The Hard Truth About Olive Oil with Expert Laura Hamilton

Margaret (00:00:06) - Welcome back friends. This is episode 260. And today I sit down with Laura Hamilton to talk about olive oil. Welcome to Bite Me, the show about edibles where I help you take control of your life. I'm your host and Certified Ganjier. Marge and I love helping cooks make safe and effective edibles at home. I'm so glad you're here. And thank you for joining me today. This is an informative episode that almost happened by accident. Laura had interviewed me on her show, called Her Story, and after we'd gone off air, we were talking and it came out that she knew a lot about olive oil. You'll find out more about that during our conversation, but it made me realize that she could answer the questions that many people ask about olive oil, myself included. Over the years, I've come to favor olive oil as one of my favorite infusion fats. I use it in body care products, cooking ingredients, and in the blue zones. People often include olive oil in their daily diet. Now, if you're curious about what blue zones are, that's the places where people tend to live a really long and healthy life.

Margaret (00:01:13) - But how do you know that the olive oil that you're using is authentic And what often gets mixed with olive oil in lieu of the real stuff to help keep costs down? What's the difference between extra virgin olive oil, virgin olive oil, and the rest of those labels? We cover these questions and a number more, so please enjoy this fascinating conversation with Laura. All right. And we're live, everyone. I think StreamYard used to count down from three, but it doesn't seem to do that anymore. But in any case, I'm really excited to have Laura here today. Laura, you and I connected recently on your show. You're doing her story, and I was a guest on your show, and it came out that you own an olive grove in Italy, and that sounds so romantic. So I wanted to ask you all these things about olive oil. You're an olive oil. Olive oil expert, which is why you're here today. And why don't we get started by introducing yourself to the listeners of Bite Me and how you came to be this olive oil goddess?

Laura (00:02:19) - Hahaha.

Laura (00:02:20) - Hello, my name is Laura Hamilton and I am part of the pair of sisters who own Casa Cirelli, which means House of the sisters. Sorella is sisters in Italian, and we started our little olive oil importing business, a few years ago now, which unfortunately has really become economically unviable for reasons which will become apparent after I continue droning on. yes, my my sister and I were in the process of doing our, like 20 year plan. You know, looking for kind of where do you see yourself in 20 years and then work backwards to today? And we're like, okay, we're approaching a retirement. where do you want to go? Like, do you want to stay in Toronto? Do you want to go somewhere else? And neither one of us have any interest in going to British Columbia or to Florida, like,

Margaret (00:03:33) - Those are the two places Canadians like to go.

Laura (00:03:36) - And I got to say, no, thank you. Like, you know, you do you. But I have zero interest in either one of those locations.

Laura (00:03:46) - And we open up the the Atlas almost. And we looked at each other like, well, whose food do you like? And we just kind of, ended up, And who who do you want to tolerate? Like when you're an older person, who do you want to be around. Right. So we're like okay well you know sorry friends but I'm not dealing with French people when I'm old and. And we have a family history. My great grandparents were from Calabria and I know I know it has a bad reputation. Okay. I know that it's whatever. Like people who was like Calabria, you know, the mafia, the Mafia in Calabria. And I'm like, the mafia are everywhere. It's like to say. And I'm. I'm buying a house. I'm not importing coke or hookers, so. Right. You know, I'm looking for a retirement. What are they going to do with two old biddies from Canada who probably have employed their idiot cousins to clean their house, but. Right.

Laura (00:05:02) - What kind of crime kingpin do you think I am? Right? It's like, oh, I just want to go eat some good food and have naps and then go float around in the Tyrrhenian Sea. That's it. But whatever crime spree you think I'm heading towards, like, give me a break. So we ended up looking at Calabria. Just because of its bad reputation. The prices of the real estate are super affordable. Certainly, I'll tell you this. More affordable than anything in British Columbia or Florida. in terms of what our expectations were with the budget that we had And Calabria has a lot of affordability, but also was open for foreigners to purchase without being a citizen. sorry, I had to have a sip of coffee.

Margaret (00:05:58) - Speaking of Italy, I'm.

Laura (00:06:00) - I'm getting hysterical because I'm talking about Gloria, and we ended up, hooking up with a really great real estate agent who was originally from Manchester, who married somebody local and then, decided to move their family from Manchester to Calabria. And we ended up hooking up with her, and she became our eyes and ears for property that had potential.

Laura (00:06:25) - And like our description was, we want something that we can just go like it's already done. even if it's like some furnishings or whatever, we don't care. But just something where my sister and I can just go and hang out with, and vacation wise, but also potentially rent out to people for, like, Airbnb and stuff like that. Right. And, and as well as we were scouring international, like house hunter sites where it's like, okay, let's just go south Italy, Calabria and just look at at least 10,000 pictures. At least this was not an immediate decision. We saw a couple of places, we put in offers, but, you know, it's it's kind of difficult because of the way that the real estate market is constructed in Italy, that if you put a bid in, it has to be the bid that's that you can't go, I'm going to give you this much. No, you can't do that. Your initial bid has to be what they're asking. And and unfortunately, we missed out on a couple of places.

Laura (00:07:37) - And, but, you know, we still had that long horizon and we weren't kind of hysterical. So we just kept looking for a good solid, I would say almost a year of properties. And my sister saw one and she ended up going solo without me to Italy to see a property that we both saw online were like, yeah, go see this in person, see, see if it's really good. She ends up, unfortunately, we missed out by like 24 hours of putting it in. I'm like, oh, fuck yeah. So, the real estate agent was so nice and lovely. She's like, look, I'm really sorry, but, you know, this is how it goes in Italy, you know? Welcome to the beautiful frustrations of this country. And she's like, but I got I got some good news for you. This property came up because they dropped the price, because it's been on the market for a long time. And she and she's like, we know it's not exactly what you were looking for, but do you want to go see it? And my sister was in the car, and before she had, the real estate agent had opened up the front door for my sister to walk in.

Laura (00:09:07) - So she called me on the phone and was like, we're buying this place. Like, that was it. It was. It's a beautiful piece of property, beautiful Beautiful views. It's close enough and far away. At the same time, it gets close enough to stuff. It's half an hour from the airport.

Margaret (00:09:29) - Well, that's nice.

Laura (00:09:30) - And it's an international airport, right. And because of the amount of collaborazione, people, which is, prevalent in Ontario, they have charter flights in the summer. Oh, nice. Everybody. Yeah, because they all go hang out at their their family homes for the summer. And and you can understand why. Because it's such a lovely area. It's not really hugely built up in terms of international tourists. So you, get the full impact of Italians on vacation as well as Italian culture everywhere. And and that's really fun because like, where do Italians go on vacation. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Well I'll tell you where they go. They go to the south, right.

Laura (00:10:23) - And they go to the countryside and they go to their country or their family homes. There's a couple of different spots on, on the coast, but there's a significant portion of Italians that go south for their family vacations. So we ended up understanding why they do that because the food is excellent. It is so easy to get into that pace of life where you're like, okay, I'm going to float around in this water and then, you know, you can see the Italians because you can book hotel rooms and they provide you with board like, lunch and dinner. So all of us, all of a sudden you're sitting on the beach and it becomes empty and you're like, what is there? Like a tsunami coming? Like, what the hell is going on? Where did everybody like, they all of a sudden, like, look at their watches, stand up and leave, And we're like what is going on? And that's when we realized oh they're going in for lunch. And like their lunches are like 2.5 hours because there's like 100 courses.

