Australian Olive Oil!?!?

On Wed, 11 Apr 2007 20:13:46 GMT, "wff_ng_7" <[email hidden]>

Quoted message said:

I ran across something totally new for me in my local supermarket.
Australian olive oil. I have never heard of such a thing. The brand is Red
Island Australia, and when I got home, I found they have a web site:
http://www.redislandaustralia.com/ Unfortunately there was no price tag on
the shelf for it, so I have no idea how much it cost.

Anyone else come across this or used it?

Sadly yes... some bright sparks decided that Australia didn't have
enough problems with imported plants and started an olive kick. (I say
'sadly' because we all know how well olives grow in harsh climates -
they can outcompete native plants quite easily...)

wff_ng_7 said:

I ran across something totally new for me in my
local supermarket. Australian olive oil. I have never
heard of such a thing...

I noticed Australian olive oil at Trader Joe's yesterday.
I haven't tried it yet. I guess if there can be California
olive oil, then there can be Australian olive oil.

"wff_ng_7" <[email hidden]> wrote in
news:_jbTh.3706$%l5.1189@trnddc05:

Quoted message said:

I ran across something totally new for me in my local supermarket.
Australian olive oil. I have never heard of such a thing. The brand is
Red Island Australia, and when I got home, I found they have a web
site: http://www.redislandaustralia.com/ Unfortunately there was no
price tag on the shelf for it, so I have no idea how much it cost.

Anyone else come across this or used it?

Over here it was it started life as 'Njoi' olive oil. Obviously, they
had to change the name so the damn ferriners would understand it :-)

It's quite a good quality oil...... especially when it gets one of
these.....

Armonia Olive Oil Awards -Italy
Redisland has won a "Gran Mantion Diploma" award at the prestigious,
International Armonia Awards, held in Italy in January 2007. This
confirms redisland's place as a premium, world class extra virgin olive
oil and one of the best in the world.

Here are the company details......

http://www.piquantblue.com.au/about.html#supermarket

--
Peter Lucas
Brisbane
Australia

"People sleep safely in their beds because rough men stand ready in
the night to do violence to those who would do them harm"
-- George Orwell

PeterLucas said:

Over here it was it started life as 'Njoi' olive oil. Obviously, they
had to change the name so the damn ferriners would understand it :-)

I was wondering about that. The videos on their web site still have "Njoi"
in them in some places, including on the shirts that some of the guys in
them were wearing. I guess they didn't want to redo a perfectly good video
just to replace the name.

Quoted message said:

Armonia Olive Oil Awards -Italy
Redisland has won a "Gran Mantion Diploma" award at the prestigious,
International Armonia Awards, held in Italy in January 2007. This
confirms redisland's place as a premium, world class extra virgin olive
oil and one of the best in the world.

I did a search of "Australia" and "olive oil" in rfc before I posted, and
the only references I found were announcements someone posted about that
upcoming competition. There was no further discussion on the posts, perhaps
because people considered them to be spam. So the competition happened, and
they did well in it. Nice to know.

--
wff_ng_7 (at) verizon (dot) net

In article <[email hidden]>,

Karen AKA Kajikit said:

Sadly yes... some bright sparks decided that Australia didn't have
enough problems with imported plants and started an olive kick. (I say
'sadly' because we all know how well olives grow in harsh climates -
they can outcompete native plants quite easily...)

I don't know who fed you that line, but you needn't worry. Olives can
reproduce from seed but rarely beyond the original grove. I've never
seen a volunteer growing more than about 5 feet beyond the dripline and
most of those are the result of ground squirrel activity. We've got a
number of abandoned olive groves in my part of the world (California's
Sacramento Valley) and they never expand beyond the original plantings.

D.M.

"wff_ng_7" <[email hidden]> wrote in
news:_jbTh.3706$%l5.1189@trnddc05:

Quoted message said:

I ran across something totally new for me in my local supermarket.
Australian olive oil.

My colleague's parents have a small farm on which they now grow olives, so
he brings us a free bottle of oil now and then 🙂 I don't think they
export, though. They are one of only two producers in Victoria that are
certified organic.

