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Take a moment to make-believe that you're sitting on board one of P&O Australia's super liners… Pacific Pearl, Jewel, Dawn or Sun. Finding it a little difficult? Maybe flick through the latest edition of Pacific Magazine, their onboard magazine for passengers to learn more about what's on offer onboard and to also take home as a souvenir.

Woodlands has been working with the Corporate Chef and Hotel team of Carnival Australia for many years and we're pleased to be featured as key cooking ingredient for many of their onboard menu items, but our natural and infused oils are also served as a light meal or appetiser in the dining rooms (see our earlier blog posts)

Flick through the latest edition of Pacific Magazine here. See us on page 7 and 22!!

We're very excited about our new tapenade, and we think you will be too! It has got to be one of the tastiest and easiest ways to prepare and enjoy the fully experience of Woodlands' olives. 

Tapenade was originally created in Provence, south of France, but has since become a major part of many different cuisines around the Mediterranean. Tapenade does not need to be used heavily to contribute olive flavours and consequently a small jar can go a long way.

Traditional olive tapenade is a thick paste made of the flesh of brined olives and a variety of other ingredients: traditionally anchovies, garlic, lemon juice and capers. It is usually served as an appetizer on crusty bread, biscuits or toast or used as an accompaniment to cheese. Woodlands Olive Grove tapenade is pasteurised but we do not use any preservatives, so please keep the jar refrigerated once opened and use within a month of opening.

[Click the photos to visit our Grove shop to buy]
  

Olive tapenade also makes an excellent accompaniment to grilled fish – a little paste spread onto the flesh of the fish before it goes under the heat - or spread on foccacia, bruscetta, or homemade pizza bases. Tapenade is the perfect way to pep up a pasta sauce or add that extra something to a casserole or stew.

Some other ideas include:

• Make a home-made pizza stand out using tapenade on the base and toppings such as sun dried tomatoes, artichokes, salami, black olives and a good mozzarella cheese.

• Stir a little black olive tapenade through a bowl of freshly cooked fettuccine for a simple but tasty sauce.

• Stuff some large tomatoes with tapenade and bake in a moderate oven. 

• Bake a breast of chicken rubbed with tapenade. Add thyme and a little goat’s cheese under the skin of the chicken

• Grilled whole fish such as bream - dotted with traditional tapenade

• Bake lightly a firm fleshed fish such as tuna, smeared with tapenade, in olive oil, white, garlic and fresh orange juice.

A spectacular gourmet dinner, orchestrated by the expert culinary team at Amanda's On The Edge, on Friday 17th of June 2011.


  Book here

Featuring a degustation menu and incorporating our premium Woodlands Olive Oil and olives, perfectly accompanied by the expertly matched Brokenwood Wines.

Read Amanda's glorious plans and menu for this event by clicking here.

A long weekend of culinary, wine, taste and music delights set inside Australia's largest display garden at The Hunter Valley Gardens. Saturday 11th June, Sunday 12th and Monday 13th June 2011.

   

Woodlands Olive Grove is running a stand with two surprising and distinctly unique ways to showcase our 2011 extra virgin olive oil.  Don't miss the taste experience and don't miss the opportunity to participate in our unique food promotion, launched on the weekend and offered only to visitors of our stand! 

Get 2-3 month's worth of your family's meat and food requirements fulfilled for FREE! But filled with exceptional cuts and a quality of beef, sausages and poultry that you may not normally buy! 

Held each year at the renouned Hunter Valley Gardens, the festival features fine food, exquisite wines, exotic tastes, deluxe merchandise and inspiring music - showcasing the flavours, luxuries and sounds of the Hunter and beyond....

Also featuring Celebrity Guests, cooking demonstrations, seminar sessions, entertainment, wineries and restaurants, cocktail flaring showcases, Kids in the Kitchen and exhibits packed with tasty offerings, fresh produce and specialty merchandise.

Come ready for a weekend of culinary, wine, taste and music delights, all set inside Australia's Largest Display Garden… and visit our stand for the chance to win our fantastic meat deal!