Margaret (00:11:30) - Right. I've heard that about Italian meals.

Laura (00:11:34) - Yeah. Oh I I went to the one hotel that was we in our little area f with our New Year's Eve, and there was 12 courses. Wow. And by the end, you're you're so full, you're angry. It's like, no, it's like, stop bringing food towards me. Like, don't even. And then I'm. And like, I think it was at midnight. That's when they brought out all of the trolley carts or the pastries. And I'm like, I'm. I know you've got a sweet tooth. Yeah.

Margaret (00:12:05) - Yeah I do.

Laura (00:12:06) - You would have been elbowing the nonna's. Yeah. I mean, I'm getting there, and they're first. Yeah. Like it with the amount of food. It's. It was actually. Oh, I feel sick just thinking about how much food I ate that night. But, yeah, the food in the south is very different from the food in the north. So if you like spicy food. There's a lot of, there's a lot of spice in there.

Laura (00:12:36) - The other end a lot of olive oil. And I know this is like the longest intro to all my experience with olive oil. We end up buying an olive farm. This property that my real estate agent showed my sister wasn't all a farm that a family had tried to sell because the the parents had passed away. The children were in their 60s and 70s and it's, you know, their children, like the grandchildren, had zero interest in going to this place in the summertime. So we're like, why do we have it? Nobody's interested. And my sister and I said, we're interested. We're totally interested. And that's how I learned about olive oil, because, like, I'm Canadian, what do I know about olive oil? You know, I know it's a tree. And that's a it's a really long lived tree, right? You know, you can and I like eating it with on my salads. Like, that's what I knew, right? That's about what I know. Yeah, yeah.

Laura (00:13:43) - And and through that experience of having this, property with olives and harvesting and bottling and trying to, like, thinking, hey, you know, we can import this oil because we have about 400 trees or 500. I can't remember now. I think it's 400. what are we going to do with all this oil And, like, I know that Canadians love olive oil and also as, like, a bump in reality, which is like a wedding gift. Like, stop giving me stupid shot glasses. Right. You know, I, you know, I'd rather have a bottle of olive oil. Right. Thank you very much. That's a good gift. Thanks. Thank you. So we were using that as, our business idea. You know, Italian olive oil, straight from Italy, straight from the farm. And that's. Well, we ended up learning about harvesting and bottling and all of the stuff, which is why I wanted to bring up my first point of order. And that is the dumbest thing that you will see on any label of olive oil is cold pressed extra virgin olive oil.

Margaret (00:15:05) - Okay, so I was hoping we would talk about that today because I see all these different types of olive oil. There's extra virgin and virgin and regular olive oil. Right. And cold pressed. I see that a lot And I don't really know what the differences are between all those things.

Laura (00:15:22) - Okay, cold pressed is nothing but marketing. Okay, okay. Because if it says cold pressed extra virgin olive oil, all all that means cold pressed. It means it's the first pressing means that they don't have to generate power. It's not the heat that's part of the extraction process. It's just you put the fruit and then you crush it.

Margaret (00:15:48) - Right. You squish it essentially.

Laura (00:15:50) - Yeah. Yeah. That's the first pressing that is extra virgin olive oil by definition. Okay. So you putting in any label that I'm I see cold press. And you know I'm also guilty of that putting it on a label because like that's what people wanted to hear. Oh, it's called prospect submersion. All extra virgin olive oil.

Laura (00:16:15) - In order to have that label, extra virgin olive oil must be cold pressed because all cold.

Margaret (00:16:25) - Pressed, it's.

Laura (00:16:25) - All cold pressed. It was extra virgin olive oil. It is always cold pressed. Okay, so when you see it and I know that we put it on our label because that's what people wanted to see because they kept asking us. And so as soon as I realized that, I'm like, oh my God, you don't know anything. If you're asking me if it's cold pressed.

Margaret (00:16:48) - That's why some of these things perpetuate, too, because I've talked to people in the cannabis industry as well who are like, there's a reason why you keep seeing indica sativa on certain labels. It's because that's how the consumer understands it. And it's so hard to change and to educate people like it just takes a long time. And yeah, if you don't know anything about olive oil, you look for the cold press. But now everybody extra virgin olive oil is always cold pressed.

Laura (00:17:14) - Exactly, exactly, exactly.

Laura (00:17:17) - But like when I meet people and they ask if they say to me, oh, is it cold pressed? I know that you know nothing. Right. So for me, it's an indicator of like, oh, I see that you've read something somewhere on a label and you think that that's important. It's not important. It is like has zero relevance. Yeah. What's important is the extra virgin part. Okay. In order to have that label in the EU. In order to have that certification of extra virgin olive oil, your product must be pressed, within a 48 hour to 72 hour period.

Margaret (00:18:05) - Okay. Like within so 48 to 72 hours after harvest.

Laura (00:18:09) - Correct? Right. It must be pressed. Why? Because you are looking at the water content. Okay. And and the acidity level. Because as soon as that fruit starts losing the, the liquid within it, it becomes more bitter. Okay. Yeah. So you don't want a drier olive then. And you have to have that certification okay.

Laura (00:18:43) - And you have to have the evidence of this is one way to harvested. And this is we put it on the truck. And this is like the, the factory is called different oil. And they're the ones that certify when they pressed it. Okay. So that end result olive oil, the first one is the extra virgin olive oil. And that will get up. There's your stamp.

Margaret (00:19:08) - The stamp of approval. So does that mean virgin olive oil is just that's a seller. It's what. Sorry.

Laura (00:19:15) - It's the second round.

Margaret (00:19:17) - The second round okay Okay.

Laura (00:19:18) - Because the first pressing is the easy one. And then it gets as it goes down. That's when you have the olive oil designations. Like it's going to say extra virgin right. It's going to say olive oil. And it's not that it's bad okay. Like it's just that it's going to have a, to me, a more acidic, more bitter, darker, flavor to it.

Margaret (00:19:52) - Okay. So there's really only two types of olive oil.

Margaret (00:19:55) - Then it's extra virgin.

Laura (00:19:57) - And then the rest and then and then and then as it goes down, then you have something called pumice oil, which is basically the oil that they get after they've ground around all the pits. Okay.

Margaret (00:20:09) - I've never seen pumice oil before.

Laura (00:20:12) - usually that is not for, like, culinary purposes. Oh, I.

Margaret (00:20:18) - See. Would it be more? How would they use it?

Laura (00:20:21) - Back in the day, that's what the peasants aid.

Margaret (00:20:24) - Oh, okay.

Laura (00:20:25) - Yeah. And, that is, it can be used for like, soaps or something like that. Something. Right, that you're, you're not necessarily going to be eating.

Margaret (00:20:38) - So it's not food grade at that point.

Laura (00:20:41) - I mean, it all, it all is like it all is it's just that, I think people will be like, oh, this is really bitter and dark, and I don't like it.

Margaret (00:20:51) - Right?

Laura (00:20:53) - Is it.

Margaret (00:20:53) - Is it thicker then like. Like when I think pumice oil and you talk about grinding pits.

Margaret (00:20:57) - I'm imagining something almost. It's very.

Laura (00:21:00) - Dark. It's like you would look at and go, is this olive oil? It's awfully dark and brown.

Margaret (00:21:06) - So is that because they're grinding up the pits with the olives? Like everything just gets pressed?

Laura (00:21:11) - All of the flesh has gone by then. Oh, so.

Margaret (00:21:14) - It's just the pits?

