We got up early, got ready, read the Bible & devotional, and prayed together and walked over to the Cantina for doughnuts & coffee to welcome newbies and recognize birthdays and anniversaries. About 30 of us were also gathering to tag along to the Queen Creek Olive Mill... a trip Don has been looking forward to for weeks. He cooks a lot with EVOO and there are a lot of mentions about olives, olive branches, olive groves, etc. in the Bible so never having seen an olive tree, we were looking forward to this outing. 
We loaded up in The Clydesdale and away we went. Along the way, we saw this traveler stopped on the side of the road. He gave a whole new meaning to "everything but the kitchen sink" as you see, there right on top was everything and kitchen sink. It's upside down and black on the underside so it's hard to see, but trust me, we all saw it and had a good laugh. 
Without taking more than one wrong turn and less than an hour on the road, we made it to the mill. A simple metal building with a store, processing room and cafe.
First stop. LaNae, I took these pictures for you. It was nothing fancy, as you can see, but made a clean statement of simplicity. It just dawned on me that I did not look inside the cabinet. Umm. I must be slipping. Is anyone laughing yet? 
Gathering to hear the olive oil story. 
Activities committee member, Robin, and acting tour coordinator in the absence of Bruce & DeAnn. We are also sharing a bottle of Bloody Orange Olive Oil with her. Thanks, Robin.
Our tour guide, Kari, gave us a very educational lecture about the olive industry.
Snookie did such an awesome job describing the olive products process. (link in the menu on the right). Here's an exerpt from her post: "We learned that oil can have a fruity, peppery, grassy or buttery taste. We also learned that there are six grades of olive oil. Kari, our guide, pointed out that light virgin olive oil is next to last on the list of oils that you want to buy. She went on further to say that a lot of people buy the "light" olive oil thinking it is less in calories or has a lighter taste. This is not the case,,,,its mostly chemicals. She strongly recommended to us that if we have this in our cupboard to throw it out.Black olives. I thought they grew that way. Also not the case. Black olives are nothing more than bruised, mildewed or in some way less than perfect green olives that are infused with pure oxygen to give it the black color. This way the distributors can sell them and the consumer thinks they are eating something natural and good."
I didn't take very many pictures on the inside, but this one was taken in the processing room.
Here it is, an olive tree. Kari said the owner planted these trees three years ago and still no olives. I just know Don was thinking, "that'll preach." The owner rescued about 30 of these trees from someone who had left them in boxes for a long time and she said they were "angry" and wanted to know if any of us were tree huggers. The olives are harvested by hand every year on November 17 with a rake type tool that simply combs the olives off onto a mat under the tree. When the olives are on the trees these long branches hang down like a willow tree and the harvesters easily comb them off without harming them. 
An olive branch, close up. 
Lenny & Ginny Dexter enjoy the on site cuisine. 
Tour guide, Kari, made us drool with her description of The Pork Shop pork chops marinaded in Queen Creek Olive Mill EVOO, so we beat a hot trail down the road to the The Pork Shop (couldn't find a website to link, but someone before blogged nicely), after purchasing some fresh QCOM EVOO. The aroma when we opened the Pork Shop door was just devine. We made a few purchases that we had to stop and get ice to pack them in for our trip home. I also got a pulled pork green chilies burrito for lunch. Yummmmmm. 
Back in The Clydesdale, we head toward The Mesa Market Place Swap Meet. Now here's a serious flea market and the way I like it... all under roof. It consists of four really, really long buildings, complete with food courts and live music. Cool. If you don't find it here, you don't need it. We made it through two buildings and my dogs were barking and Don's back was hollerin'.
DN Tammy, our next stop made me think of you. A Starbucks and a Trader Joe's side by side. 
Inside Trader Joe's were these two precious little girls helping their mommy shop. I couldn't resist. Yes, I take my camera everywhere I go. See, I would have missed this picture without it. btw... after gushing over these little beauties, I said to the mom, "can you tell I miss my grandkids? She also had a big-eyed toddler in her cart. 
Trader Joe's is now one of my favorites. Around 4:00 p.m., we found ourselves at another favorite, Pei-Wei's in Gilbert. Lettuce wraps and edamame here I come. 
And some things never change. Where's my Tide stick? Or the giant bib Don wanted to buy me at the Mesa Market. 
Back in the Clydesdale and homeward bound. 
Back seat buddies... or backseat GPS's. Who, us? Well, maybe Nancy.
4 comments:
Thanks for the link!
Oh yes! Now you're hooked on TJs! It's so convenient how Starbuck's is usually quite close by as well. I would've loved the Olive Mill--I'm a huge EVOO fan.
Do you really drive that truck when you go sightseeing?! Wowsers!
Arghh! Sorry about the post, then the deleted post, then yet another post! I only wrote one post, but it posted twice. . . so I deleted it not knowing it would say, "author deleted this post". So then I thought you would be confused and wonder what in the world I had put in the second post that I would've been deleting. . . . SO, here's the explanation!
have a good one!
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