The Organic Empire is about delivering the highest quality organic foods all over Victoria. Real food grown by people that have passion for what they do and in turn create the freshest, healthiest organic foods around. To these our farmers, we take off our hats for their bounty is what keeps us healthy and alive.tastesbetter@organicempire.com.au
Monday, February 1, 2010
Green Bean Salad
500g fresh organic green beans, trimmed
1/2 organic chopped red onion
2 tablespoons organic chopped garlic
4 tablespoons organic balsamic vinegar
2 to 4 tablespoons organic extra-virgin olive oil
Steam beans for 5 mins, place on a plate, add the onion, vinegar, oil , sprinkle with salt and serve.
Oils aint oils
The oil tree originated in the Mediterranean countries, but is widely cultivated all over the world now. The tree yields fragrant white flowers and an oblong nearly round fruit called a drupe that becomes shiny black when ripe. When call this drupe an 'olive'.
Olives have been pressed for thousands of years to produce the oil we know as olive oil. The health benefits of olive oil have been documented for hundreds of years, and this golden oil to reputed to be one of the secrets of a long healthy life. It's been found that people who consume extra virgin olive oil regularly have much lower rates of heart disease, heart disease, atherosclerosis, diabetes, colon cancer, and asthma. Studies have shown that diabetics who consume healthy meals that contained some olive oil had better effects on blood sugar even than healthy meals that were low in fat. And if that isn't enough, it helps reduce blood pressure, combats disease, provides the body with essential fats and is a contributing factor to overall health and wellness. Science daily just published a report just recently on Extra Virgin Olive oil and its ability to combat breast cancer, go here to read it.
This all said, not all oils are created equally. There are basically four different grading's of olive oils:
'Light' Olive oil: is filtered and refined olive oil, often bleached and the term 'light' refers to the colouring, not the content. The considerable processing that it goes through means that it only retains very little of the olive flavour. Very little if any nutritional properties.
Pure Olive oil: Undergoes processing such as filtering and refining, and then a small amount of the virgin olive oil is added to give it colour, otherwise it would be very light in colour. Again not much nutritional value.
Virgin Olive oil: Comes from the second pressing, so a majority of the vitamins and minerals, the goodness is taken out in the first pressing and this is the product that remains.
The big daddy of Olive oils is the Extra Virgin Cold Pressed Olive oil, this is pure gold, cold pressed to retain the integrity of the oil. This is made without the use of chemicals, no refining no bleaching. Just pure olive oil. This is in its most natural state, housed in dark bottles to protect the oil from light.
WE have just started stocking a Victorian Organic Extra Virgin Olive Oil, made in Laharum, which is in the Grampians in Victoria. Toscana is the brand and these guys make an incredible olive oil, don't just take my word for it though, they were awarded the champions trophy at the 2008 Royal Melbourne Show for the 2008 harvest of their Grampians Olive Estate Australia. They only do the first cold pressing they don't do a second pressing. The flavour is sensational. Contact us to get some. They grow and press all their own olives, so the integrity of the product is assured.
This olive grove has been around since 1943, making it one of the oldest in Australia. They have around 27 different varieties, of some which are heirloom varieties. The farm is watered only with natural rainfall, so these guys are not only making great olive oil but looking after our environment at the same time. This combination makes the olives and the oil the best.
Why go organic?
Well need we discuss, but apart the pesticide residues, artificial fertilisers and chemicals used, but did you know that toxins accumulate and are stored in fat….always enjoy your oils organically.
Storage: Keep olive oil in a cool and dark place, tightly sealed. Oxygen promotes rancidity. Olive oil is like other oils and can easily go rancid when exposed to air, light or high temperatures.
ORGANIC EMPIRE, organic home delivery melbourne, local organic foods
Monday, January 25, 2010
Wholemeal Organic Coconut Damper
1 cup of Organic wholemeal/Spelt flour
pinch salt
3/4 cup of organic milk
1 cup of organic dessicated coconut
1 TBSP extra virgin olive oil
Place all the ingredients in a bowl and Mix .Pour into a greased or baking paper lined tin. Bake at 150c for an hour then 170-180c for 20-30mins slice and eat warm with butter or cool and slice and use like toast for breakfast...with lots of butter
Sunday, January 24, 2010
Haiti-need a different kind of change
Ok so I know that everyone has gotten on the Haiti bandwagon, and I am not writing to badger you to donate money but rather to encourage you to badger the International Monetary Fund to cancel Haiti's debt so that they can rebuild their country.
