Olive Harvest Update - Olive Waste

This past October I particpated in an olive harvest of my friend Yarden's olive trees. You can read about the harvest here, which ended up producing 50 liters of oil. One thing that intrigued me at the olive press was the huge mound of waste that was created as result of the process. Outside the factory was a massive mount of olive pulp. It looked like dark wood pulp shavings from a distance, but smelled like a great olive tapenade. I asked a few people what became of the olive pulp, but nobody had a definitive answer for me.

I forgot about the olive waste until I recently read an article in Haaretz about an Israel company that is turning the olive pulp waste into a heating source. The olive pellets created, according to owner, do not release harmful gases when burned, and can also be used as a fertilizer. Today, most of the pulp is brought to a landfill or is not moved at all becoming a pollutant.

I don't have a fireplace, but for those of you who do, consider by olive pulp pellets instead of wood this winter.

Close up on tons of olive pulp

The pulp is spewed onto the mound throughout the day

Olive Harvest Update - Olive Waste

Erez Komarovsky Workshop

Roasted Eggplant Salad

Last weekend I was able to attend a cooking workshop led by Erez Komarovsky. Erez is the same Erez behind the successful chain of Lechem Erez (Erez Bread) stores throughout Israel. Erez leads a variety of different workshops at his beautiful home in Matat, located in the Upper Galilee near the Lebanese border. He has incredible views of the Galilee and has an impressive organic garden full of broccoli, swiss chard, no less than five kinds of sage, beets, kohlrabi, and much more. I never though kohlrabi had much flavor, but eating it picked straight out of the ground made me realize how incredibly sweet the vegetable can be if grown right and eaten freshly.

Swiss Chard

Upon arriving at his home you are greeted by the smells of several different fresh baked breads that have just come out of his stone oven. There were delicious roasted eggplant, roasted tomato and roasted pepper salads along with a massive bowl of homemade hummus to eat. Before the workshop even starts Erez makes sure you’re pretty full.

After the tour of his garden, where I had the best kohlrabi of my life, we were led into his downstairs kitchen where we gathered around a long table and eagerly anticipated Erez’s cooking demonstrations. The specific workshop that day was breads and soups. He preceded to make a garlic confit bread, a jerusalem artichoke bread, a pumpkin seed and leek challah, a spicy asian soup with a pumpkin and leek stock, a beef and bean stew, and finally a leek, artichoke and garbanzo bean soup. All of the breads and soups were really tasty and the workshop was very inspiring. I posted the garlic confit bread recipe, which was the highlight for me.

Hummus and leek soup, variety of breads

Erez is extremely knowledgeable not only about bread recipes, techniques, and all things bread, but about Israeli and Galilean cuisine in general.  Seasonality is a strong theme in his cooking, hence the heavy use of leeks throughout the day. This focus on local and seasonal ingredients is something I try to model my style of cooking after as well. The workshops last 4 to 5 hours, and I highly recommend trying it out.

 
Galil Olive Orchards
 
Homemade hummus

Savor Israel
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Erez Komarovsky Workshop

Sustainability Conference

(Carmei Avdat vineyards in the Negev region of Israel)

Last month the first ever Israeli Sustainable Food conference was held in Tel Aviv. It was sponsored by Hazon, the American Jewish food and biking folks, and The Heschel Center, a leading Israeli environmental organization. Unfortunately, I was not able to go, and I am disappointed I can't give a first hand account of the event. I'll be sure to make the next conference, and am thrilled that this issue is more in the forefront in Israel. Israel is an agricultural powerhouse in terms of its production and technological advances, but the environmental impact of this production is rarely discussed. Can food production for 10 million Israelis and Palestinians in a small, desert be sustainable at all? Does sufficient food production have to come at the expense of diminishing water resources and pollution through mass use of chemicals that enhance yields? I hope to explore these issues much more in depth in future posts. Stay tuned...

Sustainability Conference