WEBVTT - Culinary Commodities 0:00:05.559 --> 0:00:08.879 Today, we're going to discuss two unique but ubiquitous fruits 0:00:08.880 --> 0:00:11.520 that have been part of staple diets around the world 0:00:11.560 --> 0:00:15.120 for a very long time. We're first going to discuss 0:00:15.240 --> 0:00:22.759 what might be considered the world's only seafaring fruit, and 0:00:22.840 --> 0:00:25.919 we're going to travel to India to learn about its 0:00:25.960 --> 0:00:30.440 nomadic origins and what it's growing global popularity means for 0:00:30.520 --> 0:00:34.840 local farmers in Southeast Asia. Next stop, we meet wet 0:00:34.840 --> 0:00:38.400 Stone co founder Melissa she in Spain, where she is 0:00:38.600 --> 0:00:43.000 reintroduced to another familiar fruit that is being harvested, green 0:00:43.080 --> 0:00:48.640 and unripe, and it is used to produce one of 0:00:48.680 --> 0:00:53.440 the world's most ancient natural cooking oils. As we follow 0:00:53.560 --> 0:00:56.880 these familiar culinary commodities on their journey from their place 0:00:56.920 --> 0:01:00.400 of origin to our kitchens and plates, we learned about 0:01:00.480 --> 0:01:03.959 honoring the origins and how markets, supply, and demand are 0:01:04.000 --> 0:01:08.319 shaping the futures of these crops today. On point of origin, 0:01:09.200 --> 0:01:11.760 join us as we dive deep into the world of 0:01:11.880 --> 0:01:16.760 culinary commodities. It's the Fruit Edition, and we're exploring some 0:01:16.840 --> 0:01:31.959 of the curious conundrums that they face today. But they 0:01:31.959 --> 0:01:34.759 can stay alive. The seeds stays alive while it floats, 0:01:34.800 --> 0:01:37.319 so it floats on the seas and it sprouts on 0:01:37.440 --> 0:01:42.120 whatever coasted lands, on tropical coasted lands on In southeastern India, 0:01:42.840 --> 0:01:48.280 organic farmer and permaculturalist Symritate Molly started noticing that farmers 0:01:48.280 --> 0:01:51.440 in her area, we're beginning to experiment with a new 0:01:51.480 --> 0:01:55.800 type of crop which historically wasn't grown in the area 0:01:56.240 --> 0:01:59.360 because it was at too high of an altitude. I'm 0:01:59.360 --> 0:02:02.480 in the mountain in the Palony Hills of South India, 0:02:02.640 --> 0:02:06.680 so it's quite high and I run out coop with 0:02:06.720 --> 0:02:10.040 the farmers, with the local farmers in my village and 0:02:10.440 --> 0:02:14.359 consim rates farming community. The effects of climate change over 0:02:14.400 --> 0:02:19.400 the past few years have been immediate and apparent. Basically, 0:02:19.760 --> 0:02:23.720 the mountains have been getting warmer and warmer, and so 0:02:23.840 --> 0:02:28.400 every year the coconut kind of climbs higher and higher, 0:02:28.480 --> 0:02:31.640 so the coconut can grow at a higher altitude. And 0:02:31.760 --> 0:02:35.160 the local farmers in my area were noticing this. And 0:02:35.440 --> 0:02:39.520 where it's colder now it's getting warmer, so it's easier 0:02:39.560 --> 0:02:43.359 for a coconut to grow there. Basically, coconuts are really 0:02:44.000 --> 0:02:48.320 hardy plants and they'll grow anywhere they have a temperature 0:02:48.320 --> 0:02:53.639 of higher than twenty two degrees celsius. So the farmers 0:02:53.639 --> 0:02:58.240 in my area were starting to experiment growing coconuts in 0:02:58.240 --> 0:03:03.000 our area, trying to predict the future and the fact 0:03:03.000 --> 0:03:05.560 that it's going to get warmer. So that's what made 0:03:05.600 --> 0:03:10.680 me interested in researching where coconuts were from and the 0:03:10.760 --> 0:03:21.360 kind of conditions they need to grow. So the origins 0:03:21.400 --> 0:03:25.760 of coconut are kind of murky, and there wasn't the 0:03:25.840 --> 0:03:30.119 any test that was done. It couldn't pinpoint any one origin. 0:03:30.880 --> 0:03:33.440 There were two strains that were found. One was from 0:03:33.480 --> 0:03:36.320 the Indian Ocean and the other was on the Pacific Ocean, 0:03:37.200 --> 0:03:42.200 so it was really divided across two oceans, which connects 0:03:42.200 --> 0:03:45.640 with the fact that the coconut is a seafaring fruit. 