🚴♀️ Nash's, La Tourangelle, and Bariani in Marin
I spent the end of June in Marin, enjoying the bike paths, beaches, and, running trails. I'd like to highlight a rare find that I am immensely enjoying: Nash's Olive Oil.
Specifically, I went to the Sunday Marin Farmer's Market, which is the third largest in California. It is held at the Marin Civic Center near the fair grounds, and indeed it was huge. There were two known olive oil vendors, and I went to find them. I only found Nash, and verified the other vendor was not present that day. This indeed, is Nash.
From the website:
Many California olive oil companies blend their oil with flavorless, unstable, mass produced super-hybrids or with canola oil to be more profitable. We do not. Our oils are 100% pure and pressed from century old trees. You won't find a finer oil anywhere.
Nash was grumpy, and did not want to answer my questions. I tried to think back to the interaction and figure out if I did something to elicit his response, and I still do not see anything. When I asked him about his olive oils and favorites, he was frustrated with the question and told me he eats them all. I realized he drove several hours to get there, likely very early, and maybe I would be ornery too. Here are a few more shots from his booth.
And the olives too.
I also stepped backward at the booth at one point to take a picture, and did not see a woman behind me, and she equally walked into me. She was not happy. These two events combined gave me a feeling of sadness as I explored the rest of the market. I was able to leave to find quiet, and properly identify and process it. I decided that I had been kind, and most likely the interactions I had were not a direct result of something related to me. I bought one of each of his EVOO, and preemptively forgave Nash for being a human that day. I am really glad that I found him and was able to try his creations, because they are delicious.
Castilo de Canena
I spent a lot of time outdoors, and that meant exploring a lot of places and markets. I especially enjoyed a ~25 mile bike ride around China Camp, back down through San Rafael, and north again, and then returning for a 9 mile run to the beach the next day. I am not any kind of professional biker or runner, but I certainly pretend to be!
Produced by naturally infusing premium Arbequina extra virgin olive oil with smoke from three carefully selected hardwoods — oak, beech, and birch — the result is a hauntingly aromatic oil with warm, lingering undertones of caramel, vanilla, and toffee. The smoke is restrained and elegant, enhancing rather than overpowering the natural sweetness and almond character of the Arbequina.
I am on my fourth bottle of this olive oil. I love it. I will be frank - when I first tasted it, I found it confusing and strange. How was it possible? Was I eating some kind of "smoke flavor?" I read more about it, and practically, they cold-smoke the olive oil over low temperatures for six hours. The molecules in the cold smoke, specifically, guaiacol and syringol, are lipophilic and non-polar, which means they love fat. More specifically, they have a hydrophobic benzene ring that is compatible with the olive oils' fatty acid chains. The smoke molecules are soluble in lipids and naturally migrate out of the gas bubbles to become a part of the olive oil's liquid triglyceride matrix. It literally is the "stuff that tastes like smoke" infusing into the olive oil, and becoming a part of its already fruity flavors, which are ester compounds.
The other Castilo de Canena that I love is their Arbequina Amontillado, a Sherry Cask finished oil, which (as it sounds) is finished in Amontillado sherry casks. My mind was blown when I tried this, because it tastes like a sweet french vanilla. I suppose Sherry wine tastes like that, although I have never had it. The creation of the new EVOO was a collaboration with Bodegas Lustau and wine journalist Paz Ivison. From a press release:
Bodegas Lustau gave Castillo de Canena a 250-liter American oak barrel that was more than 100 years old containing an aged Amontillado that had never been bottled. The sherry was extracted from the cask, which was then filled with the Arbequina oil. Over time the oil infused with the aromas of the sherry. It was a complex task but well worth it.
This olive oil is harder to find, so I savor it more. One thing I like to do, either for oils I want to last longer or very peppery ones, is to mix them with a milder Arbequina. What I have learned is that Arbequina oils often serve as a mild base that is well-suited for other oils. I am also enjoying one bottle of their reserve, and one of their early harvest oils.
Another oil that I picked up on my trip, surprised to see it in a store, was García de la Cruz Organic EVOO in this lovely blue bottle, and with a blue accented light from the place where I stayed.
