rox
Veteran Member
Eddie Walker asked me to take pictures of our stone wall repair project which I did and posted in the Rural Living forum, as long as I had the iPad out to take pictures I took a quick snap of our garden showing the Basil Plants growing.
We use this basil to make basil infused olive oil and here is how we do that.
We grow the Basil and when the plant matures we cut it and freeze it whole. When we cut one we plant another basil plant in the same spot.
During the olive harvest when we make basil infused olive oil we get the frozen Basil Plants out of the freezer, Nico being a professional classic French Chef has a big butcher knife and a commercial grade cutting board, he whacks the frozen basil into about 4" chunks. Now it is my turn.
I sit up on a high stool next to the crusher with my stainless steel pan full of frozen basil chunks, and as olives drop into the crusher, I drop in a small handful of frozen basil. I wait a bit, more olives drop in the crusher I drop in a bit more of the frozen basil. Inside the crusher the olives are actually cut by spinning knives (see our Blog the Moulin page to see the crusher), we use frozen basil because if we used fresh it would gunk up the crusher, putting the basil through frozen, the knives are able to chop it. The basil mixes inside the crusher with the crushed olives, now the olives are an olive paste about the constancy of guacamole, with basil in it.
After the olives are crushed, they go to an agitation machine, again see our blog for Moulin Pictures, where the basil is blended further into the olive paste. This process infuses a basil flavor into the paste. Then the paste moves to the centrifuge where the oil is separated out of the paste, pure olive oil comes out, but it has a very wonderful basil flavor to it.
Attached is a picture of our basil growing for use in November.
We do the same thing with lemons, except we use fresh not frozen lemons. We use a local lemon that has a thin skin, and very little of the bitter white stuff under the outer skin of the lemon. We crush the lemons with the olives in the crusher.
Blog: Mas Des Bories – Salon de Provence France – Premium- Extra Virgin Olive Oil & Moulin
Looks like it is going to be a light harvest this year. When a tree produces not very much fruit the fruit is bigger. See not a lot of olives on this tree.
We use this basil to make basil infused olive oil and here is how we do that.
We grow the Basil and when the plant matures we cut it and freeze it whole. When we cut one we plant another basil plant in the same spot.
During the olive harvest when we make basil infused olive oil we get the frozen Basil Plants out of the freezer, Nico being a professional classic French Chef has a big butcher knife and a commercial grade cutting board, he whacks the frozen basil into about 4" chunks. Now it is my turn.
I sit up on a high stool next to the crusher with my stainless steel pan full of frozen basil chunks, and as olives drop into the crusher, I drop in a small handful of frozen basil. I wait a bit, more olives drop in the crusher I drop in a bit more of the frozen basil. Inside the crusher the olives are actually cut by spinning knives (see our Blog the Moulin page to see the crusher), we use frozen basil because if we used fresh it would gunk up the crusher, putting the basil through frozen, the knives are able to chop it. The basil mixes inside the crusher with the crushed olives, now the olives are an olive paste about the constancy of guacamole, with basil in it.
After the olives are crushed, they go to an agitation machine, again see our blog for Moulin Pictures, where the basil is blended further into the olive paste. This process infuses a basil flavor into the paste. Then the paste moves to the centrifuge where the oil is separated out of the paste, pure olive oil comes out, but it has a very wonderful basil flavor to it.
Attached is a picture of our basil growing for use in November.
We do the same thing with lemons, except we use fresh not frozen lemons. We use a local lemon that has a thin skin, and very little of the bitter white stuff under the outer skin of the lemon. We crush the lemons with the olives in the crusher.
Blog: Mas Des Bories – Salon de Provence France – Premium- Extra Virgin Olive Oil & Moulin
Looks like it is going to be a light harvest this year. When a tree produces not very much fruit the fruit is bigger. See not a lot of olives on this tree.