0:03:46.040 --> 0:03:48.520 I think it's one of the only ones in the world. 0:03:49.480 --> 0:03:53.480 So the coconut has been traveling on the oceans around 0:03:53.520 --> 0:03:59.680 the world for millennia before humans have been traveling. Definitely, 0:04:00.160 --> 0:04:04.560 and contrary to popular belief, it's we don't have colonizers 0:04:04.560 --> 0:04:08.880 to thank for the coconuts. But yeah, so I like 0:04:08.960 --> 0:04:12.160 to call it a seafood. That's interesting. So when you 0:04:12.200 --> 0:04:16.200 say that it's a seafaring fruit, you mean that coconuts 0:04:16.240 --> 0:04:20.920 without the help of humans, can propagate on the water. 0:04:21.200 --> 0:04:24.799 Is that right, Yeah, they have been propagating on on water. 0:04:24.920 --> 0:04:27.680 They can. They can stay alive. The seeds stays alive 0:04:27.720 --> 0:04:30.960 while it floats. It also floats, so it floats on 0:04:31.040 --> 0:04:35.320 the seas and it sprouts on whatever coasted lands on 0:04:35.400 --> 0:04:39.600 tropical coasted lands on Coconuts are so unique because of 0:04:39.640 --> 0:04:43.320 their seafaring nature. They can be found throughout the global South, 0:04:43.839 --> 0:04:48.680 having self propagated along shorelines over thousands of years, likely 0:04:48.839 --> 0:04:53.279 long before humans were even around. Today, they firmly planted 0:04:53.279 --> 0:04:57.000 into local and regional cuisines in South Asia, making coconuts 0:04:57.040 --> 0:05:00.520 foundational and a stable not only in diets as a 0:05:00.560 --> 0:05:05.440 way of life in coastal India, the Philippines and Indonesia 0:05:05.720 --> 0:05:09.200 the top producers of coconut in the world. The coconut 0:05:09.200 --> 0:05:12.440 plant provides more than just meat, milk, and oils for 0:05:12.520 --> 0:05:16.760 food and sustenance. So it's typically an island house would 0:05:16.800 --> 0:05:21.560 have around for coconut trees and you can build your 0:05:21.560 --> 0:05:27.440 house and make your clothes and have fuel, water, food, alcohol. 0:05:28.000 --> 0:05:31.520 Everything started for you with those trees. So it's known 0:05:31.560 --> 0:05:34.560 as the tree of life, and it's very easy to 0:05:34.600 --> 0:05:39.479 have a self sustainable lifestyle with these four coconuts, so 0:05:39.680 --> 0:05:43.520 it's worshiped. Basically, in the India, we use a coconut 0:05:43.600 --> 0:05:47.400 in all our rituals. The coconut is cracked before you 0:05:48.080 --> 0:05:52.280 start anything new, or get married or any of the 0:05:52.680 --> 0:05:59.800 like life's big moments. So it's a symbol of fertility, 0:06:00.600 --> 0:06:03.919 the womb. But it's also a symbol of your ego 0:06:04.360 --> 0:06:08.039 as all as your head. So it's like your sacrificing 0:06:08.080 --> 0:06:10.839 your ego. Every time you break a coconut, it signifies 0:06:10.880 --> 0:06:14.080 it or your your head or your ego. Basically, I 0:06:14.200 --> 0:06:17.480 sort of like that image. It's a pretty intense one. 0:06:17.560 --> 0:06:21.719 The idea of the coconut representing your head and then 0:06:22.000 --> 0:06:24.920 being machett id open to get to the flesh. That's 0:06:25.000 --> 0:06:28.320 sort of the ultimate sacrifice. I guess, yeah it is. 0:06:28.400 --> 0:06:31.640 It is so basically they used to sacrifice. I don't 0:06:31.640 --> 0:06:33.880 know if you want to say this day of but 0:06:33.920 --> 0:06:38.800 they used to sacrifice people and animals in the old days. 0:06:39.800 --> 0:06:43.800 But instead of instead of sacrificing them, they break a coconut. 0:06:43.839 --> 0:06:47.400 So the blood and the water coming out the fresh coconut, 0:06:47.480 --> 0:06:50.799 so it looks like the head. Wow, I will never 0:06:51.080 --> 0:06:57.599 eat another coconut without thinking about that. Um, that's that's 0:06:57.600 --> 0:07:00.599 pretty amazing. So I want to ask you again or 0:07:00.680 --> 0:07:05.000 go back to you know, the role of the coconuts. 