K

On Wed, 11 Apr 2007 18:57:52 -0700, Donald Martinich <[email hidden]>

Quoted message said:

In article <[email hidden]>,

Karen AKA Kajikit said:

Sadly yes... some bright sparks decided that Australia didn't have
enough problems with imported plants and started an olive kick. (I say
'sadly' because we all know how well olives grow in harsh climates -
they can outcompete native plants quite easily...)

I don't know who fed you that line, but you needn't worry. Olives can
reproduce from seed but rarely beyond the original grove. I've never
seen a volunteer growing more than about 5 feet beyond the dripline and
most of those are the result of ground squirrel activity. We've got a
number of abandoned olive groves in my part of the world (California's
Sacramento Valley) and they never expand beyond the original plantings.

If olives don't go feral how come the South Australian government has
had to officially address the problem in the last few years? Just type
'feral olives' into google and up springs a forest of references to
the Australian problem. Here's just one brief abstract that summarises
it:

Résumé / Abstract
The olive (Olea europaea L.), imported into Australia and subsequently
cultivated for economic purposes, has spread into native vegetation in
several regions of southern temperate Australia. The impacts of olives
going 'feral' have only recently been quantified. It is reported that
native plant species diversity and canopy cover was 50% and 80% lower,
respectively, in a native eucalypt woodland heavily invaded with feral
olives. Consequently, feral olives are considered an environmental
weed as well as being proclaimed a Pest Plant in South Australia. The
1990s has seen a resurgence in the olive industry. In response to the
risk that new olive orchards will be foci for invasion into natural
ecosystems currently free from feral olives, risk assessment and
management guidelines were developed by the Animal and Plant Control
Commission in conjunction with an Olives Advisory Group. Local
governments and prospective growers can use the guidelines when
assessing the suitability of a proposed olive orchard. However, if
olives have escaped from orchards into native vegetation, then their
removal is paramount. Unfortunately, feral olive control is a very
costly and time consuming exercise, and requires careful planning
before doing so. In severe cases of olive infestations, the removal of
olives may lead to other problems in fragile ecosystems. It can cost
up to A$15,000 per hectare to remove a dense infestation of feral
olives, such as the one described in this paper.

In article said:

In article <[email hidden]>,

Karen AKA Kajikit said:

Sadly yes... some bright sparks decided that Australia didn't have
enough problems with imported plants and started an olive kick. (I say
'sadly' because we all know how well olives grow in harsh climates -
they can outcompete native plants quite easily...)

I don't know who fed you that line, but you needn't worry. Olives can
reproduce from seed but rarely beyond the original grove. I've never
seen a volunteer growing more than about 5 feet beyond the dripline and
most of those are the result of ground squirrel activity. We've got a
number of abandoned olive groves in my part of the world (California's
Sacramento Valley) and they never expand beyond the original plantings.

It sounds like the Valley must have a suitable climate and soils for
olives if they are self-sowing around the original trees (though
perhaps the heavy seed fall in such circumstances would mitigate some
environmental disadvantages). However, if you don't have an efficent
dispersal mechanism (birds that swallow olives, for example) then that
may be the reason they have not spread more widely over there?
(Maybe it's our koalas rather than birds spitting the pips around. ;-)

Cheers, Phred.

--
[email hidden]

In article <[email hidden]>,

Karen AKA Kajikit said:

If olives don't go feral how come the South Australian government has
had to officially address the problem in the last few years? Just type
'feral olives' into google and up springs a forest of references to
the Australian problem. Here's just one brief abstract that summarises
it:

