Who doesn’t love olives

Based in Broke, Belarna Grove is a boutique producer of a gourmet range of olive oils, table olives, vinegars and balsamic dressings. Olives are one of the oldest cultivated crops in the world and olive oil has been used for millenia, but it is still a relatively new crop for the wider Hunter region.
Belarna Grove owner Mike Wilson decided early on to focus on processing rather than growing olives. “There are enough growers around already. So we decided it was far more sensible to work together, buy their olives and we all benefit,” he explains.

“We pick up the olives, we have them pressed for oil or pickled for table olives. We have our own recipes for blending and flavouring and handle the entire processing and packaging part.”
With a stellar 2021 harvest recently completed, Mike is busy churning out customer favourites like his chilli and garlic olive oil. “We created that one when a customer said they loved our chilli oil and our garlic oil and could they have both of them together?” It’s spicy, with just the right touch of garlic and perfect for rich, full flavoured pasta dishes, for casseroles or to marinate ribs for a family barbie.

Or try one of Mike’s balsamic dressings or his Caramelised Balsamic Vinegar. It’s rich, thick, sweet, and highly addictive. Use it in salads, marinades or (yes, seriously!) with strawberries. Another guaranteed crowd pleaser are his table olives. They come in a variety of different shapes, sizes and colours, marinated in a choice of native bush herbs.

Read more about our buyHUNTER.com.au vendor in the Spring issue of Hunter & Coastal Lifestyle Magazine or subscribe here.