0:07:05.400 --> 0:07:07.440 I guess, not really the role, but like the sudden 0:07:07.520 --> 0:07:13.240 demand over the last five years. As a consumer, it 0:07:13.360 --> 0:07:16.360 seems to me, if I had to guess, I would 0:07:16.440 --> 0:07:21.480 say that the trend of the health conscious types who 0:07:21.560 --> 0:07:27.080 are drinking coconut water on a daily basis, sometimes around 0:07:27.120 --> 0:07:31.080 the clock, is coconut water. What we have to blame 0:07:31.160 --> 0:07:35.400 for this sudden spike in demand? Yeah, I think so. 0:07:35.720 --> 0:07:38.440 I mean I was doing some research. I found that 0:07:38.520 --> 0:07:42.960 the top players in the globle coconut water market is Vita, Coco, 0:07:43.520 --> 0:07:48.560 Google Cola, and PepsiCo. So I mean they have huge 0:07:48.600 --> 0:07:55.840 marketing apartments and budgets, so they're shifting to something I 0:07:55.880 --> 0:08:01.040 guess that's more health conscious, but the whole system is 0:08:01.040 --> 0:08:04.880 still the same rate, So I don't know how healthy 0:08:04.960 --> 0:08:15.680 that actually is. We may have all noticed and prescribed 0:08:15.720 --> 0:08:18.560 to the boom and foods, oils and drinks, not to 0:08:18.640 --> 0:08:22.840 mention supplements that are derived from the coconut beyond just 0:08:22.960 --> 0:08:28.480 coconut water. Large corporate, multinational food producers are scrambling to 0:08:28.560 --> 0:08:32.400 keep pace with the rapidly growing demand and global taste 0:08:32.600 --> 0:08:36.920 for all things coconut. The problem has become because prices 0:08:37.240 --> 0:08:39.720 around the world have increased so much because of its 0:08:39.760 --> 0:08:43.920 it's like trendy now, so people wanna make money off it. 0:08:44.480 --> 0:08:49.280 Coconut is a very sensitive tree, and because of the 0:08:49.360 --> 0:08:52.200 mono cropping, and because of the fact that they're probably 0:08:52.400 --> 0:08:58.440 putting fertilizers and petrochemicals to help the coconut grow, the 0:08:58.559 --> 0:09:03.280 land of the soil is getting depleted and the productivity 0:09:03.320 --> 0:09:07.000 of the tree has become almost less than it was 0:09:07.080 --> 0:09:10.319 thirty years ago. So the major problem around the world 0:09:10.559 --> 0:09:14.880 is that the countries and plantations that have been supplying 0:09:14.920 --> 0:09:18.800 coconut around the world are now producing less and less 0:09:18.920 --> 0:09:21.960 of it, which is why the price of coconut oil 0:09:22.000 --> 0:09:26.079 is rising as it is an almost in the past 0:09:26.080 --> 0:09:32.760 five years wow. And so the cost of the coconut 0:09:32.840 --> 0:09:38.439 has gone up as the levels of production have decreased. 0:09:38.600 --> 0:09:41.679 Is that what you're saying, Yeah, yeah, the demand is 0:09:41.720 --> 0:09:45.439 way higher than the supply, which means that now those 0:09:45.480 --> 0:09:48.000 four coconuts that a family has on an island, they 0:09:48.040 --> 0:09:50.439 would rather sell it and get money and buy those 0:09:50.440 --> 0:09:55.160 clothes and fuel from somewhere else instead of using the 0:09:55.160 --> 0:09:59.360 coconut they have. I mean, I'm a bit of an extremist. 0:10:01.120 --> 0:10:04.840 There's no real solution to the food supply chain around 0:10:04.840 --> 0:10:09.480 the world, and I don't believe that it's wrong for 0:10:09.920 --> 0:10:13.239 Americans or anyone in the global not to use coconut, 0:10:13.440 --> 0:10:16.320 But I just think that just going local is just 0:10:17.120 --> 0:10:33.559 the easiest solution. So of course, now coconuts are not 0:10:33.840 --> 0:10:38.480 seafaring anymore. They don't propagate themselves, so they're not flowing 0:10:38.520 --> 0:10:42.720 on the sea and landing up on coursts and planting themselves. 0:10:43.120 --> 0:10:47.520 So they're being planted in huge monocrops, plantations in the 0:10:47.640 --> 0:10:51.760 areas where they are traditionally grown. So it's kind of 0:10:51.880 --> 0:10:56.040 getting to the place where palm oil is. We're moving 0:10:56.200 --> 0:11:00.760 a large rainforests are natural um landscape. It's to grow 0:11:00.880 --> 0:11:04.600 coconut because of how how much money they get you 0:11:04.880 --> 0:11:09.640 through exports. It's a twofold thing. So because of global warming, 0:11:09.679 --> 0:11:12.640 we can grow more coconuts and higher places, and not 0:11:12.800 --> 0:11:16.600 necessarily just by the coast, but also where they've already 0:11:16.640 --> 0:11:21.480 traditionally been growing. They aren't yielding as much coconut as 0:11:21.520 --> 0:11:24.160 they used to. Because of the way that they're being grown. 