Blog

  There are always so many questions about milling olives, and making extra virgin olive oil. Here is the simplified synopsis:  good fruit, meaning good olives, makes good oil!   The process Olives are delivered to the mill the same day they are harvested   2. Olives are inspected and photographed and the temperature is documented […]

  An interesting question is when to harvest olives. This seems to be an easy decision. The answer; when they are ripe. But the real answer is actually much more complicated. Before you plant an olive tree, you should understand what kind of olive oil you want to produce and what flavor do you want […]

Yield: approximately 1 to 1½ Gallons 10 large yellow tomatoes, cut into halves 2 cups chopped yellow onions 1 jalapeno, stem removed and chopped 1 Tablespoon chopped garlic 2 Tablespoons olive oil 1 Tablespoon salt Juice and zest of 1 orange ½ cup dry sherry or white wine 1 Teaspoon ground cumin 6 cups chicken […]

    It is tomato time, as all you gardeners well know. The gardens are overflowing with beautiful fruit. There are tomato festivals everywhere, and so many different kinds of tomatoes to eat. Red, green, striped, cherry, pear, yellow and even a purple one. The bigger question is, what to do with this bounty? Here are some […]

FOOD PAIRING and TASTE OIL  * WINE  * FOOD At the Visitors Center at IL Fiorello, we present seasonal food pairings with our extra virgin olive oils and balsamic vinegar reductions. We are proud to source most of our food pairings directly from our organic vegetable and herb gardens. Guests always ask what oils, what […]

  Right out of the garden, nothing is better than a fresh radish. My Great Aunt, A Francophile and French teacher, taught me an old French method to serve beautiful fresh radishes. Slice the radish and serve with bread, the best butter and salt. Add a little olive oil of course, and you have the […]

  The House Agricultural Committee finally has taken steps to stop the fraud and adulteration of olive oil coming from big corporations predominately in Europe. As we in the industry know, much of the bulk olive oils coming to the United States from Europe contain a large percentage of seed oils. This is blatant fraud and does present […]

This is the expectant time of year where we watch for olive blossoms, blossom set and the resulting fruit set. Flower bud sprouting initiates the process of inflorescence. Average flowering used to be around May 10 but clearly with a change in climate we are seeing inflorescence now in mid-April. This year this is a […]

Time to think about digging in the dirt, planning and planting your garden, and eating fresh vegetables. Today it is softly raining and we have not yet finished mowing the olive groves. Some of the flowering mustard is as tall as my tractor. Nick, our assistant miller and super helper, keeps the tractor working, filling […]

  I want to pick your weeds! A delightful lady walked into IL Fiorello’s visitor center asking if her mother could pick our weeds. My first response was, sure-we have lots! My more rational approach was “does she know what weeds are what” and will she be safe. Turns out she really knew her weeds. Foragers are […]