Résumé / Abstract
The olive (Olea europaea L.), imported into Australia and subsequently
cultivated for economic purposes, has spread into native vegetation in
several regions of southern temperate Australia. The impacts of olives
going 'feral' have only recently been quantified. It is reported that
native plant species diversity and canopy cover was 50% and 80% lower,
respectively, in a native eucalypt woodland heavily invaded with feral
olives. Consequently, feral olives are considered an environmental
weed as well as being proclaimed a Pest Plant in South Australia. The
1990s has seen a resurgence in the olive industry. In response to the
risk that new olive orchards will be foci for invasion into natural
ecosystems currently free from feral olives, risk assessment and
management guidelines were developed by the Animal and Plant Control
Commission in conjunction with an Olives Advisory Group. Local
governments and prospective growers can use the guidelines when
assessing the suitability of a proposed olive orchard. However, if
olives have escaped from orchards into native vegetation, then their
removal is paramount. Unfortunately, feral olive control is a very
costly and time consuming exercise, and requires careful planning
before doing so. In severe cases of olive infestations, the removal of
olives may lead to other problems in fragile ecosystems. It can cost
up to A$15,000 per hectare to remove a dense infestation of feral
olives, such as the one described in this paper.

I stand corrected. (And it was good that you added that corroborating
abstract.) My experience with olives is limited to California and
Croatia. Evidently you have much more efficient dispersal mechanisms
than we havehere. Rabbits? Platypusses? ;=} I would add that our
rainfall is only about 18 inches/year. We also have many old Eucalyptus
planting in this region and they are also not invasive. On the other
hand, we have had some pretty good rugby teams here at U.C.Davis
(although U.C.Berkeley it tops this year)

D.M.

On Thu, 12 Apr 2007 18:50:26 -0700, Donald Martinich <[email hidden]>

Quoted message said:

In article <[email hidden]>,

Karen AKA Kajikit said:

If olives don't go feral how come the South Australian government has
had to officially address the problem in the last few years? Just type
'feral olives' into google and up springs a forest of references to
the Australian problem. Here's just one brief abstract that summarises
it:

Résumé / Abstract
The olive (Olea europaea L.), imported into Australia and subsequently
cultivated for economic purposes, has spread into native vegetation in
several regions of southern temperate Australia. The impacts of olives
going 'feral' have only recently been quantified. It is reported that
native plant species diversity and canopy cover was 50% and 80% lower,
respectively, in a native eucalypt woodland heavily invaded with feral
olives. Consequently, feral olives are considered an environmental
weed as well as being proclaimed a Pest Plant in South Australia. The
1990s has seen a resurgence in the olive industry. In response to the
risk that new olive orchards will be foci for invasion into natural
ecosystems currently free from feral olives, risk assessment and
management guidelines were developed by the Animal and Plant Control
Commission in conjunction with an Olives Advisory Group. Local
governments and prospective growers can use the guidelines when
assessing the suitability of a proposed olive orchard. However, if
olives have escaped from orchards into native vegetation, then their
removal is paramount. Unfortunately, feral olive control is a very
costly and time consuming exercise, and requires careful planning
before doing so. In severe cases of olive infestations, the removal of
olives may lead to other problems in fragile ecosystems. It can cost
up to A$15,000 per hectare to remove a dense infestation of feral
olives, such as the one described in this paper.

I stand corrected. (And it was good that you added that corroborating
abstract.) My experience with olives is limited to California and
Croatia. Evidently you have much more efficient dispersal mechanisms
than we havehere. Rabbits? Platypusses? ;=} I would add that our
rainfall is only about 18 inches/year. We also have many old Eucalyptus
planting in this region and they are also not invasive. On the other
hand, we have had some pretty good rugby teams here at U.C.Davis
(although U.C.Berkeley it tops this year)

D.M.

They did say that it takes DECADES for olives to become a problem, and
that it doesn't seem as if an active olive farm is any cause for
concern because they're 'efficiently harvesting' all the fruit they
can get and the seeds aren't being redistributed by the wildlife...
the real concern is what happens if any of these shiny new olive farms
go bust, or the owners lose interest and abandon them etc etc... it's
not a problem now, but it could be an environmental disaster in twenty
years. (and honestly, you'd have thought that Australia would have
learned its lesson by now, what with rabbits and foxes and feral pigs
and cane toads and goats and camels and... (I could go on, but you get
the picture!) Today's 'easy money' is the next generation's 'my God
why did they DO that?!'