
What happens when you get a cook, an artist, a miner, a geologist, a physician/pathologist, a lawyer, a construction engineer and a retired pharmacist together, throw in several locals from Broken Hill and an enthusiast from Sydney, then have them collectively manage the production of an extra virgin olive oil? According to a jury of chefs at the International Taste & Quality Institute, something truly remarkable.
Early this year, the team at Broken Hill Gourmet Products Co-Operative made the decision to enter their Town Grove Extra Virgin Olive Oil in the prestigious Superior Taste Award, held in Brussels, Belgium. A highly sought-after annual prize, the award acknowledges foods and beverages with outstanding taste and quality. Products of a high enough quality to receive an award (scoring over 70% in blind tastings), are given a score out of three stars:
- One star - products scoring between 70% and 80% are praised for notable taste;
- Two stars - products scoring between 80% and 90% are awarded as remarkable;
- Three stars - products scoring 90% and above are acclaimed as exceptional.
Judged by 24 chefs from across Europe, Town Grove’s EVOO was awarded two out of three stars.
The award
The Superior Taste Award was brought to the attention of the co-operative by founding member Dr Steve Flecknoe-Brown. Steve discovered that an award-winning product reaped rewards such as credible superiority claims, sensory analysis and media for communicating effectively with retailers and consumers. A meeting or two later and it was unanimously agreed that Town Grove stood a good chance of winning an award. Timing couldn’t have been better for meeting the entry requirements: with their harvest beginning in mid-March and a sample deadline of April 7, they could harvest, press and deliver an extra virgin oil at its absolute freshest.
Production
Flecknoe-Brown said the Town Grove fruit was picked by hand, following their usual practice of picking in the morning and pressing on the same afternoon. They use a state-of-the-art Campagnola Buonolio Top press, with a gentle fruit mincer and a centrifugal separator, to ensure maximum quality.
“With the full team at work, and a couple of family members, we were able to harvest all the olives on one day,” he said. “We use early-bearing varieties and Broken Hill gets more sunlight hours than almost anywhere else in Australia, so in the middle of March the fruit was absolutely prime.
“We started the press at 10am and were cleaned up by 8pm. The oil flowed beautifully, with just the right hint of green and a full, fruity bouquet. We could probably have picked a week or two earlier with no loss of quality, but this timing gave us excellent yields.”
That was despite the misfortunes of nature , as the dust storms which blanketed Broken Hill and turned Sydney skies an other-worldly, blood red in 2009 greatly depleted crop volumes for the 2010 harvest.
“The dust-storm blew off all the fruit from exposed trees, so our crop was much smaller than the initial flowering and fruit-set had promised. We produced about 30% of our usual volume, in a year which we had expected to be a bumper,” Flecknoe-Brown said.
“We managed to achieve the efficient production of a high quality product, however - something one might consider difficult to accomplish under such conditions.”
The grove
Broken Hill Gourmet Products Co-operative, with the help of local TAFE Agriculture students, planted 1,000 olive trees in 2004 on the site of a rehabilitated mine tailings dam. Later it was discovered that a portion of the soil had been heavily compacted by 50-100 tonne vehicle activity and unfortunately some of the plantings didn’t take due to the soil compression. The remaining 800 strong, healthy trees, consisting of Mediterranean, Corregiola, Lecchino and Picual varieties - with Pendolino every five rows as pollinators - are harvested to produce the uniquely flavoured Town Grove oil.
Urban Agriculture
Flecknoe-Brown also divulged the background of the second label produced by Broken Hill Gourmet Products, Urban Agriculture. Many of the original Mediterranean migrant workers planted olive trees in their back yards and shared plots some 40-50 years ago. As a community initiative, those who are willing allow the Broken Hill Co-op to harvest their trees each year to produce the Urban Agriculture extra virgin olive oil.
“Most are happy for us to pick their trees and give them a bottle or two of the oil,” Flecknoe-Brown said.
“These are heritage trees: an asset of the town. We honour this heritage by making oil from them each year which we label as Urban Agriculture.
“And while the Urban Agriculture label is not a highly profitable one, the Broken Hill community appreciates their involvement. The oil is shared by so many about the town that it is a fine form of social currency.”
Looking forward
Now that Town Grove has been awarded a remarkable two out of three stars, Flecknoe-Brown said the Broken Hill Gourmet Products Co-operative will be looking to expand into further markets where high quality olive oil is valued, both locally and internationally.
“The whole experience has been very rewarding, as are all things which challenge you to do your best,” he said.
“Broken Hill produces enough effluent water to support another 10,000-20,000 olive trees. The soil is rich in minerals. The local worm-farm produces enough organic compost for our needs. Expand? Absolutely.”
For more information on the Broken Hill Gourmet Products Co-operative go to www.brokenhillgourmet.com and the International Quality and Taste Institute at: www.itqi.com
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