Laura (00:21:15) - Pretty much. Yeah.

Margaret (00:21:16) - Okay, I see, so it's to recap. Then there's extra virgin olive oil olive oil and then pumice oil.

Laura (00:21:25) - Yeah.

Margaret (00:21:26) - Okay. So as far as like using it for cooking what were the differences. B because I'm always a little confused about that as well. Some people are like, oh you shouldn't use extra virgin olive oil to cook.

Laura (00:21:37) - And oh I've heard that too. Yeah.

Laura (00:21:40) - Yeah. They burn skin. You're gonna.

Laura (00:21:42) - Get cancer. If that was the case. There would be no Italians left. Because they all would have died of cancer, right?

Margaret (00:21:50) - Because they're all eating olive oil.

Laura (00:21:52) - Yeah. And like, if you notice that some of those, like, what do they call them, blue pen or blue tick, whatever.

Laura (00:22:00) - Areas where people live into their hundreds. Guess what.

Margaret (00:22:03) - The blue zones.

Laura (00:22:04) - Yeah, yeah. Guess where they are? South of Italy. So if you.

Margaret (00:22:07) - Guess Mediterranean diet.

Laura (00:22:09) - Olive oil is a disaster. I got some like, people who are under 120 who are still making pasta. That right. Yeah. So yes. And I've heard of those studies. They have since been I know this this study you're, you're referring to. And as far as I know that that has been discredited a couple of years ago where it's like there's just absolutely no evidence that this is a cancer causing a situation when you have heated olive oil to cook with. Now, that being said, I don't like frying with olive oil just because of the the change of taste, because olive oil doesn't like to be a frying vessel. But if it's the only shit you've got, then use it, man. Go ahead. Like I'm judging you. it's just not going to get stuffed crispy. Like something like a vegetable oil or coconut oil.

Laura (00:23:07) - Okay. it. Just because of the heating point of, olive oil, it just doesn't make it great for frying.

Margaret (00:23:15) - But it has a lower smoke point.

Laura (00:23:17) - Yeah, exactly. So, you know, it's up to you if you want to deal with that, you know, how about it? But I'm not doing that necessarily. But I definitely use it quite liberally, on my pasta to make one of my favorite recipes. This is like garlic. Lots of lots of olive oil, a couple of anchovies. And that's it. And then you put some chili flakes. And the true sign of my peasant heritage. Nobody, nobody could afford a huge amount of cheese because cheese is expensive. So what are the use of these toasted breadcrumbs with spice? They toast the breadcrumbs and they put that on top of the pasta. It's carbo loading. Yes. yes, but it's so delicious.

Margaret (00:24:10) - It sounds lovely. And I love, like, drizzling olive oil in my pasta afterwards. And I usually use a little bit too, just to keep it from sticking after I've cooked it and stuff as well.

Margaret (00:24:21) - Yeah sure.

Laura (00:24:22) - Sure sure.

Margaret (00:24:23) - So basically you're saying that you can cook with like you can fry with olive oil. Is there really any distinction then between the extra virgin and the in the regular olive oil?

Laura (00:24:34) - Well, other than the cost. Yeah. Like go ahead fry with your extra virgin olive oil. But you know, every however many fluid millilitres you're putting on there is this many dollars, right. So if you want to do that, absolutely, absolutely. Maybe, maybe you like light your joints with $20 bills, too. Yeah.

Margaret (00:24:58) - That's all I do not, I hope not.

Laura (00:25:02) - Yeah. So how about it? Let's go ahead. and like to me, you kind of lose the quality of what makes extra virgin olive oil worth the price. And that is the flavor. And.

Margaret (00:25:17) - Right, you.

Laura (00:25:18) - Can really when you when you have really good olive oil, then the next time you have like what you buy in the supermarket is like it says olive oil on the label, but it's barely olive oil.

Margaret (00:25:36) - Right? So there's there's been a lot of talk about that over the years of like, fake olive oil and rancid olive oil and these things and sometimes that these companies and wherever they are, Italy. I said a lot of them would be.

Laura (00:25:47) - Italy is the worst.

Margaret (00:25:50) - Things like maybe it's more like grapeseed oil or something. How do you know what it is that you're buying? Or is there any way to know? Because I did hear somebody one time say, I think I saw this on TikTok, maybe put your olive oil in the fridge. And obviously if it's not real, what was it? If it wasn't real olive oil, it would like I guess olive oil does that anyway. Yeah, it would get like olive oil doesn't like to be refrigerated. No. So I guess that doesn't really check out. Or maybe if it didn't like get all that texture that it changes into when it's cold.

Laura (00:26:22) - If it did, I'd have to look that up. I have to look that up. for me, it's like, well, you could, splash out the cash to get it tested.

Laura (00:26:32) - If you are that curious.

Margaret (00:26:35) - I don't think anyone's going to do that, though. No, nobody's going to do that.

Laura (00:26:38) - And and I know there's been a scandal in Italy for years. Okay, here's in years and years. So if you're buying a commercial olive oil from Italy. There could be a chance that it's not necessarily 100% what you think it is. And that's because they'll add like the top part will be extra virgin olive oil sitting or they'll mix it in there so that, you know, the testing. And yeah, it's you're never going to work around that unfortunately. unless you know the source. Right. And there are lots of ways to ensure that you know what you're getting. And that is there's a lot of small producing olive oil, farmers who have websites now where you can adopt a tree or that you can buy directly from them. And it cost money though.

Margaret (00:27:44) - Right?

Laura (00:27:45) - If you are looking at a litre of olive oil in, dare I say Loblaws. And they're selling it for like 1199.

Laura (00:28:00) - Well it could be right. But that would mean pretty much all of Europe would have to be all of trees.

Margaret (00:28:12) - Right? Just not at that price. You know, I would love that too, because, yeah, like I've seen a lot of olive oil brands in grocery stores and. Yeah, but they don't tell you anything about it because I have bought olive oil before. They'll actually stamp on it, like the harvest date and the pressing date or something like that. I'm like, okay, well, maybe we're getting somewhere, but the price difference is obviously usually pretty extreme between these two bottles of olive oil.

Laura (00:28:40) - Exactly.

Margaret (00:28:41) - Yeah. So is that pretty much the only way to determine, like if you can see harvest date or press date if it's an extra virgin olive oil, is that the only way to. I guess they might could have a harvest date on it as well if it was a regular olive oil. But is that really the only way to know? Like if they're indicating that and maybe a price point, that's that's the only way to really know if you're getting a legitimate olive oil.

Margaret (00:29:06) - Well, I.

Laura (00:29:07) - Also look to see on Google Earth where this place is.

Margaret (00:29:13) - Oh, okay. That's a good point.

Laura (00:29:15) - Because in Europe all your olive trees basically have they have to be accounted for. especially in Italy, because there's a lot of, subsidies for maintaining your olive groves.

Margaret (00:29:30) - Right. Because they want these smaller farms to continue producing.

Laura (00:29:34) - Well, yes. And also because like olives, all olive trees don't live on the same timeline we do. And you know 100 years whatever. I live for thousands. Right. Your little human life is immaterial to me.

Margaret (00:29:53) - Yeah.

Laura (00:29:53) - Right. And olive trees also only produce fruit every other year. Oh it's not, it's not like they're they're not producing huge amounts every year. They're not a peach tree. They're not a cherry tree. Like they don't give a shit about your human life, right? It's like. And on top of that, there's certain times a year where it's very fragile, when it comes to producing its fruit. Like what? The flowers come out, and they need that pollination if it's too windy, he's not getting pollinated to have no fruit.

