Thursday 30 June 2011

Supporting the cause


Over the course of last year, we got through 4 litre tins of olive oil - extra virgin obviously - and, due to the fact that the tins were more than slightly aesthetically pleasing, I drilled several drainage holes in the bottom of the tins, two hanging holes in the back, and handed them over to M, who duly layered them with polystyrene, compost, earth, plants and more earth.

She then handed them back to me to hang on the more miserable sections of fence outside our kitchen window.

Of course, this year our work has been rewarded with pretty flowers both hanging and growing upwards from our pretty tins and has enhanced our view whilst standing at the sink, no end.

I will post a picture of them asap.

Yes, I know that olive oil is a fat and needs to be treated with respect - I respect it, I really do, I'm an extremely slender chap, honest injuns - but one must remember my wife is Lebanese. Picture a small round bowl of houmous, spread expertly around the edges of aforementioned bowl, some whole chickpeas in the middle, swimming in quality, extra virgin olive oil, begging to be dipped into with some warm khobbez (Lebanese flat bread), or even regular pitta.

Scrump-tious!

I like to think that the olive oil in our household is one of those products that needs to be a quality product, not just TomDickHarry oil, but good oil, tasty oil, a healthier oil.

Having said all that, even I appreciate that the oil pictured below is stronging it a bit on the affordability stakes. I picked up a bottle at a Fairtrade stall and enquired as to its' cost.

"The oil? Let me see .... hang on a minute ..." (the stall holder scans price list at this point and I, reading between the lines, thinks, hang on, looking up the price? Crumbs, she must not sell very much of it then!)

I was right.

"£8 and 60 pence, the oil".

R-i-i-ight.

Let me just have another quick look at the bottle to check the volume.

Yep, as I thought, it's just 500ml, so I make that seventeen pounds twenty a LITRE!!!!

Bloody hell!

M looked at me, already taking out her purse.

"You can't believe in a
cause and not be prepared to pay the price", she said, without a hint of malice, smiling as she paid the stall holder.







Ne'er a truer word spoken.

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