0:11:35.320 --> 0:11:38.440 We'll be right back with wet Stone co founder Melissa 0:11:38.559 --> 0:12:03.000 she him Hice. Even mal is my business partner and 0:12:03.120 --> 0:12:06.439 the co founder of wet Stone. She's in and Lucia, 0:12:06.480 --> 0:12:09.319 Spain to introduce us to the farmers and the community 0:12:09.400 --> 0:12:12.079 that have been growing the fruit bearing trees from our 0:12:12.080 --> 0:12:16.080 next story for many generations. How are these growers balancing 0:12:16.160 --> 0:12:22.360 innovating while also preserving tradition and honoring origin, especially in 0:12:22.360 --> 0:12:28.040 an industry that many think of it's just a commodity. 0:12:30.640 --> 0:12:33.640 Here in the sea of trees. We're standing on soil 0:12:33.720 --> 0:12:37.319 that is a deep brick red. It's crumbly clay like 0:12:38.040 --> 0:12:41.240 infused with the color of rust. And when you look up, 0:12:41.480 --> 0:12:45.000 all that meets I is this continuous canopy of leaves 0:12:45.000 --> 0:12:48.160 that are crowning these noveley branches and tree trunks of 0:12:48.679 --> 0:12:51.400 the olive tree. You don't have to look too closely 0:12:51.440 --> 0:12:55.199 to see that each canopy is dotted with the unripe 0:12:55.240 --> 0:12:58.079 greens and darker blacks of maturing fruit. And just to 0:12:58.120 --> 0:13:01.679 give you an example, like one tree, one olive tree 0:13:02.880 --> 0:13:06.280 is maybe a case of of of olive oil. Only 0:13:06.720 --> 0:13:11.920 one tree. It's just one case bottles. That's it nine ms. 0:13:12.920 --> 0:13:16.360 So it takes a lot of trees to make a 0:13:16.480 --> 0:13:19.360 lot of olive oil. One lot is usually around on 0:13:19.679 --> 0:13:24.240 twenty tho liters. Okay, so you need to be moving 0:13:24.320 --> 0:13:30.120 quickly unloading. They're ali's depending on the quality of the 0:13:30.160 --> 0:13:33.319 olive or the variety of the olive. Today, the morning 0:13:33.400 --> 0:13:36.520 sky is calm, bright and luminous, while at the same 0:13:36.559 --> 0:13:41.320 time being completely blanketed by airy and pillowy clouds. There's 0:13:41.320 --> 0:13:44.000 a skyhike cover that is so vast and high up 0:13:44.000 --> 0:13:47.040 in the atmosphere that makes the sprawling landscape we're standing 0:13:47.080 --> 0:13:50.000 in feel all at once both smaller and a little 0:13:50.000 --> 0:13:55.440 more comprehensible, but also grander and of an unimaginable scale. 0:13:57.559 --> 0:14:01.160 We're here amongst the olive groves of Hlio is STEPA 0:14:01.200 --> 0:14:04.840 with Kyle Davis, an expert manager and an expert in 0:14:04.920 --> 0:14:09.479 regional olive oil production. We're harvesting olives here in Andalusia, 0:14:10.080 --> 0:14:12.520 and we're meeting one of the five thousand farmers that 0:14:12.600 --> 0:14:15.840 Kyle works with. It's almost mid day, but it still 0:14:15.880 --> 0:14:18.319 feels like dawn is breaking and the day is not 0:14:18.440 --> 0:14:22.800 quite fully emotion But then stillness is abruptly broken by 0:14:22.840 --> 0:14:31.800 the sounds of an early harvest in full swing. So 0:14:31.840 --> 0:14:35.320 they'll grab the tree with the tractor on the with 0:14:35.560 --> 0:14:38.600 like kind of a fork on the bottom, and then 0:14:38.600 --> 0:14:43.560 they open up this batman upside down umbrella underneath the tree. 0:14:43.800 --> 0:14:47.360 They shake the tree with that fork. All of the 0:14:47.400 --> 0:14:51.120 olives fall into the umbrella and go right into a hopper. 