Interesting Facts about Frantoio Olives
Frantoio is a variety of olive which is used to make olive oil. Frantoio olives are primarily grown in Tuscany or in mild climates like regional Victoria where it isn’t too hot or cold. Frantoio olives are one of the fruitiest olive varieties and have a stronger aftertaste than varieties like leccino and picual. Most olive varieties grow to look like a bush, but the frantoio variety grows to look more like a tree, with an airy canopy and moderate growth. Frantoio olives tend to produce an oil yield of about 25%.
At Green Olive at Red Hill, we grow Frantoio olives in our olive grove and cold press them to create extra virgin olive oil which we use in our grazing style food and wine and body products, and which we sell on its own for visitors to take home. Cold pressing the olives allows us to extract the oil without damaging the antioxidants, creating healthy and flavourful olive oil to nourish family and friends.
Extra Virgin Olive Oil Vinaigrette
Ingredients
- ½ cup Green Olive Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- 3 tbsp of red wine vinegar
- 1 tbsp Dijon mustard
- 1 tbsp honey (or maple syrup for vegan option)
- 2 cloves of garlic, minced
- A pinch of salt
- Freshly ground pepper
Method
- Whisk all of the ingredients together in a bowl and adjust to taste.
Recipe modified from the original by Cookie and Kate.
How We Use Our Extra Virgin Olive Oil
The other varieties of olives that we grow are Leccino, Picual, Manzanilla and Kalamata, each labelled with coloured tags that are the same ones that were written by Sue’s grandfather, Cyril, when the olive grove was planted all those years ago. Check out the range of products we create using our farm grown, cold pressed, extra virgin olive oil:
