Harvest is here.

The first oil of 2013 is from the Favalosa varietal - green apples on the nose and full mouth feel with lovely peppery notes!

#ff

Prince Albert Olives is a new arrival in the social media and blogging world, so if you are too (how did you find us here?) let me start with some Twitter 101:

On the social network twitter people do #ff, "Follow Friday" - on Fridays you compose (a) tweet(s) with the hashtag (# symbol used to mark keywords or topics, to categorize) #ff and include the twitter handle (the username selected and accompanying URL, like so: http://twitter.com/paolives) of someone you follow you want to suggest for your followers (people who have selected to receive your tweets on their timeline) to follow. 
Do you follow?

So for this Friday we tweeted:

Our first ever #FF (a #FEFF?) to @tenaciousdog thanks for our much praised and loved packaging ow.ly/iyUae

Tenacious Dogs are the guys who captured the charming Victorian characteristics of the town of Prince Albert in our packaging design, Jack Russell Design.

Feeling web-savvy so googled our packaging, on google images nogal! 
Apparently miss Erica Craig, designer, Photographer, Stylist j'adored it. 

Happy Friday (#hf?).

Where we should be

We heard Ile de Pain was the place to be in Knysna, so now we (well, our products) are there!

For other stockists of our products, visit our website.

Celebrity Endorsement

We thought we would brag a bit with some "celebrity endorsement"... 

Musician and actor Lochner de Kock says this of our oil:

"Ek en my persentjie van Natasha. Dadelik getoets...........skoon, lieflike varsgesnyde gras en omgeploegde aarde geur en smaak."

"Me and my present from Natasha. Tested it immediately - clean, lovely fresh cut grass and ploughed earth nose and taste"

Live long and well (oiled).

TIME magazine's Health and Family segment reports on research to find the reason why the Mediterranean diet is a well-known weapon in the fight against heart disease.

Their findings were conclusive, Olive Oil is the trick:
"The group that showed the least heart problems and lowest rate of heart disease deaths? Those who ate a Mediterranean diet high in extra-virgin olive oil. Coming in at a close second were participants who ate a Mediterranean diet high in nuts. Compared with those eating the low-fat diet, the extra-virgin-olive-oil group showed a 30% lower risk of having a heart attack, stroke or dying of heart disease after five years, while those consuming the Mediterranean diet with more nuts showed a 28% lower risk of these outcomes."

We've always known this, now it has been proven!

Read more HERE.

Uily McBeal

If you have ever had a close look at our packaging you might have noticed a little owl perched on the right of the logo. The owl was inspired by the Spotted Eagle Owl that lives next to our factory and the numerous (7 to be exact) owls that Essie our farm manager has successfully raised and rehabilitated over the last few years that we have had the farm.

In November last year the owl had babies and the wind blew two of them out of the nest. One was attacked by ants and its chances of survival seemed grim, but with Essie's expert care she pulled through. 

Two weeks later she was named Uily (Afrikaans for Owly) McBeal (remember the 90s TV lawyer?).

Uily soon became good friends with Sam and Carlos, Essie's two dogs. We believe she might think that she IS a dog. She regularly takes naps under the table: 

or on the chair:

 And on hot days she takes a dip in their water bowl - much to Sam's frustration! 

Since she also runs to the gate with the dogs every time someone comes to visit she has been renamed Buks- a more appropriate name for a guard owl. So meet Buks:

We hope to share more adventures of Buks the guard owl on this blog soon.

For the love of free stuff and family

As the Christmas decorations went down the back-to-school posters went up. Now the pink hearts, teddy bears and red decorations pop up everywhere in a clever attempt to market and sell love to us.

We’re not big on marketing gimmicks or Valentines (hence the fact that we hide away in small town Karoo) but, in the spirit of love and the ones we love we have decided to run a little competition in conjunction with our family members who make the amazing Badenhorst Family Wines.

We want you to show us some love, and in return we will give you some lovely products...

'What can I win?' I hear you ask

Well, we will give you 2 bottles of Secateurs (Red and Rosé) as well as a Badenhorst Family Red Blend (red and pink wine in theme with Valentines) along with two liters of Prince Albert Olive oil (in our new tins) and two pots of our amazing olives (one Manzanilla and one Kalamata).

What do you have to do to win that?

The classic "follow us" (BOTH @aabadenhorst and @PAolives) on twitter OR like both brands (AA Badenhorst Family Wines and Prince Albert Olives) on Facebook.

Tell us what you would cook for your loved one, using PAO oil, and which Badenhorst wine you would pair with it.

Either tweet “I will serve my love xxx prepared w @PAolives paired with @aabadenhorst’s xxx #valentines.”

Or write something like that on our walls.

*by doing this you give us permission to blog the hell out of your ideas if/when you win.

Winner will be announced on Monday 11 Feb in order for us to get the prize to you by 14 Feb.

Go ahead, spread the love.

x