The Healthy Cooking Coach

Queen Creek Olive Oil is King

Like to eat? Love to learn? Want to know what Phoenix, Arizona has over Spain, Greece, and Italy?  Take a trip to Arizona’s only working olive farm and mill, Queen Creek Olive Mill for a tour of the facilities to find out!

What do you know?
Open Sunday through Wednesday from 9am to 5pm and Thursday through Saturday from 9 am to 9 pm with live music every Friday and Saturday from 6 to 9 pm, the mill offers hourly tours ($5 per person; kids 12 and younger attend free) from 9:30 am to 3:30 pm. If you’d like to bring your own group, you can book a private tour in the evening. You’ll learn about the history of the mill, how they harvest and process the olives, about different grades of olive oil and their percentages of purity, and what makes Queen Creek Olive Oil superior to most imported olive oils. Sample the olives, oils, tapenades, and  balsamic vinegars, grab a bite in the restaurant, or buy goodies to go. (Looking for unusual holiday gifts? This could be your go-to place to find them.)

How old is your oil?
I know a fair amount about olive oil and I picked up new facts on the tour of the olive mill that I will surely weave into the classes I teach and the articles I write. I was surprised to learn about the shelf life of extra-virgin olive oil (it’s best used within one year of pressing). I thought it was longer! 

They’re not saying (nor am I) that you’ll keel over if you use 18-month-old olive oil, but it won’t have as good a flavor and it will have a lower polyphenol content than younger olive oil. (Polyphenols are chemical substances found in colorful plants––think dark chocolate, berries, grapes, green leafies, green tea, etc.––that have antioxidant properties, i.e., they may reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease, cancer, macular degeneration, and other diseases, and help us age more gracefully by protecting our cells from excessive oxidation and damage. Oxidation is normal, natural, and inevitable, but too much of it can cause premature aging and an early demise.)

Olive everything
The store at Queen Creek Olive Mill features at least 10 varieties of marinated and stuffed olives (ever had mesquite smoked almonds or wasabi ginger sake olives?), plain and infused oils (from blood orange to chocolate-flavored olive oil), olive spreads, artisan butter, cheese, and bread, cakes and cupcakes made with extra-virgin olive oil, flavored balsamic vinegars and vinaigrettes, and olive oil bath and beauty products (a must try if you’re as careful about what you put on your body as you are about what you put into it), and wines, most (roughly 80%) of the products they sell come from local (AZ) sources. The bottled olives come from California (that's more local than olives from Europe).

We sipped some of the chocolate olive oil, marveling at the smoothness and deep chocolatel flavor. I’m curious about using it in baking and in sauces. I’ll let you know when I try it and what I make with it. I’m thinking it would be good mixed with honey, maple syrup, unsweetened cocoa powder, and vanilla extract (click here for proportions from my recipe for Karly’s Carob & Cocoa Sauces from my Ice Dream Cookbook) to make a drizzle for fresh berries, sliced bananas, fruit salad, poached pears, ice cream, Ice Dream or other non-dairy frozen desserts, cake, or your favorite person.

Dining at Del Piero at the mill
The olive mill has a Tuscan-inspired café that uses local and organic products to make  appetizers, bruschettas, soups and salads, sandwiches, and desserts from del Piero family recipes. The herbs come from our organic garden, meats come from The Pork Shop (a local meat shop), and the oils, tapenades, and balsamic vinegars come from their mill. They offer gourmet meals to go and custom-made cakes (made with XV olive oil….and wheat; they don’t currently offer gluten-free baked goods), and gelato from two local companies: Udder Delights and Berto’s (note: some gelato flavors may contain gluten).

Gluten-free options at the olive mill?
Most menu items include bread (salads automatically come with a slice of it), if you're sensitive to gluten or have Celiac Disease AND you let them know, they can accommodate you. I called and quizzed someone from their kitchen to make sure! She said they are trained on how to avoid cross contamination; they will leave off the bread (and add extra lettuce or other veggies) by request, don a fresh pair of gloves; and use separate preparation surfaces and utensils. I asked if they've considered carrying gluten-free breads and crackers. She said they have discussed it but haven’t done it yet. If  you want that option, please call Queen Creek Olive Mill and request that they add this to their menu and shop.

I ordered the Sevi-del Piero’s Chicken Salad: Tequila lime roasted free range chicken with red onion, capers, cranberries, roasted pecans, celery, fresh garden herbs, and del Piero garlic aioli ($8.99) without the Ciabatta bread and potato chips, and a Seasonal Green Salad with White Balsamic Vinaigrette ($5.99). I was expecting more nuts, more cranberries, more aioli, and waaaay more chicken  than I got. Nothing out of the ordinary except that they charged us $8.99 for less than 2/3 of a cup of chicken salad on a single piece of lettuce (photo right!). They didn't bump up the portion of anything on the plate when they left off the bread and potato chips. Oh, well... I had room for dessert.

My friend ordered the Lucca sandwich ($8.99): Herb roasted turkey breast, brie, sliced apple, leafy greens, and Caramelized Red Onion & Fig Tapenade on a multi-grain ciabatta. He had them substitute a different cheese but that was the only change. His sandwich came with potato chips. The portion seemed satisfying to him. He also ordered iced tea and chocolate olive oil cupcakes (photo above) to go (Note: these and other baked goods at the mill are not gluten-free!).

My favorite dish: pumpkin gelato drizzled with fig balsamic vinegar. Mmmm! I’d heard of balsamic glaze over ice cream, but hadn’t tried it until now. My friend ordered raspberry-pomengranate and chocolate and gelato ($3.89 for a small but ample cup).

