Buffet Olives, together with House & Leisure, treated a reader and 10 friends to a delicious olive-inspired dinner!

Congratulations to Eben van der Merwe and his 10 lucky friends, for winning a four-course dinner, held at décor showroom La Basse-Cour in Johannesburg recently.

Eben and co enjoyed mouthwatering Mediterranean dishes, such as Spaghetti Puttanesca and Chicken Cacciatore, using only the finest olives from Buffet Olives – and prepared by Il Giardino Degli Ulivi. Hartenberg Estate Wines complemented the olive-inspired meal perfectly.

Hertz’s Chauffeur Drive service collected the guests and returned them safely after
their meal.

‘The wine, food, olives, ambience, company and hosts were all excellent,’ says Eben’s wife, Corlia.

The 2009 harvest is finally complete and the Buffet team is celebrating. Our 300 pickers have worked tirelessly to get the crop picked and sorted. Although this year’s harvest was later than usual due to tough weather conditions we produced our second biggest crop ever. The picking process is a simple one... the olives are selectively hand picked off the trees according to colour and size. Pickers place the olives in baskets worn around their necks. The olives are decanted into crates, and delivered to the factory for further sorting and washing so that the curing process can begin. Given that our factory is located on the farm our olives are in fermentation tanks within eighteen hours of picking. From tree to shelf olives undergo four selection processes to ensure that the correct quality reaches the consumer. 

Our main cultivars are Kalamata, Mission, Barouni(Queens) and Manzanilla(Green) with the best of the crop finding its way onto supermarket shelves all over South Africa. Olives not suitable for our Buffet Range of products are processed into oil by various award winning olive oil producers.

Planning for the 2010 harvest now begins in earnest. We are reviewing this year’s harvest so we can ensure that we are improving our crop quality year after year. The trees need to be fertilised and the irrigation system must be serviced and ready for the hot summer months ahead. We hope you enjoy our 2009 harvest.