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Daily Maverick
12-05-2025
- Daily Maverick
Lekker Brekker Monday: Olive oil-poached eggs with lavender and garlic
A bounty of high-quality extra virgin olive oil has come my way, thanks to a round-figure birthday and the generosity of friends. It has me seeking to use it in ways that honour the best this product can be. So why not breakfast… One of the advantages of being known to be a 'foodie', though that's not a term I'm very fond of, is that people tend to know what you do for a living. And when they're thinking, 'What shall we get Tones for his birthday?', their thoughts immediately go to food. Let me be clear: I cannot afford most of the fancy olive oils that I'd prefer to use, so I, like most of you out there, tend to buy (relatively) cheap. Yes, of course there's no such thing as cheap olive oil, but you know what I mean. As if the four bottles of fine extra virgin olive oil that arrived on my birthday were not enough, I was also sent product by Tokara in Stellenbosch (and their exquisite aged balsamic vinegar), and award-winning versions by no less than De Rustica. De Rustica is near De Rust, which is 35km from Oudshoorn just before the road carries you through Meiringspoort towards Klaarstroom and Prince Albert, unless you turn right towards Willowmore and on to Abeerdeen, Graaff-Reinet and ultimately Cradock. That's our route home when going via Route 62. When I chatted by phone to Rob Still, who owns De Rustica, last week, he told me he was sending me some of his olive oil. Their De Rustica Estate Collection Coratina had just been placed second overall in the annual Evooleum competition, the only estate outside of Italy and Spain to be ushered into the top 10. That was the 2024 edition of Coratina. He sent me the 2025 edition which he says he believes is even better. Now, I don't know if he'd be pleased or horrified that I have poached eggs in it. But if I just poured some over a salad it would seem like a missed opportunity to do something a little more profound with it, given its pedigree. Or just drink it… And I did have a taste of it, pure and raw. The tasting notes on De Rustica's website say you're looking for green almond, artichoke and 'peppery spice' when tasting. With this in mind, I'm planning a pasta dish this week using another birthday gift: a jar of artichokes with peppers, garlic and herbs. I'll know more about that recipe once I've thought it through, so watch this space. The eggs will not look anything like water-poached eggs, more like fried eggs in appearance. I fried some slices of tomato to go alongside the eggs. Tony's olive oil-poached eggs with fried tomato on the side (Serves 2) Ingredients 4 eggs ½ a cup of the best extra virgin olive oil that suits your budget (or enough to almost cover the eggs, leaving the yolks exposed) 2 lavender sprigs 2 garlic cloves, peeled and slightly crushed Salt to taste 1 medium tomato Butter for frying the tomato Method While the eggs are poaching, slice a tomato and fry the slices lightly in a little butter. If you're serving anything else with these oil-poached eggs – bacon, toast, whatever – get those ready before or while you poach the eggs. This recipe concerns only the poached eggs. Pick two lavender sprigs and peel two garlic cloves. Press the cloves down with the flat side of a knife, but not too hard; just enough for the juices to be released. Pour the olive oil into a nonstick pan (preferably a medium-sized one, not overly large) and add the garlic cloves and lavender sprigs. Put the heat on medium and let the olive oil heat up. It should not be very hot. There will be a gentle bubbling in the pan, around the eggs, but if it is brisk, turn the heat down. Leave the eggs undisturbed until the whites are set. Spoon some oil over the yolks, just to set the film of albumen above the yellow. Lift the eggs onto plates, salt lightly, add the tomato slices, and garnish with lavender sprigs. DM Tony Jackman is twice winner of the Galliova Food Writer of the year award, in 2021 and 2023
Daily Maverick
30-04-2025
- Business
- Daily Maverick
Klein Karoo olive estate wins big globally — again
The modest ambitions of De Rustica Olive Estate in the Klein Karoo have been massively outweighed by the success of their ultra premium quality olive oil. And it's a big deal for the SA olive industry. De Rustica Olive Estate near De Rust, Western Cape, is extracting every drop out of its success on the world stage. Now De Rustica has won a top-tier global olive oil award only two years after taking first place in the premier industry international competition, Evooleum. Now the De Rustica Collection Coratina extra virgin olive oil, assessed in a blind tasting, has been awarded second place overall at Evooleum 2025 with a score of 96 points, and it was again the only olive oil outside of Spain and Italy to be placed in the Top 10. The scale of this success should be seen in context of the Rustica entry having been one of about 1,000 entries from 26 countries. Only four estates worldwide — De Rustica, two from Spain and one from Italy — have achieved multiple top 10 rankings in the last three years. De Rustica was chosen as the 'Evooleum Absolute Best' olive oil in the 2023 Evooleum international competition. (Their Coratina was not entered in 2024.) This latest success is further evidence that SAOlive, which represents the common interests of its members in the industry, punches well above its weight globally in terms of premium quality olive oil, and assists in lobbying for support to further develop the industry in South Africa. South Africa produces 1.6 million kilogrammes of olive oil a year. The scale of global production is 3,000-million tons per annum, 'So South Africa is about half of 1,000th of a percent of global,' Rob Still says. 'Yet here we are winning TOP global awards.' Still worked in the mining industry until he bought De Rustica in 2006, first selling olive oil in 2012. He explains the concept succinctly. 'We wanted to make good olive oil but were pioneers in the area and really had dreams not much more than making the farm work. What has happened is beyond our wildest dreams, but… as we gain self-confidence we are perhaps expanding our dreams.' Some 'WTF!' in Spanish and Italian olive oil circles Asked whether industry people elsewhere in the world now regard South Africa as an olive oil producer of note, Still replied: 'Not really, as we are simply too small. However, these past two awards to De Rustica have generated considerable curiosity and some 'WTF!' in Spanish and Italian circles. 'I suspect that this second award will increase this interest. In my recent travels around Italy I was amazed to be told by several Italians (on realising that I was South African) that a South African farm had just won top honours.' And they were talking to the man himself. 'So there is some awareness of South Africa and De Rustica among industry participants and olive oil lovers but… we remain VERY small.' What this second award does do is confirm De Rustica's place at the 'global top table', Still adds. 'Winning once was surreal but may have been an outlier or fluke. Winning twice in three years — second out of 1,000 entries scored and rated blind by top experts — shows that is no longer chance. It also, I think, really underscores the immense value of De Rustica's sustainable and regenerative practices to nurturing quality.' Success, as is almost always the case, did not come overnight. 'The journey of developing De Rustica has taken 19 years and has been hard,' he says. 'This recognition that De Rustica now really is the real thing in global extra virgin oils is enormously validating and energising and it fills me with the determination and vigour to take the estate to new highs.' And Rob Still's once modest sights have now been set much higher: 'We can now realistically aim to remain consistently in the top five globally,' says the man who once only wanted to 'make the farm work'. DM
