Rustic Puglia

08/02/2025

Wow!
Doesn’t our pool look amazing!

The Olive Farm is a fabulous mix of rustic old and luxe modern. The swimming pool is 4.5 x 11m with an extended shallow end to help keep little ones safe and to play games. It’s a salt water system which is much less drying on the skin and a more natural approach to keeping the water clean and hygienic.

The natural paving is made from local stone and there’s a lovely big gazebo with built in seating that’s wide enough to lie down for a snooze. Sunloungers and a shower are the finishing touches.

August is booked out now but we’ve still got plenty of availability so get in touch for your holiday in Puglia.

07/02/2025

I won't be at Stroud Farmers Market on 8 Feb due to unexpected scaffolding reducing the number of pitches available. Sorry for the late notice.

07/02/2025

Poo 💩🦙
My brilliant friend Lou moved from Oxford to the wilds of Shropshire where she made her dream come true of keeping alpacas. Their fluff is transformed into the softest socks and her daily poo pick makes the best ever fertiliser which I sell here.

You can buy dried 'beans' which can be added to the soil or compost and is a must to add the the hole you dig when planting something new. And developed with RHS Gold winner Todd Botanicals, the concentrated olive tree feed has been specially formulated to promote growth and balance.

Unlike say horse poo which needs a long time to mature before it can be used on plants, alpaca poo can be used immediately. And while you can often source horse manure for free, alpaca fertilisers are much less bulky, more lightweight as well as less stinky!

Overall, alpaca poo is a valuable and sustainable fertiliser that can significantly benefit plant growth and soil health. Its natural properties make it an excellent choice for gardeners looking for an eco-friendly and effective way to nourish their plants

06/02/2025

Polyphenol power! Have you wondered what polyphenols are and why they're good for you? Polyphenols are natural chemicals found in plants that act as powerful antioxidants. Extra virgin olive oil is healthy because it contains lots of polyphenols and they're also responsible for its unique taste and smell.

Many studies show that diets rich in polyphenols, especially when they include good quantities of extra virgin olive oil, are good for your health. For example, the PREDIMED study found that people eating a Mediterranean diet with extra virgin olive oil had a 30% lower risk of heart problems. Extra virgin olive oil's polyphenols help the heart by improving cholesterol levels, reducing inflammation and keeping blood vessels healthy.

Extra virgin olive oil also helps fight inflammation, which plays a role in diseases like heart disease, diabetes, and cancer. Polyphenols in extra virgin olive oil can reduce inflammation in the body. As antioxidants they also fight harmful substances called free radicals which can damage cells and lead to aging and disease. Having extra virgin olive oil regularly helps your body protect itself from this damage.

Research suggests extra virgin olive oil is good for the brain too, and may lower the risk of dementia. Scientists are still analysing exactly how it works but they think polyphenols help by protecting the brain.

Extra virgin olive oil may also help manage type 2 diabetes by improving how the body handles sugar. More research is needed to be sure, but it seems that the polyphenols in extra virgin olive oil are beneficial.

In short, the polyphenols in extra virgin olive oil provide many health benefits making it a great choice for a healthy diet and outcomes.

05/02/2025

I've got at extra slot at Stroud Farmers' Market on Saturday where there's always a special vibe. I always get there early because it's pretty much underway by 8am. People visit the market from all over and there's often a surge just after 11am when the train from London comes in. The stalls are an eclectic mix of food and craft with many award-winning traders.

It's definitely worth visiting, but don't expect this to be a Country Life Cotswold experience; Stroud is proud of its independent if not revolutionary heritage. It's great for people watching too. You might catch the cast of the magical nearby Giffords Circus creating a cacophony and off-duty celebs camouflaging themselves in the crowd.

My stall's in Cornhill Square where you'll also find regulars Stroud Smokehouse (insanely good hummus and baba ganoush), A Wild Garden (Ancient Roman-inspired recipes) and Cymbal Knits (the.best.socks.full.stop.) and a whole lot more.