0:14:52.600 --> 0:14:55.920 Once the oppera is full, the hopper dumps it into 0:14:55.960 --> 0:14:58.320 a trailer. Once the trailer full, the trailer goes to 0:14:58.360 --> 0:15:02.760 the mill. One farmer brings a trailer to the mill. 0:15:03.440 --> 0:15:07.400 He's going to first check in with a computer screen 0:15:08.320 --> 0:15:11.720 and he's gonna scan his ID badge. His ID badge 0:15:11.800 --> 0:15:13.600 is going to pull up a plot of his land, 0:15:14.160 --> 0:15:17.760 and he's gonna indicate on the computer exactly where he 0:15:17.840 --> 0:15:22.640 just harvested. Traceability starting to be not just the farmer, 0:15:23.040 --> 0:15:25.520 but the actual plot of land that he just harvested from. 0:15:25.560 --> 0:15:30.240 The day drop the alive the olives like we saw 0:15:30.360 --> 0:15:35.840 being collector's gonna happital piece of sticks. This ability to 0:15:35.880 --> 0:15:38.400 trace fruit back to the original plot of land it 0:15:38.440 --> 0:15:41.520 was harvested from is one of the factors that makes 0:15:41.560 --> 0:15:45.880 old a step as so unique. The farmers details on 0:15:45.960 --> 0:15:49.040 its harvest of the day are one of numerable inputs 0:15:49.080 --> 0:15:52.120 and bits of data that Old As Stepa's oils mills 0:15:52.600 --> 0:15:56.600 carefully monitor each step of the process, from when an 0:15:56.600 --> 0:15:59.200 olive arrives at the mill to the process of cold 0:15:59.240 --> 0:16:04.400 extraction of oil, to testing for different physical and chemical properties, 0:16:04.960 --> 0:16:08.840 storage and bottling, makes the process here perhaps one of 0:16:08.840 --> 0:16:14.600 the most advanced in the world. The olive groves at 0:16:14.600 --> 0:16:18.360 ol Stepa, like the one being harvested here today, have 0:16:18.480 --> 0:16:26.320 an ancient history dating back more than two millennia, but 0:16:26.440 --> 0:16:30.400 it is in more recent history. Over the last half century, 0:16:30.560 --> 0:16:34.479 the agriculture and the region has been revolutionized and technologized, 0:16:34.920 --> 0:16:38.280 allowing producers like ol Stepa to access the most up 0:16:38.320 --> 0:16:42.560 to date oil extraction machinery. At the heart of ole 0:16:42.800 --> 0:16:45.520 As Stepa's business lies an approach to all of farming 0:16:45.600 --> 0:16:48.160 that is very different from the models we see around 0:16:48.200 --> 0:16:51.760 the world. The cooperative model in Spain is pretty unique. 0:16:51.880 --> 0:16:53.720 I don't think that there's any other country in the 0:16:53.720 --> 0:16:57.920 world that's really has as many cooperatives as Spain and 0:16:58.280 --> 0:17:03.080 really has such a country that's so open to cooperation, 0:17:03.160 --> 0:17:05.760 not just on like an agricultural level, but on a 0:17:05.880 --> 0:17:08.200 on a citizen level. I mean there's I mean people 0:17:08.240 --> 0:17:11.480 here in Spain, I would say, you know, two thirds 0:17:11.480 --> 0:17:13.760 of the population at one time or another has been 0:17:13.760 --> 0:17:18.720 a volunteer or collaborates with NGO. Spain is a very 0:17:19.280 --> 0:17:22.680 is a society that likes to cooperate and and assets. 0:17:22.800 --> 0:17:25.720 They have a lot of cooperatives and that's very different 0:17:25.760 --> 0:17:29.760 than countries like Italy, for example, in terms of olive oil, 0:17:29.800 --> 0:17:32.600 and there's no there's no there's no real olive oil 0:17:32.640 --> 0:17:37.800 cooperatives in Italy. There's a lot of small farmers or 0:17:37.920 --> 0:17:41.000 medium sized farmers that own their own small mill. But 0:17:41.160 --> 0:17:44.919 the cool thing about having an olive oil cooperative is 0:17:44.920 --> 0:17:47.200 is that you join the efforts of a large amount 0:17:47.200 --> 0:17:51.200 of people who individually wouldn't be able to afford an 0:17:51.400 --> 0:17:54.159 olive mail and you all milt together and you're all 0:17:54.240 --> 0:17:55.760 kind of in the same boat, and you all kind 0:17:55.760 --> 0:17:58.399 of follow the same philosophy. And the cool thing with 0:17:58.440 --> 0:18:02.160 ely a stepans like our flow has been quality driven, 0:18:02.280 --> 0:18:06.560 and that's not necessarily the cooperative model. Across Spain. In 0:18:06.680 --> 0:18:09.639 terms of olive oil, we have kind of everything. We 0:18:09.680 --> 0:18:14.280 have