From cheese to olive oil, Malta’s foodie scene is on the rise
“A sharp peppery flavour pricked the back of my throat as I reached again to mop a roughly cut slice of bread through a dish of wondrously pungent olive oil. The taste was so gloriously intense it plunged me into a coughing fit, but the golden liquid lured me back in because it was so happily unrecognisable to the supermarket variety I’d grown used to.
“Back home in England I’d be scraping frost off my car to trek to work but instead on my winter holiday to discover Malta’s burgeoning gastronomic scene, I found myself embraced by the sun in a rural olive grove,” wrote Anna Starnes on CambridgeshireLive.
Malta’s local food and wine were once unfairly overshadowed by its Mediterranean neighbours, but they are now undergoing a revival.
Immanuel Grima, whose family owns this olive grove nestled between Bidnija and Wardija, is one of the people on a mission to promote sustainable, local Maltese products.
Immanuel explained that about 10 to 15 years ago there was a resurgence in planting olive groves, although many growers used Italian olive varieties.
His family planted a grove of the Bidni olive instead, because it is a variety purely native to Malta.
Although the Bidni olive produces less olive oil because of its required early harvest, its unique spicy flavour and the fact that it is purely Maltese make it a valued product.
The Grima family have partnered with The Mediterranean Culinary Academy to sell their olive oil and to host ‘From Branch to Bottle’ events at the grove.