Margaret (00:30:36) - So something as simple as that. A windy season could mean no fruit. That's it.

Laura (00:30:40) - Right. And, trees generally only produce a large volume of fruit every two years. Okay. Within that, within that, you're you're going to get about a 20% yield.

Margaret (00:30:58) - Okay. From all the olives, from.

Laura (00:31:00) - All the olives. So you can have a thousand tons of all of fruit. But what comes out of that is only 20% of that large volume of fruit is going to be oil.

Margaret (00:31:14) - Now, a question that just came to my mind because I love eating olives as well. Like how do they decide which olives are going to bottle for eating and which type of olive are they generally using to make olive oil? Is it the green olives?

Laura (00:31:28) - yes.

Margaret (00:31:28) - Not Kalamata or anything.

Laura (00:31:31) - if they're black, that means they've been sitting in the sun or the ripe. Okay, so.

Margaret (00:31:37) - That's a ripe.

Laura (00:31:38) - That's a ripe one.

Margaret (00:31:39) - Oh, okay. Well, I mean, I just see this stuff in the store, and I see the green ones stuff, you know, garlic, which are my favorite, or the kalamata olives.

Margaret (00:31:48) - But you're saying that's just a mature ripe olive, right?

Laura (00:31:52) - They start off green okay. Start off green. And then the longer they sit on the tree, the darker they get. And that's because the water is being evaporated and they're drying out. So as for olives themselves, what we eat and what we press. they're both. Both of them are this the same olive.

Margaret (00:32:17) - Right. So they just decide if they want to like do it. Do many groves do both or do they usually take.

Laura (00:32:23) - All the ends like in in Calabria? Our farm is exclusively the Karelia, which is, I think it's more on the sweeter end. And when I say sweet, I mean intensely bitter. If you went and you put it in your mouth off a tree, right. Like, I would take a bite because I did that. Right. It's not like, oh, I'm gonna have olives. And then I go, oh my God. Okay, so bitter and horrible that you're like, oh.

Laura (00:32:57) - right. That's gross. and you can't believe that that fruit ends up, you press it and you go, oh, this is the most delicious olive oil I've ever had in my life. so generally, like the Charolais olive is pretty much exclusively grown in the south of Italy. So my expertise is pretty narrow. Like I know about my trees. Okay. it's like I don't know about Greek trees or Spanish. I don't know whatever. Right. that's that's not my concern. My concern is like are my trees going to grow fruit? I know that there's a lot of chatter about others unintended. There's like a certain type of fly infestation that was hurting trees on the other side of Italy, and that's always a concern. It's like, where are those flies? And what what other animal eats those flies. Because I will, you know if it's ladybugs or whatever, plant them in the forest and you know, and let them attack them. But that, that to me like I know about the Karelia.

Laura (00:34:04) - Right. That's that's unfortunately where my expertise ends. But, when it comes to a consumer's knowledge of olive oil, my, my my other big pet peeve is packaging.

Margaret (00:34:21) - Right? I was going to ask you about that, because obviously being able to store your olive oil properly is going to extend its shelf life.

Laura (00:34:28) - Exactly. Yeah. And I know that a lot of people say, oh, it's dark glass. Glass is still transparent. And, light is a deadly enemy of olive oil preservation. So for me, metal containers of, and metal containers that contain olive oil have to be a certain type of metal in the EU. It can't be just like.

Laura (00:34:58) - It's the same if a.

Laura (00:34:59) - Metal is everything else. No, it has to be a specific food grade metal container specifically for olive oil, and you can have a shelf life for depending, but certainly years it wouldn't affect it. Whereas glass everyone thinks, oh, glass is a great recyclable. It's going to protect the oil. No, because like, if you can see through the glass, guess what? So can light something really.

Margaret (00:35:33) - Interesting and like what you're saying totally makes sense. But then why would it more producers who are bringing they're all importing it into North America, for instance, why would they use glass instead of metal? Because I would assume glass is way more expensive to ship because of the weight.

Laura (00:35:48) - Exactly. It's more expensive. Why they do it? I don't know, maybe they have like a good deal with a glass maker, right? I don't know, because when we were doing our, importing, we were looking at packaging and we looked. I can't even tell you how many packaging options we looked at Glass. What type of glass? What color, what is what thought? And ultimately, we came to the conclusion that, you know, there was a manufacturer who did small, metal bottles. and we liked it better for the preservation point that no light is going to get in into this and it's recyclability because you can only recycle glass once.

Margaret (00:36:37) - Oh is that it?

Laura (00:36:38) - That's it.

Margaret (00:36:40) - I didn't know that.

Laura (00:36:41) - Yeah. Okay. You can only recycle it once. And then it becomes too brittle. So you know.

Laura (00:36:49) - Oh it's recyclable.

Laura (00:36:50) - Yeah. Metal is endlessly recyclable. You set it right. It doesn't lose its integrity.

Margaret (00:37:01) - Okay, I did not know that because I do buy a lot of things in glass myself. Just because I don't. I try not to use too much plastic, but I usually also save all I have a, you know, a cupboard full of glass jars that I've saved because I can't get rid of them.

Laura (00:37:15) - But they.

Margaret (00:37:16) - Do come in handy. So there's that. Yeah, yeah.

Laura (00:37:18) - Yeah, sure. yeah. Well, this is the thing about, like. Yes, I try and avoid plastic because you can't really recycle plastic even once, I don't think. Yeah. whereas glass, you can do it once. Where at metal you can do it endlessly.

Margaret (00:37:35) - So, so even from an environmental standpoint, metal is preferred and will help preserve your olive oil for a lot longer.

Laura (00:37:42) - Exactly.

Margaret (00:37:42) - Now, if you're someone that uses olive oil on a regular basis, though, is that is a big of a concern. Like I don't tend to have a bottle of olive oil last me years just because I'm using it. I'm consuming it.

Laura (00:37:54) - Yes, exactly. So if you're but you know, you can readily go to a store and get olive oil, right? Whereas like people who wanted to maybe buy in bulk. Right. to for me, it's like if you want to buy in bulk, then buy bulk in metal, right? As opposed to in glass. Glass? Yeah. If you're consuming it like within a couple of weeks of you purchasing it, then, you know, you can relax, right? however, like for, like the, because I have seen some really expensive olive oil in clear glass and I'm like, wow. I'm like dumb because, like.

Margaret (00:38:43) - Assuming people are consuming it fast enough because I would assume also like a really expensive olive oil, you wouldn't you're not going to be using that for any kind of pan frying or anything.

Margaret (00:38:52) - You're going to be using that as like a finishing oil or maybe making pesto or, I don't know, things like that. So you're not going to be using it as fast as an olive oil that you might be cooking with.

Laura (00:39:02) - Sure. But if you're if you're displaying this oil in clear, clear glass, then you've just wasted all that money.

Margaret (00:39:09) - Right?

Laura (00:39:11) - That's when I'd be like, you should put that in a dark glass. Just preserve it because it is precious. But. And people are like, oh, I want to see the oil. Like. Then pour it out. Yeah, yeah. You want to see it poured on the in this white. On this white, you know, saucer. You see it? Yeah. And that's when you really see the difference between certain types of grade of oil. It's the color.

Margaret (00:39:39) - Okay.

