Highlighting our amazing suppliers
When we first launched West Country Olives, we wanted to use as many local ingredients as we could in our flavour blends.
In our supplier spotlight we are highlighting Bell and Loxton, South Devon Chilli Farm, Feast Kitchen, Stone Tree Dairy and Stergioudis Olives.
As well as local producers from the South West, from the get go we wanted to eventually be working directly with an olive producer in Greece.
We couldn’t be happier to be working with Stergioudis Olives, it’s fantastic to have know and now have been to see exactly where our olives we are producing with come from and the care that is taken over harvesting and producing.
Bell & Loxton
When we first started talking about producing olives, Bell and Loxton rapeseed oil was the first local ingredient we knew we wanted to include in our olive blends.
Reasons why we wanted to use Rapeseed oil as opposed to other oil –
- Locally produced, Jonathan & Rachel are from South Devon and have been farming at Upton Barton for over 50 years!
Our ethos is to use as many local ingredients as we can and support local producers across the West Country, also reducing our carbon footprint.
- Health Benefits –
Rapeseed oil has lots of health benefits including
🌼 The lowest saturated fat content to other oils.
🌼 A source of Vitamin E.
It is a healthy home-grown alternative to olive oil and we love the taste and colour!
We use the original rapeseed oil in all of our olive blends.
I can’t not mention their amazing garlic and basil oils, as these are just something else! I have the original and garlic oil at home and use them daily.
The original oil is perfect for roast potatoes and the garlic oil for drizzling over home made garlic bread – especially in our ooni pizza oven.
All of their oils are available to purchase via our website and we also have these to sell at events that we attend.
South Devon Chilli Farm
Amrit & Jenny took over the South Devon Chilli Farm in 2022 and we were really excited to start working with them in 2024. Tim & I went for a visit to brainstorm and had a tour around their amazing chilli farm.
They didn’t have these Chilli Flakes ready quite yet, but they showed us some of the varieties they would be using and some that were currently being dried on site.
We had our first batch of The Big Red Chilli Flakes at the end of last year.
We are very lucky because there is a limited amount of this particular dried chilli flake mix, and we get to use it in our Garlic & Chilli and Hot Chilli olive blends!
These chilli flakes really do make these flavours special.
In the mix are – Guajillo, Pasilla, Anaheim & Big Jim. All carefully produced on their farm.
🌶️ Guajillo: Bringing a rich, smoky and sweet flavour.
🌶️ Pasilla: Ripened and dried Chilaca chilli which has a rich and tangy flavour.
🌶️ Anaheim: Classic NuMex variety has a sweet flavour and mild heat.
🌶️ Big Jim: Mild, gentle and sweet flavour.
The Garlic & Chilli olives are always a big hit when their out for sampling at events.
Haven’t tried our Garlic & Chilli olives??
You are missing out, the perfect amount of heat and garlic!
The Hot Chilli are pretty hot and come with abit of a warning, stuffed with a birds eye chilli flake, South Devon Farm chilli flakes and harissa paste they really do pack a punch.
We have also got some of their chilli products in our Flaming Hot Bundle, need a gift for a spice lover this is the perfect bundle for those spicy food lovers!
Feast Kitchen, Deli - Janey
The lovely Janey from the Feast Kitchen in South Devon produces our vegan and nut free basil pesto for us.
Janey is a chef of over 20 years.
Having worked in many different restaurants where she built her passion and experience, she then started to create healthy salad boxes with meat and seafood, which then turned into catering for events. Janey still does her feast boxes but her catering food always looks amazing and our olives (quite often the Basil Pesto) have become abit of a staple as part of her offerings. So, if you are in the South Devon/Devon area and looking for delicious, quality and fresh catering food look no further – contact Janey!
Janey produces batches of the basil pesto that is blended with our Halkidiki olives to create our South Devon Basil Pesto flavour.
This is one of our newest flavours to the range and is definitely up there with one of our most popular choices.
Having now won Taste of the West Gold in 2023 (when we first launched the flavour) and silver in 2024 Food Drink Devon awards.
Always a sell out flavour when we have this one out for sampling at events!
We are so lucky that Janey created the most delicious, moreish and fresh vegan and nut free pesto recipe for us which is exclusive to us which makes it even more special.
Stone Tree Dairy
We were asked by a Customer earlier this year about feta olives, so we got researching and this is when I found the lovely Helen & Martin and their goat farm!
Stone Tree Dairy produce award winning goats cheese on their farm near Dartmouth, from their grass-fed goats.
Wanting to try and keep as many of our ingredients local, their goat feta felt like a perfect fit! We received some samples and were sold on the first taste.
Named ‘salty’ this goat style feta cheese is creamy and delicate and it pairs perfectly with stuffed feta olives and oregano.
Our award winning ‘Devon Feta Fusion’ olives are available in 1kg catering bags.
We have this Summer being making some grab ‘n’ go pots when we are trading at food festivals as a special edition flavour and they have gone down very well!
We can’t not mention that we won ‘Gold’ for our Devon Feta Fusion olives at the Food Drink Devon awards at the beginning of October! 🏆
And Stone Tree Dairy were awarded ‘Britains Best New Cheese’ for their Alpine style Redlap! 🏆
Huge Congratulations to these lovely people.
Stergioudis Olives
Our not quite so local supplier but the one that supplies us with the very best authentic Greek, Halkidiki, olives.
Stergioudis Olives are based in Ormylia, Halkidiki, Greece.
Owned and run by two brothers Giannis and Dimitris who we had the pleasure of meeting in September last year when we went and visited them to see the harvest and where the olive magic happens!
They contacted us nearly two years ago now as like us a family run business they saw our passion and liked what we are about and at that point didn’t have any UK customers (not anymore, exclusive to us!)
We received some samples direct from Greece so we could try their Pitted Green Mammoth, olives and we weren’t disappointed.
We have now received three consignments direct from them and the feedback is always amazing on the size and taste of their olives.
Can you believe that the olives journey from Greece to the UK takes less time than when they arrive in the UK to get to us in Exeter!!
We couldn’t be happier with this partnership and we really do hope that it is a relationship that continues for many years to come. Hopefully with another trip to Greece or two!
Their olives are used in alot of our flavour range, including Classic Blend, Green Pitted, Lemon & Tarragon, Rosemary & Garlic, Basil Pesto and Garlic & Chilli.
We have got a new flavour we are currently working on, we just need to tweak and get the flavour combination right, I am very excited for this flavour which potentially will incorporate three local ingredients!
If you have any flavour ideas/requests or know a local producer you think we could work with please do get in touch.