Please follow these links to the Oxfam site and sign your name to petition the IMF to make some positive change. No man is an island.....
22 January 2010
Take Action Send To A Friend
Make sure that earthquake relief doesn't create a new debt burden in Haiti
Dear Activist, As you read this, Oxfam's staff is rushing clean water and emergency supplies to earthquake survivors in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.But while our immediate focus will remain emergency relief, one major threat could still hamper all efforts to rebuild this country: Haiti's crushing foreign debt.Oxfam and other groups have helped extract a commitment from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to cancel Haiti's debt. But we need your voice to get them to actually follow through on their promise without delay.Will you help? Please, join us in urging the IMF to cancel Haiti's foreign debt now.Even before the earthquake, Haiti was weighed down by debt. They owed over $891 million to the IMF and others - a legacy of loans to unelected governments of years past.If these debts aren't canceled, Haiti will be sending tens of millions to the IMF and other international bodies even as it struggles to rebuild.World leaders are meeting in Montreal on Monday to decide on the amount of aid that they will give to Haiti. The IMF has said that it will work to cancel the debt, and this now needs to happen.If these debts are cancelled, the Haitian government will have a better chance to build their country, so that it is stronger than before.Email the head of the IMF, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, to demand that they cancel Haiti’s debts immediately.Make sure that earthquake relief doesn't create a new debt burden.Campaigning works. Thanks for taking action.Oxfam Australia's Campaigns Team.PS. To find out more about our earthquake response, visit our website
GET ACTIVE DONATE LATEST NEWS CONTACT US
Oxfam Australia works with communities around the world to find lasting solutions to poverty and injustice. ABN: 18 055 208 636Oxfam Australia, 132 Leicester Street, Carlton VIC 3053, AustraliaPhone 1800 088 110, 9am - 5pm AEST campaigns@oxfam.org.au
Salsa Anyone
A great addition to any savoury meal, a tomato salsa can be served as a salad in its own right, or serve it upon some grilled fish or perhaps some Mexicana foods.
500 g organic ripe tomatoes
4 organic spring onions, sliced finely or 1 red organic onion finely chopped
1/2 cup chopped fresh organic parsley
1 tsp sea salt
1/4 cup extra virgin organic olive oil
Cut the tomatoes in half, dice the flesh and place in a medium bowl along with the spring onions, fresh parsley, olive oil.
2. Stir to combine, then stand for 30 minutes to allow the flavours to develop.
ORGANIC EMPIRE, organic home delivery melbourne, local organic foods
Why eat organic tomatoes?????
Tomatoes are one of the vegetables that signal the summer months. Even though they are available almost all year round, it's in the summer and late autumn months that tomatoes are at their best in Victoria. Vine ripened and full of flavour, they lend themselves to so many different dishes and can be eaten as they are, straight from the vine.
At the moment there are so many varieties of tomatoes available, there are the local heirloom varieties as well as the standard tomato varieties that are available. Let's have a look at some of these varieties:
Tigeralla: has decorative striped fruit.
Black Russian: has an unusual black colour, but brings a beautiful flavour to the plate
Tommy Toe, which has an outstanding sweet flavour, and the red or yellow fruit, is delicious to eat straight from the vine.
Conventional tomatoes has an average of 34 recordable total residues, these include 2 known or probable carcinogens, 15 suspected hormone disruptors, 7 neurotoxins and 3 developmental or reproductive toxins, comprised of methyl bromide, nevinphos, parathion and many other chemicals. These conventionally grown crops not sounding so tasty.
Organically grown counterparts offer a plethora of vitamins and minerals minus the chemicals. High in vitamin C, E, K, potassium, beta-carotene and lycopene, the organic tomato definitely has more flavour. An interesting fact on organic tomatoes is that they have been found to deliver three times as much lycopene, an amazing antioxidant than conventional tomatoes. Order some local organic tomatoes here.
We have two farmers supplying our tomatoes, we have a farmer who runs his farm using solar power, and we have our local heirloom farmer, the punnets of organic heirloom tomatoes are sensational. Both farmers are providing exceptional produce, get stuck into some organic goodness this week
ORGANIC EMPIRE, organic home delivery melbourne, local organic foods
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)