Any questions about the event? Email us anytime…

Everyone was in on the task of harvesting table fruit, even Max the Border Collie;



Harvesting by shaker makes the job pretty fast;



but not all of the trees can be harvested this way, leaving man-power the most effective means! Here the family join the task; not particularly efficient but they had a great time nonetheless;

We've added nine Boar Goats, most of them with kid, to the Woodlands family. They've got a job too. They look after (read; are "living lawn mowers" for) a relatively inaccessible part of the grove.

They also keep Max the Border Collie entertained (from the outside of the electric enclosure).

Anthony Andrews has taken this photo of our three year old Koroneiki grove in late April'11;



The same baby grove here, photographed early one morning in mid April'11 by Nick H. Andrews;

Late March is the time that we usually begin harvesting table fruit olives. Spanish Greens (UC13A6), Jumbo Kalamatas and Sevillanos;



     

Olives for pressing into our Woodlands Extra Virgin Olive Oil are harvested in April. It's a magical time at Woodlands; the weather is perfectly mild, not too many bugs and snakes, and there's the euphoria of reaching the pinnacle of the past year's hard work for everyone that's worked tirelessly at Woodlands Olive Grove.

Here are some images taken by Nick H. Andrews early one foggy morning (I mean he literally got out of bed around 6am to get these shots!);








Anthony Andrews took a snap of one of the tractors firing up to start the job…


The addition of our new groves is taking its toll on Woodlands' dams, taking their levels lower than we would normally like to see them.


There's always some "bugs"…


There's a reasonably good video detailing the harvest and olive oil production process on Youtube. 

A great excuse to get out in the April sun and talk to locals and local business operators in Broke, this year's 6th "A Little Bit of Italy in Broke", was another glorious weekend in the Hunter Valley. I walked through the village with my family, visited a few local vineyards and groves, and ate at a few too.
The photos below, taken by Nick H. Andrews, were taken over the weekend. If you'd like a copy of one of these photos for your own use, email Nick at relations@woodlandolives.com.au and he'll arrange them for you! 

You started your day at the "Passport Office", where you'd receive a booklet and map showing the locations of the participating venues…




Somebody must have told the local Ferrari and Lamborghini club that "Italy" was in, because the Broke store carpark was invaded by the exotic cars on Saturday afternoon…


A romantic image taken at one of the venues, Margans. We had a great lunch at Margans on Milbrodale Road;




Planning the next move from the little map booklet…


As late as 3:00pm on Saturday, bus loads of guests arrived for a late lunch, filling these outdoor tables…


My spectacular lunch at Margan's…










Nightingale Wines had a live bad playing on Saturday afternoon;






Whispering Brook, right next door to Woodlands Olive Grove…


Mount Broke Wines…






Early on Saturday morning we woke to the strange hissing noise of this hot air balloon firing up as it slide gracefully over Woodlands Olive Grove. If you're looking for something special, romantic and breathtaking to do while in the Hunter Valley, I think that a hot air balloon would have to be the choice!


…and of course you're probably aware of The Hunter Valley Gardens. There are more sights and beautiful flowers than you can point a camera at! You must visit The Hunter Valley Gardens to enjoy Flavourfest on the long weekend of 11th, 12th and 13th of June '11. 
 

Woodlands Olive Grove will have a stand at Flavourfest, demonstrating our range of olive products, cooking up an incredible seafood storm and baking rustica bread using Woodlands Olive Oil! We'll also be running a promotion that could see you win up to three month's worth of your family's meat requirements filled for free! Keep visiting our events page for more information leading up to the weekend.  


If you can't see the photo you're looking for above, email us at relations@woodlandolives.com.au, tell us what you're look for as chances are that Nick will have shot it!

We spotted our Woodlands Olive Oil 500ml bottles in the Mosman Daily this week. Jimmy and Toula's fruit shop, a local Mosman business, was featured stating that he would be keeping his fruit and vegetable prices unchanged during this post-flood period.

Jimmy's fruit shop has been a long-term stockist of Woodlands Olive Oil in the 500ml bottles, and they can be seen in this photo featured in the Mosman Daily news paper;