This is an archived edition of our Field Report email newsletter. You can sign up at the bottom of the page!
Greetings from Fat Gold!
We’re excited to announce the publication of the Fat Gold Guide to Extra Virgin Olive Oil. It’s online, free for all to read, with something to offer everyone, whether you’re new to olive oil or you’ve been with us since the first tin.
How is an olive oil certified “extra virgin”?
Does “cold-pressed” even mean anything?
Should you be wary of olive oil’s smoke point?
What’s a “malaxer”??
All these questions and more—SO many more—are answered in the Guide:
In tandem with the Guide, we’ve published a small stockpile of recipes, with a focus on simple, everyday applications of olive oil. You can find that here:
About a year ago, reviewing all the zines we’d mailed to annual subscribers, we realized that, season by season, we had articulated a LOT of information about extra virgin olive oil: its definition, its production, its consumption. But, that information was scattered through the zines, not collected in one place… other than Kathryn’s brain, of course.
So, we began this project. First, we assembled all our existing writing; then, we finessed it into one cohesive document; then (of course) we got more ambitious, identifying the gaps, adding new content, trying our best to provide something novel and useful.
For example, the Guide offers a tour of a running olive mill, complete with video clips.
Today marks the launch of our Guide and recipe stockpile, but they are living documents, and we are committed to expanding them over time. Our ambition is to provide the world’s most useful English-language guide to extra virgin olive oil.
So, if you have questions the Guide doesn’t answer—or if any part of it doesn’t display properly on your computer or phone—please let us know. You can always reply directly to these Field Report emails.
Thanks for following along!
–Kathryn, Robin, and Bryan