small family farmers that might own only you know, 0:18:14.440 --> 0:18:17.240 maybe fifteen or twenty actors, and then we have larger 0:18:17.320 --> 0:18:22.080 farmers who have been we have inherited land over various 0:18:22.160 --> 0:18:27.560 generations and in our farming actors, so we have kind 0:18:27.560 --> 0:18:30.080 of have everything in between. But they're all in the 0:18:30.119 --> 0:18:33.639 same boat, you know, and they're all fighting for excellence. Okay. 0:18:33.680 --> 0:18:37.760 So we pay our farmers much more money for the 0:18:37.800 --> 0:18:40.760 per kilo of olive than any other cooperative in Spain, 0:18:40.920 --> 0:18:53.159 and that's undisputable. As Kyle explains, their concept is really simple. 0:18:53.880 --> 0:18:57.760 Olio a step overpaced farmers for early harvest oil, so 0:18:57.840 --> 0:19:01.280 that growers are incentivised to get olives off the tree 0:19:01.400 --> 0:19:04.240 and into the mill as quickly as possible. And why 0:19:04.320 --> 0:19:07.560 is it that more unripe and greener olives produce the 0:19:07.600 --> 0:19:11.640 higher quality oil. And the most important factor, I'd say 0:19:11.720 --> 0:19:15.600 there is the time of harvest. And so as the 0:19:15.600 --> 0:19:18.640 olive tree produces a flower and the flower gets pollinated 0:19:19.640 --> 0:19:25.000 and the olive sprouts on the branch, it starts off green, okay, 0:19:25.200 --> 0:19:27.680 and it it's green. And as it growing and it's green, 0:19:27.800 --> 0:19:31.960 and it makes it reaches its maximum size. And as 0:19:32.040 --> 0:19:34.960 it reaches its maximum size, and as it starts to 0:19:35.000 --> 0:19:39.480 mature more, it turns from green to purple to black, okay, 0:19:39.560 --> 0:19:44.000 and then it falls off the tree. The maximum fat 0:19:44.080 --> 0:19:47.080 content of the olive is going to be when it's 0:19:47.680 --> 0:19:52.040 almost ready to fall off the tree. But the amount 0:19:52.040 --> 0:19:54.480 of polyphenols, the amount of fruit that you're going to 0:19:54.600 --> 0:19:56.639 get out of that olive are going to be lower 0:19:56.680 --> 0:19:59.160 than if you were to harvest it earlier. And so 0:19:59.480 --> 0:20:02.639 that's what you see early harvest and earlier, you know, 0:20:02.680 --> 0:20:07.040 on bottles, etcetera. Harvesting early, you get less fat, you 0:20:07.040 --> 0:20:10.240 get less oil out of the olive, but the quality 0:20:10.359 --> 0:20:14.840 is a lot higher. So what exactly are these polyphenols 0:20:14.840 --> 0:20:18.480 that Kyle is talking about. They are the micro nutrients 0:20:18.520 --> 0:20:23.440 that give olive oils it's so called superpowers. Green olives especially, 0:20:23.440 --> 0:20:26.080 are rich and polyphenols that we can only get through 0:20:26.080 --> 0:20:30.080 certain plant based foods, and together with other dietary reducing 0:20:30.119 --> 0:20:33.360 agents such as vitamin C and vitamin E, are referred 0:20:33.359 --> 0:20:38.560 to as antioxidants. Higher polyphenols also increase the shelf life 0:20:38.560 --> 0:20:41.360 of olive oil, but are a key factor in contributing 0:20:41.359 --> 0:20:44.640 to the most defining and desired flavor factor of high 0:20:44.720 --> 0:20:56.280 quality olive oil. Bitterness, by the way, the one and 0:20:56.440 --> 0:21:02.520 only basic flavor in oil is bitterness. The rest is 0:21:02.640 --> 0:21:07.360 have to taste like all the aromas and tag tile sensations, 0:21:08.080 --> 0:21:12.439 like the stringency and dry our mouth and spiciness that 0:21:12.560 --> 0:21:14.480 we can feel anywhere in the mouth or maybe in 0:21:14.520 --> 0:21:18.600 the throat. Even this is Alfonso Fernandez something in a 0:21:19.000 --> 0:21:21.119 kind of joke. Away, I can say that I'm a 0:21:21.200 --> 0:21:25.440 priest of olive oil, so I I make believers. I 0:21:25.800 --> 0:21:28.000 want to tell too, for the people to know what 0:21:28.119 --> 0:21:31.959 is the truth about olive oil and everything that they 0:21:31.960 --> 0:21:34.640 can learn and enjoy and how to use and how 0:21:34.680 --> 0:21:39.080 good is for the health everything, because I hate national 