Laura (00:39:40) - Greener is a golder. And then as it gets darker, then, you know, generally that it's, certainly isn't. Oh, all extra virgin.

Margaret (00:39:51) - Would green be like a better quality oil then versus the gold versus a darker oil?

Laura (00:39:59) - again, that comes down to the oil. sorry, not the oil. The, the fruit itself. Like what? Because I've seen olives that are pure white.

Margaret (00:40:08) - Oh, really?

Laura (00:40:10) - Yeah. Oh that's interesting. Yes. So it depends on what all of the oil is coming from. And that's what I would like to see on labels rather than the cold pressed garbage is like what all of did this come from is more specifically is what I would think that consumers should be more worried about.

Margaret (00:40:35) - Right. So how many different varieties of olives are there? There must be a number of them then. Kind of like a wine grapes. There's all kinds of varieties.

Laura (00:40:45) - Absolutely. There's all sorts of varieties and all sorts of climates that they thrive in. you know, for example, olives that are in like, the, you know, the area of Israel, Lebanon, those areas, those trees are going to be completely different from the trees of Greece, the trees of Italy, the trees of France.

Laura (00:41:09) - Like it's going to be a huge variety. You can say, you know, pretty much, you know, that's like saying wine comes in red and white, right?

Margaret (00:41:21) - Yeah. And anybody who's drank any wine knows that it tastes very different depending on the grape. And I'm kind of glad you mentioned that because it also comes back to terroir. So do you find that a lot of olive oils are going to taste differently depending on where they were grown, what variety, that kind of thing.

Laura (00:41:38) - Right. 100%. Yeah. And because I know what my olive oil from my place tastes like. And then when I try other olive oil, I'm like, oh, it's so bitter. Oh, you know, or like, what's this? I know you become such a snob. It's terrible. but yeah, I mean, I, I think that I save my, my, displeasure. for, like, commercial growers who are who are charging people an arm and a leg, and then you look at it go.

Laura (00:42:17) - What's that? Oh, is that olive oil? It's like grapeseed oil. so it's, it's that's where I save it. But like to me you know price points are legitimate concerns. And yeah, if you want to experiment with your money, then I would always suggest going straight to the farmer. Right. And, and like, forget going to, you know, your local grocer and expecting something fabulous.

Margaret (00:42:54) - Yeah. And that makes a lot of sense. I don't know when I'll have a chance to go to an olive farm anytime soon. As much as that's now on my bucket list. But I think would like going to a specialty shop be a good alternative, because I know there's a couple stores in my town where they would have probably a nice selection of olive oils. And now that I'm thinking about it, I'm I'm kind of curious to go check it out because I've never really paid a whole lot of attention to it, but.

Laura (00:43:24) - Well, again, if you if this is going to be like your I'm going to impress the neighbors oil.

Laura (00:43:31) - Make sure you see the harvest date on it. Right. And really kind of quiz them. otherwise, like I'm all for supporting the Farmers Direct. And there's, there's lots of places where you can buy direct from the farmer. And, and I'm always supportive of that sort of endeavor. Okay. because again, your specialty shops have got to put up a huge markup to make it worth a while importing, because I know how expensive it is to bring oil in to Canada. Very expensive. transportation costs, all of that stuff.

Margaret (00:44:09) - Right. So does it is it still less expensive for a consumer to buy directly from a farm considering import fees? Because what you're saying makes sense. Like any store that's carrying an olive oil from a distributor is going to have to, you know, mark up the price so they can make money on it. But I don't see in some ways how that would be any cheaper than buying direct from a farm necessarily, because the import fees, like you mentioned, are going to be probably substantial if you're ordering from Europe, like.

Margaret (00:44:39) - Yeah, yeah, I think there's a couple there's some olive oil farms. I don't know how prevalent they are in California. I know there's at least one, but that might be a little more cost effective because it's just far. Yeah.

Laura (00:44:52) - Yeah, I know that there is quite a thriving, olive oil, business right now in California, so that might be more viable. I know that there are a lot of international olive oil, websites where you can focus on if the. Yeah, like that makes total sense rather than bringing it in from your. I'm only looking at it from a European perspective just because that's where my place is, But yeah, if you. I would definitely look and see what's going on in California. That's certainly more viable. Absolutely.

Margaret (00:45:29) - And have you found any regions where you really like obviously you really like the olive oil from your region, but are there any other regions that you find you really like the flavor? Because I, there wasn't a long time ago there was a shop in my town that would do like olive oil tastings, and you could go in and they'd have different olive oils and you could like, try a little taste of it.

Margaret (00:45:48) - And some of them were so like, it wasn't the olive oil that I'd grown up, you know, expecting because I for a long time bought olive oil from a grocery store. But it was so different. Some of it was really peppery, almost. And it was really nice.

Laura (00:46:05) - Yeah. For sure. peppery. My guess is peppery is, like, more like grease. Okay. Grease. but, like, don't quote me on that for me. Like the the. I've been to olive oil tastings, and I know that I really like the stuff from Spain. Okay. Spanish olive oil is quite delightful. but I'm so biased.

Margaret (00:46:29) - Yeah. Yeah. You know.

Laura (00:46:33) - It's just like, is this Italian? Right?

Margaret (00:46:36) - So then.

Laura (00:46:37) - Where do.

Margaret (00:46:37) - You buy olive oil when you're in Canada? When you're in Toronto?

Laura (00:46:48) - I gotta say, I've been buying it at No Frills. But I'm not expecting it to be anything Fabulous, right? that's from my cooking. I know that there's a couple of places in the city who, are.

Laura (00:47:07) - Oh. What is it called? My mind just went blank. But it's on Bayview Avenue. the all of something. and they're, they're quite costly. Yeah.

Margaret (00:47:28) - So you buy something from like a specialty shop. Yeah, yeah.

Laura (00:47:32) - There's also global cheese, global cheese. And Kensington Market is where I, if I wanted to buy something nice right, I'd go to Global cheese.

Margaret (00:47:45) - Okay. I can put that in the show notes. If you think of the other one, you can always email me and I can include it in the show notes when this episode comes out, because those around Toronto may be interested to know, but I guess, like you said, you buy some of your olive oil. I buy olive oil at Costco. a lot of the times too. And but from what I'm hearing you say, if I'm using it for cooking, I don't need to do the extra version. I can just do regular olive oil and then save the extra virgin for the other applications we talked about, like making pesto or drizzling it on your pasta, or enjoying it with your fresh bread and that kind of thing.

Laura (00:48:18) - Yes. Yeah. And for someone like you, who is also infusing oils.

Margaret (00:48:25) - Yes.

Laura (00:48:27) - olive oil and cannabis chemically are really good friends.

Margaret (00:48:32) - Okay. I'm I really happy you said that because I used to really be into coconut oil infused and I always heard always is more bioavailable and all this stuff, but at the end of the day, more recently, I've been enjoying olive oil, infusing olive oil a lot more. I just maybe tastes have changed over the years or whatever. And so how does is there anything you should consider when you're infusing olive oil that you might well consider? What other fats?

Laura (00:49:03) - Okay. For me, it depends on what you're going to do with that infused olive oil, because I have infused olive oil and I've put it all over my body.

Margaret (00:49:14) - Yeah. You know, I mean.

Laura (00:49:17) - All over.

Margaret (00:49:21) - Okay.

Laura (00:49:21) - Because I was reading about how, olive oil absorbs into human skin rather well, too.

Margaret (00:49:30) - So it makes a great topical just as is.

