Introduction
Here at West Country Olives, we produce a vast range of different types of olives, from black olives to green olives, Greek olives to Spanish olives, and everything in between. Of course, our olive varieties are not grown in this country but are in fact grown in areas across the Mediterranean. Once ripened they go through the olive harvest process before being brought to us here in Devon for production. It is here that we add our own unique blends of ingredients, these vary for each individual type of olive. We bring the salt levels of the olives down, using a process called ‘desalination’, we then add a range of local ingredients from across the Southwest of England, one of these ingredients is Bell & Loxton’s cold pressed rapeseed oil. This is the only ingredient that we consistently use in all our different olive varieties, and we love it!
Who Are Bell & Loxton?
Bell & Loxton, are a family run, local cold pressed rapeseed oil farm based in South Devon, they have been farming the Upton Barton farm for the past 50 years. The Farm is run by Jonathan, his wife Rachel and his parents, Geoff and Cherry.
Jonathan, who grew up on the farm, has a degree in agriculture and has worked in the farming industry for over 30 years, he has combined his passion for good quality natural products with his years of experience and care for the environment to help grow the farm into a more sustainable operation. The sustainable and environmental ethos that this company possesses, literally oozes out of everything they do, from the packaging to the product itself, but more on that later.
Rachel, like Jonathan is from a farming background and is passionate about healthy eating and looking after the countryside. But Rachel also has other talents in marketing that are put to good use keeping the farm running behind the scenes. Her background is in marketing and these skills are often on display at tradeshows whilst Jonathan is working on the farm getting the day-to-day jobs done.
6 Reasons Why Bell & Loxton Cold Pressed Rapeseed Oil Trumps Olive Oil!
Wow, what a controversial statement to open with! We know olive oil is loved around the world and don’t get me wrong, we think it’s pretty great too, we just think Bell & Loxton’s Rapeseed Oil is better. This isn’t just because we prefer the taste, it also has a lot of health benefits and practical benefits when it comes to everyday use.
We have included 7 of the main benefits below.
- The lowest saturated fat content of any culinary oil with 54% less than sunflower oil.
- Ten times more omega 3 than olive oil – with 9.6% by weight compared to only 0.1% for sunflower oil and 0.7% for olive oil.
- A good source of Vitamin E
- No artificial preservatives or colours.
- Trans-fat and GM free.
- Cold Pressed Rapeseed Oil can get much hotter than olive oil before it begins to burn so is perfect for roasting, grilling and frying.
If that wasn’t enough reasons to want to use Bell & Loxton’s Cold Pressed Rapeseed Oil over Olive oil, then how about the fact it is grown locally, in this country and therefore you are supporting local producers as well as buying a product with far less food miles on the clock.
Recyclability
As mentioned previously, Bell & Loxton like to keep things as sustainable and environmentally friendly as they can, that is one of the reasons they use the Aluminium bottles as apposed to plastic or glass. Aluminium wins hands down when it comes to recycling as it uses far less energy to break it down. This is incredibly important to us and is one of the reasons we love working with these guys, the ethos is just bang on.
The aluminium bottles don’t just have benefits when it comes to recycling however, they also improve the quality of the oil itself as they protect it from sunlight which would otherwise naturally break down the cold pressed rapeseed oil. This makes it last longer and taste just as good as the day it was bottled. Lastly, they won’t fall and break and they just look good, don’t they, they really do bring some style to your kitchen worktops.
Why We Choose Bell & Loxton Cold Pressed Rapeseed Oil
As you may or may not know, the health benefits of olives are numerous and we don’t want to spoil our lovely healthy olives by adding overprocessed olive oil to the equation. Secondly, we like to keep things local as much as we can and we love the fact that our rapeseed oil hasn’t got far to go before it reaches us. Of course, we cannot grow olives in this country very easily at all so we have to import from overseas, this is unavoidable but it makes the location of our other ingredients even more important. Last but not least, we simply prefer the taste of Bell & Loxton’s oil and think it compliments all our different types of olives exceptionally well. It is solely our most important ingredient other than the olives themselves and it is one of the key reasons we are able to produce what we feel are the best olives in oil that money can buy.
Thank you for reading,
William Price
West Country Olives