0:21:39.160 --> 0:21:42.120 listm on on olive oil, even if I'm lucky enough 0:21:42.160 --> 0:21:45.040 to be they're talking about olive oil or from a 0:21:45.080 --> 0:21:48.200 spin all over the world. But I mean many of 0:21:48.240 --> 0:21:50.440 the love trees that we have, they have been with 0:21:50.560 --> 0:21:54.359 us longer than many borders that we have to We 0:21:54.440 --> 0:21:56.720 have folive trees with more than two thousand, three thousand 0:21:56.840 --> 0:22:09.760 years old. Alfonso has devoted himself to sharing knowledge and 0:22:09.840 --> 0:22:13.520 understanding of olive oil, it's history and its cultural heritage 0:22:13.520 --> 0:22:16.600 here in Spain and beyond the borders that define his country. 0:22:17.119 --> 0:22:20.280 He's what's called an oleologist, the name for an olive 0:22:20.280 --> 0:22:25.040 oil tasting expert. Importantly, Alfonso emphasizes that what makes olive 0:22:25.040 --> 0:22:28.240 oil really unique is not just that it's an ancient product, 0:22:28.760 --> 0:22:32.200 but that it's a completely all natural product. After all, 0:22:32.400 --> 0:22:38.120 Spanish aciet for oil is derived from Arabic azayet or 0:22:38.240 --> 0:22:41.720 olive juice. It's unlike many of our cooking oils today 0:22:41.760 --> 0:22:45.640 that go through different refining processes. But the main thing 0:22:45.680 --> 0:22:49.640 that nothing that everybody will understand quite easily. Extraorginally oil 0:22:50.000 --> 0:22:53.879 is real food. So he's the fatty juice of a fruit. 0:22:54.640 --> 0:22:58.800 So all the extracted by mechanical means, so the end 0:22:58.800 --> 0:23:02.000 it's like a juice, but releasing the water. I mean 0:23:02.000 --> 0:23:06.359 it has natural polyphonos that is a natural antioxidant. The 0:23:06.400 --> 0:23:08.840 people that they don't like the bitterness, the bitterness is 0:23:08.840 --> 0:23:12.720 one of the best antioxidants that we have. And these 0:23:12.760 --> 0:23:14.400 are the kind of things that the oly world will 0:23:14.440 --> 0:23:17.800 bring to us that not many other facts that is 0:23:18.080 --> 0:23:20.560 going to give us. His family has been farming in 0:23:20.600 --> 0:23:24.439 the northern region of Andalusia for generations. As you know, 0:23:24.600 --> 0:23:28.719 I'm I'm part of olive wall farmers family. My brothers 0:23:28.760 --> 0:23:31.360 are still around the family farming with olive trees. My 0:23:31.560 --> 0:23:35.200 uncle's my grandpa. He got retired with seventy two years 0:23:35.200 --> 0:23:38.000 old from the farming. So I've being devoted to this 0:23:38.080 --> 0:23:41.359 for a long long time since fift generations far Us 0:23:41.359 --> 0:23:43.440 I know and for me, olive all is a big, 0:23:43.480 --> 0:23:47.120 big passion. We have to we have to give them 0:23:47.320 --> 0:23:50.800 much more than we usually give because some people they 0:23:50.840 --> 0:23:53.600 consider this a commodity. And I think that they've been 0:23:53.640 --> 0:23:55.560 with us for so long time that we need to 0:23:55.560 --> 0:23:58.080 give respect. That is what they've given to us. The 0:23:58.119 --> 0:24:01.119 other world. Yes, it's in I. I come from my 0:24:01.440 --> 0:24:05.520 small village that is called Montea's almost in the center 0:24:05.800 --> 0:24:09.480 of Andalusia geographical center, and Aluthia is like if you're 0:24:09.480 --> 0:24:13.520 bend over Portugal, but to cross over Spain. And it's 0:24:13.600 --> 0:24:16.800 the largest production area in the world. When I say 0:24:16.800 --> 0:24:19.399 the largest, is the only my region or Spain, but 0:24:19.480 --> 0:24:22.439 I think that is the largest. The olive crops, the 0:24:22.520 --> 0:24:26.520 olive trees planted in Spain is the largest artificial olive 0:24:26.560 --> 0:24:30.280 grove olive forest in the world. That's my thought. Alfonso's 0:24:30.320 --> 0:24:34.320 family farm is located in Cordoba, the province of Andalusia, 0:24:34.600 --> 0:24:39.760 which along with neighboring province Jayenne, produces thirty of the 0:24:39.960 --> 0:24:44.240 entire world's production. That's a lot of olive trees. And 0:24:44.320 --> 0:24:47.200 Alusia is the most populous area in Spain and has 0:24:47.200 --> 0:24:51.120 a temperate climate with hot, dry summers and mild winters 0:24:51.200 --> 0:24:54.760 that has made it an agricultural haven for thousands of years. 