Laura (00:49:34) - As is. And and I know that, all of the Italian women of a certain age, who lived in Italy, like, they used it as, like they put it all over their skin all the time.

Laura (00:49:48) - and, cannabis and olive oil, chemically fused together really, really nicely. And I decided that after reading about, how certain types of topical cannabis can be a sexual performance enhancer for women. I was like really? So then I was looking up can I put olive oil on a certain part of my body. Is that going to be bad. And no it's not bad. Okay. Okay. and I also read about certain strains of cannabis can have certain properties including stimulation and that sort of thing. So I, didn't did it myself. Like, I infused the cannabis together with the olive oil and I put it on myself. And then I gave it to my sister, put this on certain area and then tell me if it works.

Margaret (00:50:55) - Well, I.

Laura (00:50:56) - Mean, like.

Margaret (00:50:57) - Cannabis infused lubes are definitely a thing, and it's usually more used for like sexual enhancement than for lubricating lubrication per se.

Laura (00:51:06) - So this is enhancement. This is this is not going to make you lubricated because the olive oil will absorb into your skin.

Laura (00:51:12) - So it's not going to it's not going to make things slide. Yeah. But what it does is it stimulates to produce your own.

Margaret (00:51:21) - Right. So you can use olive oil for like a sexual enhancement. You can use it for a topical just all over your skin to moisturize. I've used olive oils in face oils as well because I really like it on my face too, so you could use it infused that way. can you I guess infusing it with heat though is okay, as long as you keep it to under a certain temperature.

Laura (00:51:44) - That's correct. Yeah. Right. Yeah. And now I as I have a butter brewer machine which does the t the d carboxylate and as well as the infusing thing and it's an automatic system. Have you ever seen those?

Margaret (00:52:02) - I don't know if I've seen the butter brewer I like I have a couple of machines myself that will de carb and infuse like an ardent. I have a magical butter machine and a levo. okay. I feel like they're all probably relatively similar.

Margaret (00:52:17) - They all have pros and cons.

Laura (00:52:18) - And it has like, does it have like the automatic turning.

Margaret (00:52:22) - That the magical butter machine does that.

Laura (00:52:25) - Yeah. That's okay. So that's what my butter brewer does. right. You know I just hit the button de carb okay fine. And then it does it automatically. And then I pour the olive oil in with the flour and then you can have it turn like how.

Margaret (00:52:42) - Agitate the minute.

Laura (00:52:43) - Or you know, if you want to do a two times a minute or once a minute or whatever, whatever you want to do for the amount of time, and then it just kind of infuses it. And then when it's done, it beeps and it's over. Right. And I love that I yeah, Yeah.

Margaret (00:52:57) - That's like a set it and forget it kind of device.

Laura (00:53:00) - Exactly. Yeah. And because the lid is so is like airtight sealed. It doesn't smell up the place either. Right. So nobody is going to be like, oh, what are you doing in that apartment.

Margaret (00:53:13) - Yeah. And that's an important consideration for a lot of people. Like if they're living in a place where it's, you know, cannabis is still prohibited, or if you have roommates that aren't really crazy about it or I don't know, there's all kinds of reasons people don't want to stink up their entire living space with the smell of cannabis.

Laura (00:53:31) - Exactly. That's why I love it. yeah, it really keeps the smell down. And, that's, you know, experimenting with that oil. That was a really fun summer because I was like, this is the first time that, that was when it was first legal. I was like, you know what I'm going to do? I'm totally infusing this olive oil and smearing it all over my body and see what happens. Right? And it was like.

Margaret (00:53:56) - When you're using it as a topical for any of those things we just talked about, would you be using more likely to use an extra virgin olive oil, or would you just use whatever you would use?

Laura (00:54:07) - well it it.

Laura (00:54:11) - ends, right? You're going to be eating it.

Margaret (00:54:15) - Right?

Laura (00:54:17) - Right. If you're going to be eating it. And I was like, why not go for the nice stuff, right. But if it's just, one of the, you know, I'm just going to it's slather.

Margaret (00:54:29) - It all over the place.

Laura (00:54:30) - It's not the special date night. but it's just more like I'm going to have a nice afternoon. Then you know you don't need the extra virgin for that.

Margaret (00:54:43) - Now also as far as infusing goes I have often infused use olive oil and used it to infuse like herbs, fresh herbs. I would get fresh herbs from the market and I would put my fresh basil in the olive oil, let it sit for a couple of weeks, just give it a bit of a shake and then you strain it. Get rid of the plant material. And that olive oil has the distinctive flavor of basil in it. And I love doing stuff like that because it also helps, you know, it means in the winter time when it's the dead of winter, I can have this lovely basil infused olive oil.

Margaret (00:55:18) - Could you do the same with cannabis? Like, do you have to heat it if you want it? You put you could put your d carb cannabis in the olive oil, or maybe not even decarbonized. I'm just wondering.

Laura (00:55:31) - I'm not sure because, it depends to me. if you didn't d carve it, then that acid, has not changed.

Margaret (00:55:43) - Yeah, the potency is going to be much different. Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

Laura (00:55:47) - You're still going to get to me the benefit of it. the chemical benefits of cannabis would still be in there. But it's not going to be necessarily an intoxicating experience. Whereas if you do have the, the chemical change within the cannabis plant to go from thc A to THC. Then it becomes an intoxicant, whereas you know, otherwise you can have really nice healthy, body and and cannabinoid system. But our. Are you going to be like tripping balls and looking at the sky. No.

Margaret (00:56:31) - Right. Okay. I mean that totally makes sense. But I think it would be interesting because you could use that as like a finishing oil and preserve some of the, the flavor of that cannabis that you're using in the olive oil.

Margaret (00:56:44) - Which sounds really nice to me. The same way that you could put rosemary or basil or whatever in your olive oil.

Laura (00:56:50) - Oh, sure. Absolutely. And, you know, it was a when we finally were able to legally grow, cannabis. And it was the first time I really experienced, fresh cannabis leaves. And the point is, I have to say, and it's just like, oh, I'm gonna eat these leaves because, like, you gotta trim the plant anyway, so I'm gonna munch on them and you're like, wow, this is really it's got a very distinct flavor, but it doesn't taste necessarily like weed. right? but it adds like something and they're like, oh, what's in the salad? Yeah. Only new. yeah. Yeah. It's like, oh, it's an herb. Yeah. so like, it depends on what the end result is. Like what you're what you're aiming for. If you're aiming for something that's healthy, then how about it? Put in the fresh stuff.

Laura (00:57:49) - I would assume that dried would be better, though. yeah.

Margaret (00:57:53) - From a perspective to of like, if you're wanting to infuse your olive oil and actually get high from it, it's going to need to be discarded because the THC a if you haven't discarded it, like you said, it's not going to be it might have a little bit of potency, but it's going to be much different than if you did it first. But again, it's going to depend on what you want it for as well. And yeah, maybe you just want to preserve the flavor of the cannabis. And that's one way to do it. You know, again, when it's the dead of winter and you're like, oh, that was a lovely plant that I grew. And you can get the flavors and the olive oil and the olive oil. That sounds delightful to me. So, yeah.

Laura (00:58:30) - Absolutely, absolutely. And, especially in the dead of winter, you're like, yeah.

Margaret (00:58:36) - Yeah. When you're like, when you're longing to go to your olive grove in Italy, I can have a little taste.

Laura (00:58:43) - Oh, especially in January, where I'm like, yeah, why did my ancestors come here?

