Extra Virginity
No silly, it’s not about that! Extra Virginity, The Sublime and Scandalous World of Olive Oil by Tom Mueller is an eye opening book about the olive oil we buy and don’t think twice about. We know that many foods have a lot of junk in them, but those are processed foods, manufactured by large soulless corporations trying to lure us all by slick advertising and delectable looking commercials-we’re very smart consumers. All you need to do is read the label and you see all the garbage in the food, and caveat emptor, let the buyer beware. However extra virgin olive oil, something so pure, natural, abundant and produced for thousands of years would appear to be the last that we need to worry about. How wrong we are! Tom Mueller, a journalist living in a medieval stone farmhouse outside Genoa, Italy delves in depth into where some of the olive oil on our grocery store shelves actually comes from, what it really is and how what you see and pay for, isn’t always what you get.
Beautiful Italian olives ready to be picked
To be considered extra virgin olive oil, healthy olives must be picked and milled within 24 hours and have a maximum acidic level of .8%. A very simple process but in reality isn’t always the case. Oil made from several day old fallen olives from trees, hazelnut and sunflower oil sold as extra virgin olive oil, or high tech chemically adulterated cheap oil being passed off as extra virgin olive oil are just a few scams Tom Mueller brings to our attention. And just because it says Bottled in Italy, doesn’t mean it was actually produced in Italy. Italy is the largest consumer of olive oil, but not the biggest producer of olive oil. You may be buying olive oil from Greece, Spain and/or Tunisia thinking it’s Italian because of the lovely label of the charming Tuscan countryside. That’s not to say that some of those oils on their own aren’t good, but that’s not what you think you’re buying.
Pure, Unadulterated Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Good olive oil isn’t cheap so if it seems to good to be true, it probably is…. Extra Virginity is a fascinating read from the ancient history of olive oil through today’s food and health revolution. By exploring the fraud involved with counterfeit extra virgin olive oil and its effect on small olive growers, Tom Mueller gives us the information and knowledge to be more mindful consumers and eaters.
Extra Virginity – The Sublime and Scandalous World of Olive Oil can be purchased at Barnes and Noble.com, Amazon.com or your favorite bookseller.
Meet Laney Sachs
I’m not just enthusiastic about travel—I live travel, each and every day. From plotting out my clients’ next great escape, to logging airmiles on my own adventures (I always have a suitcase packed and at the ready!), travel drives me in everything I do.
I’ve learned a few things along the way, and I’d love to share them with you. Learn a bit more about my journey to founding my own travel agency—it involves quite a few glasses of Italian wine!