0:24:55.800 --> 0:24:59.760 No one knows exactly where the olive tree originated, but 0:25:00.000 --> 0:25:03.800 has been naturalized to the Mediterranean basin, including here in 0:25:03.880 --> 0:25:08.920 Andy Lucia and across Spain, flourishing on uncultivated lands for millennia. 0:25:09.400 --> 0:25:13.919 Farmers over generations have bred and propagated plants for culinary uses, 0:25:14.240 --> 0:25:18.000 developing cultivars that flourish in their local to war, which 0:25:18.000 --> 0:25:20.560 has led to the thousands of different varietals and the 0:25:20.600 --> 0:25:25.080 world see today. In Spain alone, there are actually hundreds 0:25:25.080 --> 0:25:28.919 of types of olives. We have two farms. One is 0:25:28.960 --> 0:25:31.800 in here in Montalvande, Corlova, and the other one is 0:25:32.040 --> 0:25:35.439 very close to Cordova, to Cordova village. It is not 0:25:35.480 --> 0:25:38.479 a big surface. In total is about sixty actors more 0:25:38.520 --> 0:25:41.840 or less. And yes, and we treated with a lot 0:25:41.880 --> 0:25:46.080 of respect with pequala and Arbkina varieties, and pequala has 0:25:46.119 --> 0:25:48.960 been with us for centuries here and pequal is one 0:25:48.960 --> 0:25:51.360 of the varieties. We have been explained in Spain more 0:25:51.359 --> 0:25:54.359 than more than three hundred varieties all over the world 0:25:54.359 --> 0:25:58.000 more than one thousand, and each variety is like a 0:25:58.000 --> 0:26:02.040 different flavor profile and the friend behavior. It's like we're 0:26:02.040 --> 0:26:05.400 talking about wine, like different types of grapes. The flavors 0:26:05.400 --> 0:26:08.879 and characteristics of each olive as well as its appearance 0:26:09.080 --> 0:26:12.760 is completely unique. Alfonso walks us through how to taste 0:26:12.800 --> 0:26:21.240 olive oil and how you might process the flavors. Unlike wine, 0:26:21.840 --> 0:26:24.479 extra virgin olive oil is the only food product that 0:26:24.600 --> 0:26:28.199 has to undergo a tasting test, highly systemic and tightly 0:26:28.200 --> 0:26:31.959 controlled panel in order to be classified or named as 0:26:32.000 --> 0:26:35.360 extra virgin olive oil, which is part of what Alfonso does. 0:26:36.080 --> 0:26:38.600 Something that's important to mention about Alfonso is that he's 0:26:38.640 --> 0:26:42.520 not just an oleologist, He's also a wine teaster. In Spain. 0:26:42.800 --> 0:26:44.800 I have to tell you that I'm not only a 0:26:44.800 --> 0:26:48.920 olive oid taster, I am also wine taster. Um. I'm 0:26:48.960 --> 0:26:51.680 in a panel test of three determinations of origin here 0:26:51.680 --> 0:26:54.680 in Spain. I have a w c T three level 0:26:54.720 --> 0:26:58.040 three cores already passed, and so I know what is 0:26:58.080 --> 0:27:00.240 to taste wine and then now what is to is 0:27:00.320 --> 0:27:04.439 the olive oil. And it's not better or worst. I 0:27:04.440 --> 0:27:09.159 mean you have less steps on tasting olive oil, but 0:27:09.920 --> 0:27:12.120 you need to know how to taste the olive oil. 0:27:12.800 --> 0:27:16.400 And I want to make it very simple and and 0:27:16.680 --> 0:27:18.960 you can. You can think about tasting olive oil like 0:27:19.080 --> 0:27:22.480 dancing the bowls. You know that abowts is one to three, one, 0:27:22.520 --> 0:27:25.920 two threes every every time every time they sends steps, 0:27:26.280 --> 0:27:29.520 So tasting olivel is basically the same. So first step 0:27:29.920 --> 0:27:33.400 is the intensity of roma. We call that fruitness can 0:27:33.440 --> 0:27:38.399 be robust, medium or low. Then we have the second 0:27:38.440 --> 0:27:42.040 one that is what type of roma we are getting 0:27:42.160 --> 0:27:44.600 out of that olivel. And that is the main thing 0:27:45.400 --> 0:27:51.280 because it has to remind us always too alive things 0:27:51.280 --> 0:27:54.480