Margaret (00:58:50) - Of all places. Right.

Laura (00:58:51) - Yeah. It's like, what? Or like, the other part of me is like, why didn't you go to Australia? Because there's. a huge Italian community in Australia too, and they can grow their own olives.

Margaret (00:59:03) - Do they grow olives in Australia?

Laura (00:59:05) - Yes.

Margaret (00:59:06) - Okay.

Laura (00:59:08) - and it's just like, oh my God, no. Yeah. Let's go to Canada. Oh, great. Great idea. Yeah. And that's the worst part I think is like right, I'm, I have like a live webcam that's like not necessarily on our property, but it's like just down the coast from us. And I look at it in winter time.

Margaret (00:59:32) - Yeah I would be too. It'd be hard not to have it on your phone like all the time. But yeah. Yeah. Then you're just torturing yourself. But a couple more questions before we wrap up. what are some of the common misconceptions that people have about olive oil?

Laura (00:59:51) - Common misconceptions? Well, I think like the biggest misconception was the whole heating it will give you cancer.

Laura (01:00:01) - That kind of that kind of makes me crazy. and like, there's so many health benefits from olive oil. I think that if anything, people just think it's like salad dressing, but actually you can put it on your scalp, you can put it on your skin like human skin loves olive oil. It absorbs olive oil like it loves it. so it's safe for your skin if your dog or cat licks it, it's not going to die. You know? It's it's something that can be safe around children and your pets. It's not going to be a danger to them. So and I think that's the misconception is that maybe for me is that it's only used in culinary ways, when in fact, olive oil was considered a really precious thing for everything. It was, the oil, they, they put in the wheels of the carts for the Roman Empire, you know, kind of marching its way across Europe like they used that they used. They would always have olive oil and honey.

Margaret (01:01:19) - Right? So those are two of my favorite things.

Margaret (01:01:21) - So. Yeah.

Laura (01:01:23) - Exactly. Yeah, exactly. So, I think the misconception is that it's just something to eat, right? and, and there are so many other benefits that your skin would appreciate. And, you know, again, using it with a degree of caution, like, are you allergic? Do you already have oily skin? Like, don't add it because you get like, acne because you put all your forehead, like, just don't add me.

Margaret (01:01:52) - Right? Yeah, yeah. Well, that makes sense though. Yeah, it really does. It's sort of like the way the cannabis plant can be used for so many things we don't always think about, but olive oil can also be used for a lot more than just, you know, cooking up your eggs or sprinkling on salad.

Laura (01:02:10) - Yeah, exactly. Yeah, exactly.

Margaret (01:02:13) - So what are your favorite ways to use olive oil when you're cooking or baking? Do you use it in baking at all?

Laura (01:02:23) - I honestly, I'm really not a huge baker.

Laura (01:02:27) - Okay. I'm just I'm a cook, right? It's like, to me, baking is like being a lab, working in a laboratory scientist. Because, like, you follow the recipe, right? You follow the recipe, then your case is going to be really low. And to give you an example of me being a baker, I thought baking soda and baking powder were the same.

Margaret (01:02:54) - Okay. Yeah. They're different, although I couldn't tell you why necessarily, but I know they're different.

Laura (01:02:59) - Well, if you use one, you're going to have a very flat cake. Let's put it that way. Cause I was like, what happened to this cake? It's so. It looks like a pancake. It doesn't look like a fluffy angel cake. Can we use baking bread or baking soda? I'm like there's a difference there. Like this is why you're not a baker.

Margaret (01:03:20) - Yeah a little more precision is required Typically.

Laura (01:03:23) - Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. Precision. That's exactly a bakers need to be precise.

Laura (01:03:28) - Whereas for me, I use, cooking in I use it on pasta all the time. Like, yes, I understand that people have a love of, Kraft Dinner. Like, they're big Katy fans. That really wasn't ever in my house. Like, for me, like, Katie is like the olive oil and toasted breadcrumbs with some garlic and stuff. That's to me it's like, yeah, yeah, that's my comfort food, right? Right. so I use it in pasta all the time. I use it in salads all the time. Like, I don't understand people buying salad dressing. It freaks me out that people buy all these salad dressings, you know. Salad dressing is olive oil, if you like it. Some mustard or lemon juice and a little bit of vinegar. Shake it up to da.

Margaret (01:04:23) - That's what I do a lot of the times too. Maybe a little balsamic, a little olive oil, some salt, pepper. There you go. And then you can make it fancier if you want.

Margaret (01:04:31) - But yeah.

Laura (01:04:33) - Exactly like I, I don't get it. I like that's one of the things where it's like, now you go to the store and there's all of these salad dressings. Like do you know how easy it is.

Margaret (01:04:47) - Yeah. With ingredients you probably already have at home.

Laura (01:04:49) - Exactly. Yeah. And then you're also having to buy like most of them are glass or plastic.

Margaret (01:04:56) - glass is very common in that in that aisle of the grocery store.

Laura (01:05:01) - Exactly. Yeah. Exactly. And that is something that, that I, I disagree with. entirely. It's like why are you stupid. Yeah. and like I, I'm not. Okay. Caesar salads. Sure. Like they're a treat for me. But, am I going to buy, like, French's Italian salad dressing? Never. Right. I will never buy that because I know how to make my own. And it's. And for me, it tastes perfect. Yeah.

Margaret (01:05:36) - Yeah, yeah. Because then you can season it exactly the way you like it.

Laura (01:05:40) - Yeah, exactly, exactly. So that's basically how I use my olive oil. And again, especially in the summertime when you. I don't know about you, but if you're like, if you've got a chlorinated pool or you're in the pool and you're in all of those chemicals, your skin gets so dry. So like for me, and also in the wintertime here in Canada.

Margaret (01:06:04) - Yes. Like brutal sometimes as far as like dry, cracked skin. It's.

Laura (01:06:09) - Yeah.

Margaret (01:06:10) - And I tend to have more oily skin too. So yeah, it's it's all.

Laura (01:06:13) - Yeah, yeah. So for me I have like a little spritz bottle. And I just spritz olive oil especially on your lower leg because I don't know about you. But like that winter dry skin on your lower legs they become so itchy. Not with olive oil. Come out of the shower. Spritz your lower leg with the olive oil. It will absorb like olive oil absorbs into human skin. It doesn't stay topical like your skin absorbs it, so it.

Margaret (01:06:42) - Doesn't leave that greasy kind of skin feel afterwards. No, like you might get with, I guess sometimes coconut oil based products or.

Laura (01:06:55) - I haven't used coconut oil topically. just because I always have our own house, so. Yeah. I'm just recently getting into coconut oil, so I'll have to do a comparison and let you know and just say this one.

Margaret (01:07:10) - I make a lot of body butter, and I make it with basically it's coconut oil, olive oil and beeswax. And that's what kind of keeps it emulsified. And I add like maybe some essential oils. So it smells nice. But that does tend to have a much richer skin feel, so it doesn't really absorb into the skin. I don't mind that myself, but some people don't like that kind of really rich emollient you kind of feel. I hate to say the word greasy, but you feel a little greasy for a bit afterwards. And I love that feeling. But, you know, not everybody likes that. Sometimes they want something to absorb into their skin faster.

Margaret (01:07:45) - So maybe olive oil on its own would absorb faster then. Yeah, for.

Laura (01:07:48) - Sure. And you know, Sophia Loren, like what she's always saying? oh. How do you stay young? She said olive oil.