I'll be there but I'm not sure my Rustic Puglia extra virgin olive oil will have arrived in time, but I'll have my tapenades, balms and other olivey things.

Stroud Farmers Market is every Saturday until 2pm and my regular slot is the 4th Saturday of the month.

04/02/2025

Let's go to Puglia! Message me for info.

The Olive Farm is our traditional trullo renovated as a two double bedroom home with two ensuite bathrooms. It’s situated in the countryside between Ceglie Messapica, Martina Franca and Cisternino – an area known as the Valle D’Itria.

Our 11 x 5m salt water swimming pool has a lovely shady gazebo with built in seating that’s wide enough to stretch out on, as well as sunloungers for catching the rays.

We’ve been hosting guests since 2009 with a ton of 5-star reviews on Airbnb. “Just arrived, it’s beautiful” is a message I was sent last summer, and that’s our aim for everyone’s experience.
If you’ve been enjoying our Rustic Puglia extra virgin olive oil these are the trees that produce the liquid gold that we’re so proud of.

If you need a larger space our friends Amanda and Duncan built Villa Moda after falling in love with Puglia on holiday. It’s a gorgeous holiday home with four bedrooms, three bathrooms and an amazing infinity pool with incredible views over the valley. It’s located between Ostuni, Cisternino and Ceglie Messapica and less than half an hour from the nearest beach.

Puglia has so much to enjoy with two coastlines to choose from, lots of pretty hilltop towns, ancient olive groves and Lecce – the Florence of the south. The cuisine is to die for – robust simple cooking that concentrates on flavour, and lots of interesting local wines.

03/02/2025

Following on from olive oil cappuccino the Olive Wellness Institute recently posted a recipe for healthy hot chocolate - made with olive oil of course.

Their suggestion is whisking in a teaspoon of extra virgin olive oil to a mug of hot milk along with a teaspoon of cacao and a teaspoon of maple syrup (or honey).

So next time you've got a sweet craving why not give it a go?

Let me know what you make of it.

02/02/2025

Carrot cake has traditionally been made with oil which I’ve carried over to pretty much all my baking and I’m so happy to report 100% success substituting olive oil for butter. The added bonus is you’ve got no arm-aching beating when mixing it with sugar – win win.

I help run a community café on the first Sunday of the month in our local park where volunteers make and bake refreshments which we sell for just £1 each to make it accessible and affordable. The idea is for people to come and chat with neighbours and eat proper homemade food, with the proceeds supporting three local community groups.

My contribution today is Claire Thomson aka 5oclockapron spiced apple cake from her Veggie Family Cookbook which has olive oil not butter in the recipe. And from Tradecraft’s Bake a Difference recipe book their Allotment Cake which uses vegetable oil so I switched in olive oil. I’ve also made Nigella’s Arabian Pancakes, and just a note that I never add sugar to pancake batter because they tend to be loaded with sugary topping when they’re being devoured so no need.

And just a note to say that I experimented making a white sauce with olive oil instead of butter and that was awesome too!

01/02/2025

A pre-diabetic customer recently asked me about the sugar content of our granola as she was impressed that it doesn't taste too sweet. It was a really interesting exercise and I thought I'd share the results.

I list the ingredients on the label and, although the contents are gluten free, the organic oats I use aren't labelled as gluten free so unfortunately it isn't suitable for coeliacs.

Here's the breakdown of a 500g pack:

175g organic oats (34.93%)
99g raw honey (19.8%)
64g extra virgin olive oil (12.81%)
58g almonds (11.64%)
44g organic sunflower seeds (8.73%)
44g pumpkin seeds (8.73%)
9g chia seeds (1.75%)
7g cardamom, ginger & cinnamon (1.61%)

So for a 45g serving it's 15.6g oats, 9g honey, 5.7g olive oil, 5.2g almonds, 4g sunflower seeds, 4g pumpkin seeds, 0.8g chia seeds, 0.7g spices.

