Stillebosch
OLYWE | OLIVES“The olive tree is surely the richest gift of heaven.” Thomas Jefferson
Carefully hand-picked, cured for months and bottled by hand
All our olives are produced on our farm – Anathoth – which is on the Bottelary road in the Stellenbosch Winelands. We only have 510 Kalamata trees and 70 Frantoio olive trees which are the ‘cross pollinators’ for the Kalamata trees. The trees were planted in spring of 2016 and borne its first harvest in April of 2020 – at only three years old, this was quite remarkable as Kalamata trees usually start bearing fruit only after 6 to 8 years. The quality of our soil, great attention to detail when planting the trees and care taken to our trees on an ongoing basis, were some of the reasons for this success.
We (carefully) hand pick our olives – ensuring they don’t bruise and become soft; sort them and only select the beautiful big Kalamata olives found in our bottles. We then cure them in saltwater for 8 to 12 months. A time-consuming process but well worthwhile. The last step of bottling them are also done by hand and is the final check to ensure when you open a Stillebosch bottle – you get the best quality Kalamata olives possible.
Delicious with lemon, feta or sun-dried tomatoes. Bake into bread, use as pizza toppings or in your favourite pasta dish!