Margaret (01:07:57) - Oh, I didn't know that.

Laura (01:07:58) - Yeah. She's always saying, oh, yeah, you look so young. How. Well, how how do you stay so young looking? And she said olive oil and like, she doesn't mean just in her diet. Right.

Margaret (01:08:10) - She means on her skin. Top on her.

Laura (01:08:12) - Skin too, right? and like, that's like one of those, like, women's secrets in the South. It's just like, who has money to go to the store to buy some fancy creams? Nobody. Right. So you better find whatever's in this house is what you're putting on your skin. Right. Because. Yeah. You know that's, that's basically how we're going to stay healthy and youthful and feel nice. Right?

Margaret (01:08:41) - I'm going to have to start doing that more.

Margaret (01:08:42) - I love that because I love olive oil and I want to be using it more. And, you.

Laura (01:08:48) - Know, if you want to infuse it with stuff that you know will help you with, it's a great carrier oil for topicals. So infuse it with, say you want to do lavender or you want to do like lilac or sandalwood, whatever you want.

Margaret (01:09:04) - That would be so nice because it works beautifully with the fresh herbs. And I mean, that's more for a culinary purpose, but for using it on your body, you could really do all kinds of fun things with it. And it's so easy, like you're putting your lavender right in the olive oil. You let it sit for a bit, you strain it. There you go. Label your jar.

Laura (01:09:20) - There. No one's going to have itchy legs in January.

Margaret (01:09:23) - Yeah.

Margaret (01:09:24) - You're welcome everybody.

Laura (01:09:26) - Yeah, yeah.

Margaret (01:09:29) - And when do you think you're going to be making it back to Italy next.

Laura (01:09:34) - I'm really hoping next year. Really hoping. Yeah.

Laura (01:09:38) - just because, you know, there's been so many personal events that have made us stay in Canada for longer than expected. And I really miss it, I really miss that valley so much, though. And, I'm glad to see that at least, our little village called calico is getting a lot more press in Italy saying, oh, we have two castles in this little village and no, no.

Laura (01:10:03) - No, no, no, come and see it.

Laura (01:10:05) - and it's nice to see that they're getting some attention because it's such a beautiful area and like, the, the food is magnificent. Like, I didn't understand, what, like the swordfish steak was until, like, they brought to you, like, it's the size of a steak. It's not like a little triangle of fish. It's like they literally cut that fish in half and then grilled it for you right there, you know? And and every like, there's so much fresh seafood. Like you can go to like, a fish store where literally it's like, what'd you catch today? Like it's been it's been dead for 20 minutes, right? You know, you want to take it home and grill it? Perfect.

Laura (01:10:48) - so, like, I've really missed that. And the first time I ever had fresh figs was,

Margaret (01:10:55) - And I love figs, I do, I've bought them dried, and anybody listening, they're delicious. But you can only eat a couple because they keep you regular.

Margaret (01:11:05) - They sure.

Laura (01:11:05) - Do.

Margaret (01:11:05) - I found out the hard way I was just.

Margaret (01:11:09) - Yeah.

Laura (01:11:10) - Yeah, we have, we have figs on our property. And that was the first time I ever had, like a fig directly. Just pick it off the tree and then stick, stick it in your mouth. And like the figs that you get in Canada are quite dry, even if they are dry. Yeah. they're either, but the like, even the fresh ones, when you bite into them, they're dry. Whereas the first time I had like a fresh fig right off the tree, it was like so juicy. It was like it made a mess. Wow. And I was like, wow, this is what a fresh fig is.

Laura (01:11:40) - Yeah. And and that to me, it's like, the next time I go to Italy, I want to try and like, plan it for fig season, because literally I will just take a chair from the kitchen and put it underneath the fig tree and go, what's for breakfast? I'll come right.

Margaret (01:11:59) - I don't I don't blame you. That sounds so lovely. And like Italy, olive oil, fresh figs. You have coffee, you have wine, you have cheeses, you have pizza. Like, oh, it's a food and wine lover's dream. And I don't know what they've got for cannabis over there, but it's they must have a little bit I don't know. I know it's not legal.

Laura (01:12:19) - It's not legal yet. You can grow hemp like they have. They've really delineated what cannabis is and what hemp is. Yeah. And I know that you can. They used to be, Italy used to be the largest hemp producer in Europe.

Margaret (01:12:33) - Oh, really?

Laura (01:12:34) - Yeah. Okay. Yeah. That's again poor people.

Laura (01:12:39) - It's like rope. We can't go to the store and buy rope. Yeah. We get. What are we going to make it ourselves with this tall grass stuff, right? Yeah. Right. Yeah. And then Graham is going to make tea with it.

Margaret (01:12:52) - Right? Right.

Laura (01:12:53) - So, there, there is that. And definitely I would because we have Virgin land. I totally want to get into that sort of production as well because the family owned it. They were poor people. They weren't putting chemicals on their land. Who has money for chemicals? You know we're putting on it poo right. It's great for soil mending.

Margaret (01:13:16) - Yes.

Margaret (01:13:18) - Yeah.

Laura (01:13:18) - Yeah. So and I, I really would be like hey, if you're interested in doing some sort of collaboration partnership, get in touch. Right. Because, I would love to have the back 12 acres, growing medicine.

Margaret (01:13:36) - Yeah. Then you would have it all.

Laura (01:13:38) - Then I would totally.

Margaret (01:13:39) - Literally have it all.

Margaret (01:13:40) - Haha. That's amazing.

Laura (01:13:42) - Oh, I know, it's like that to me is the dream is is to get.

Laura (01:13:46) - So if anyone here is listening. Yeah. Who would be interested in a partnership hit me up.

Margaret (01:13:52) - Well that's wonderful because I'll be sure to put all your contact stuff in the show notes. But before we go, where can people find you online?

Laura (01:14:00) - They can find me online on Instagram. Laura Hamilton dot can can and can can. Yeah, that's my Instagram handle. Hit me up. on Instagram. I'm also on Facebook, but that's more like me just being foolish. right. Yeah. Yeah. This is my balcony.

Margaret (01:14:23) - Yeah. And you do a show as well.

Laura (01:14:25) - I also do a show right now, called her story on, Kdl TV.

Margaret (01:14:33) - Yeah. Wonderful. And you've had some amazing people on there. And I'm not trying to say that to toot my own horn, because I was a recent guest, but guests like Ann Elgin, author of Butter and Flour, who's also been a Bite Me guest, she's lovely. and lots of other interesting women that you've been able to interview.

Margaret (01:14:50) - So, Laura, I just want to thank you for your time today. I really appreciate it. You've got me really excited about olive oil again. Not that I wasn't before, but I'm definitely going to be going out and checking some of those specialty shops for some of this more interesting stuff than what I would find in my local Costco. So thank you for that and I wish you all the best.

Laura (01:15:10) - Thank you.

Margaret (01:15:12) - I hope you enjoyed that conversation with Laura. And if you're worried that you might have missed something if you head over to the show notes, I'm going to have all the links and mentions over there so you can find it easily, so don't worry, I've got you. And if you enjoyed this episode, consider sharing it with someone else who has questions about olive oil, because there are a lot of things to consider. And olive oil can be a really healthy thing to add to your daily diet. And as I mentioned at the top of this episode, it is one of my favorite infusion fats.

Margaret (01:15:40) - So with that, my friends, I hope you enjoyed this. And once again, I'm your host, Marj. And until next week, stay high.