Although I appreciate the fact that they use a lot of local and organic products, I think they need to make changes in how they serve people who special order. My friend thought the food was good and the the price was high for the tiny portion of chicken salad I received. We liked the assortment of fresh olives on the plates, the tour and what we learned on it, and the outdoor dining. Still, we were glad that we stopped at the olive mill for a tour and lunch on our way to hike Usery Pass in the Superstition Mountains.

Queen Creek Olive Mill is located at 25062 S. Meridian Road in Queen Creek, AZ 85242. Phone: (480) 888-9290. You can visit their web site to learn more and sign up for their newsletter. If you can't get to the mill, you can buy the oil and olives and some of the farmers' markets around the valley, including the downtown Phoenix Public Market on Saturday mornings at 1st & McKinley.

I’d love to hear from you
Have you been to Queen Creek Olive Mill? What did you like and learn? Would you go back? Would you bring a friend, family member, or houseguest? Have you cooked with Queen Creek Olive Oil or tried the olive oil beauty care products they sell?

Photo credits: Rachel Albert © Copyright 2010).

A visit to Rooster Cogburn Ostrich Ranch

Are you looking for a fun day trip for kids and adults over the summer? If you live in Arizona or plan to visit the Southwest, check out Rooster Cogburn Ostrich Ranch, the nation’s largest ostrich ranch, located in Picacho, Arizona, off I-10 and exit 219, 75 miles East of Phoenix.

The Attractions
At the ranch you can see ostrich face-to-face.  You can feed them, learn about their habits and habitat, and try products they produce. Besides ostrich you can see, pet, and feed miniature deer, donkeys, and lorikeets, noisy and colorful members of the parrot family, and learn about them.

After you’re done feeding the animals, you can go on a 40 minute monster truck tour of the ranch to learn more about the land, plants that survive in the desert, the creatures that live here, and how the ostrich fit in. You can also go ostrich fishing, an experience you won't forget!

Get your tickets
My good friend Don and I purchased tickets for the monster truck tour. We each received a 32-ounce cup of green alfalfa pellets to feed the deer, ostrich, and donkeys, and a tiny custard cup of nectar for the lorikeets.

The deer
We proceeded to the deer pen where at least 100 small deer greeted us with open mouths and a noise that sounded like a cross between honking geese and braying donkeys. They stuck their cute little faces over and through the railing on the fence, ate what we offered, and licked our hands. We decided to save some food for the ostrich and donkey pens.

The ostrich
I wasn’t as attracted to feeding the ostrich, although I did briefly. We noticed the warning that they can bite. Don put his hand out flat and let then eat from it. I dropped pellets into a chute to let them feed themselves. We didn’t stay as long at their pen. (I actually preferred feeding them more later in the day when we went Ostrich fishing on the Big Truck Tour.)

The donkeys
The donkeys were our next stop. They were friendly, eager to eat, and be petted. You could feed them out of your flat hand or put the pellets in a chute for them. I grew up around horses so I wasn’t afraid of letting them eat out of my hands. Don did the same. We found them endearing and fed them the last of our alfalfa pellets.

In the Aviary we met the lorikeets (aka Brushed Tongued Parrots).  They flew onto our hands and shoulders and slurped the nectar we brought them. They literally licked the cups clean. We went back to get a second cup of feed and nectar so we could feed the deer, donkeys, and Lorikeets a second time.

Strange but true
We learned that these tiny birds each eat the equivalent of a 150 pound person.  There metabolism run 100 times faster than ours. Adult Lorikeets burn approximately 250,000 calories a day!

Lorikeets enjoy being hosed down with water like kids playing in the sprinklers. They screech and fly around excitedly and chirp constantly.  They require huge amounts of liquid and a special and expensive diet.  They make a mess and they don’t take well to confinement. So they make poor house pets.

 The Big Truck Tour
Next was the truck tour. We entered the truck on a ramp (see right) and listened attentively to our guide, the daughter of the couple who started the ranch. She told us things we never knew about the deserts, the plants, and the animals that liver here, and the history of Picacho Peak. We also had a chance to go fishing for ostrich, something you’ll learn more about if you go on the tour.

Here is a sampling of what I learned:
There’s more but I don’t want to give away everything.

*    Ostrich are prized for their feathers, their leather, and their meat.
*    Ostrich don’t have teeth.
*    One ostrich egg can way 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 pounds.
*    One ostrich egg = 24 chicken eggs.
*    In the wild an ostrich will lay as many as 20 eggs then sit on them to incubate.
*    If you take away an ostrich’s egg, she will lay another one to replace it.
*    If you keep taking away her eggs, she will lay an egg a day during her fertile season.
*    One ostrich can lay 60 to 80 or even 100 eggs a year.
*    Ostrich males and females take turns sitting on the eggs.
*    An ostrich has a brain the size of a walnut (a bird brain!)
*    Ostrich can run 35 to 40 miles an hour and for 30 to 40 minutes straight.
*    Australian Shepherd guard dogs protect the ostrich from Javalina at night
*    It will take 1½ to 2 hours to hard boil an ostrich egg.

I bought an ostrich eggs as a sounvenir. I’ll share more with you about how I cooked in another day.

To visit this family owned and operated ostrich ranch, buy ostrich meat, jerky, eggs, feather dusters, leather wallets, and more go to www.roostercogburn.com
You can also email them at <fun@roostercogburn.com>

To find out more about the annual ostrich festival, Google Chandler Ostrich Fest to learn when the festivities will begin.