So for a 45g serving it's 15.6g oats, 9g honey, 5.7g olive oil, 5.2g almonds, 4g sunflower seeds, 4g pumpkin seeds, 0.8g chia seeds, 0.7g spices.

Personally I feel very differently about honey and maple syrup which are natural sugars than I do about refined white sugar which I try to stay well clear of. In fact I'm thinking of making a gf/vegan version with certified gf oats and maple syrup.

I eat mine with organic kefir yogurt and fresh blueberries every morning and it keeps me full until lunchtime.

How do you eat yours?

31/01/2025

Hellens Manor is a wonderful Elizabethan manor house in the gloriously named village of Much Marcle in Herefordshire. Visitors can enjoy walking in the grounds year round and the house is open from April to December.

This Saturday is their Produce Market - held on the first Saturday of the month from 9:30 to 11:30 in their beautiful barn. A different charity is invited each month to promote their cause and benefit from the stallholders’ donations which we make in lieu of a fee.

Stock up on proper bread, meat from a nearby farm, local cheeses, free range eggs, kimchi and kombucha, handmade chocolates, Afghan pastries, British pies, Spanish charcuterie, as well as flowers, soap and botanics. And our amazing olive oil and other olivey things of course.

This month the Hellens is taking part in the Ledbury Food Group's Big Breakfast event where some of the stall holders will have a breakfast offer as well as their usual products. I’m doing scrummy bowls of our olive oil and almond granola with organic kefir yogurt and fresh blueberries for a healthy, delicious and gut friendly start to the day.

30/01/2025

I’m sometimes asked why we use clear glass for our olive oil instead of dark, or our iconic tins. I’ve looked high and low for a UK supplier of these tins without success, I guess because olive oil isn’t produced here. So I can only buy them when I drive to the farm and bring them back with me stuffed in my roof box and when they’re gone they’re gone until the next time I return in the car.

I choose clear glass over green because I love showcasing the beautiful colour of our olive oil, and the bottles are filled just before they’re sold so they aren’t sitting on shelves for weeks exposed to light. People usually keep it in a cupboard thereby protecting the oil from light, plus it’s so delicious that we hope it’ll be consumed long before light or heat exposure would have any chance of denigrating it.
Why not buy one of our unique olive oil jugs by Jules Avery Ceramics, that way you have a beautiful container that protects the oil and graces your table at the same time.

04/11/2024

🌳 IT’S HERE 🌳 This is the olive oil from the first day of our 2024 harvest. So exciting, I love the thick green colour and consistency of freshly pressed olive oil.

Order online or come to one of our events 💛

23/09/2024

17/09/2024

Olive Oil: Nature's Moisturiser
As well as being brilliant for your insides, olive oil is also a skincare powerhouse. Packed with antioxidants and healthy fats, olive oil nourishes, hydrates and protects skin in numerous ways.

✨Olive oil's emollient properties help to lock in moisture, leaving your skin soft and supple.
✨The antioxidants in olive oil can help soothe irritated skin, reduce inflammation and prevent redness.
✨Olive oil can help shield your skin from environmental stressors like pollution and UV rays.
✨Regular use of olive oil can help maintain skin elasticity and reduce the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles.

Pure organic extra virgin olive oil is the main ingredient of our brilliant balms and all our skincare range includes its potent plant powered properties.

16/09/2024

Olive Leaf Tea: Nature’s Elixir 🌿
Did you know that olive leaves can be brewed into a delicious and healthy tea? Packed with antioxidants and polyphenols, olive leaf tea is believed to support heart health, boost immunity, and even help regulate blood sugar. It’s a natural and refreshing way to enhance your daily routine 🍵

11/09/2024

Yum, this is ‘s recipe of the day today.

Baking with olive oil gives wonderful depth and flavour, and so much better for you than butter.

Head over to the Journal on our website for more recipe suggestions.

31/08/2024

Experience the magic of Puglia with us 🇮🇹

Stay in one of our holiday homes and discover this beautiful region, from its stunning scenery to its rich history and culture, not to mention the food.

Start planning your dream trip today.