As far as I can tell, the only difference in description between this one and the one in the blue and yellow bottle is Organic versus not. Normally I cannot tell a difference with organic products, but I am wondering if it does make a difference with EVOO. I really liked the first one, and I absolutely love this one. My biggest complaint is that it does not pour out of the bottle fast enough for my liking! 😂
La Tourangelle
Finally, another oil I tried on my trip is La Tourangelle Smooth and Fruity (last tin in the lineup below). Delicious! It tastes like apples to me. Here is the full lineup that I have tried.
The smallest "Regenerative" was my first sampling for this producer, and it was by far (and still may be) the most peppery oil I have tasted. I loved it. I next ordered the California oil (second in the picture), and did not find it to my liking. It is really mild, and gives me an aftertaste of balloons. I am largely not consuming it. The third oil is a mix between the first and last. It is not quite as peppery as the Regenerative, but not quite as fruity as the last. I most definitely like it. Note that La Tourangelle is in Woodland, California, and I still have not visited yet.
Bariani and Olivie
I want to talk about a handful of olive oils that I have not immediately liked. It would be wrong to say that I strongly dislike any oil. I think the only ones I have not been able to consume have been the Olivie brand by Atlas. The entire marketing seemed scammy, but I tried the olive oil recommended by a friend from competitive running. To be fair, I really enjoyed the first 3 small bottles I purchased. The problem was that the next two I received were clearly rancid, to the point of me having a classic disgust response. They tasted sour, and really unpleasant. I emailed the company and first was gaslit with a formal response that essentially said "You are naive and wrong - olive oils taste different depending on the season." When a second bottle was rancid I wound up emailing them a second time really pushing for them to look into it, because likely it was some warehouse heat issue they were not aware of. It would make them lose customers. The responses this time were slightly improved, even offering to send me olive oil of their other types. I declined the offer because I had already tasted both, but suggested that we investigate the warehouse issue, and instead send an Olivie directly from their producer to taste test. If it did not have issue, it was likely a supply chain issue they should look into. They agreed and asked for my address. I was looking forward to this collaborative investigation, but the oil never arrived. It was just another means of customer appeasement I think. I was really disappointed in Atlas, as a company, despite really enjoying their Desert Miracle and traditional EVOOs. I can take my business elsewhere.
I picked up a few oils in Marin that were not rancid, and I definitely could eat them mixed with other oils. Here are two that I got at the Nugget Market.
I like the one on the left. However, the one on the right I found unpleasantly bitter. But here is the thing, I think the extra bitter is a result of a different polyphenol compound called oleuropein. Unlike Olecanthol, which hits anti-inflammatory pathways akin to Advil, this polyphenol is more of an antioxidant, and comparable to other bitter vegetables. The reason it is bitter, period, is to serve as a defense system for plants against pests and microbes. If you look at the paper I linked, this polyphenol has antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and cardioprotective properties. It can even trigger autophagy, which is how the body cleans up damaged cells. The reason this EVOO is bitter is not because there is something wrong about it, it is because the producer is processing very green and under-ripe olives. Mass-market brands often use more ripe, likely black olives that lose their bitterness entirely. It is a compromise between health properties and taste. I will likely consume it, but mixed with other oils to tone down the bitterness on my tongue.
All Together Now!
In summary, these are the bottles that I finished on my trip.
Marin Reflections
Reflecting on my trip, and the duality of the time spent alone on my bike or runs contrasted with interactions with strangers, I am thoughtful about control, and influence on and from others. When I feel a reaction to an interaction, it often is less about the interaction, and more about me. Our emotions are not states of truth or random, they are data. I have become very good at meta-cognition, which I define as being able to immediately identify when I have an emotional reaction, step outside myself, and understand it. It is having thoughts about your thoughts and behavior, and while it is happening. It is something that can be learned and practiced, I think, although I suspect most people go through the world experiencing and reacting to their emotions under awareness. I have gotten fairly skilled to the point that when I am suddenly hit with stress, I am aware of it, of the triggering factors, and am instructing myself in my head, both with actions to take, and logical statements that counteract the growing crisis. When I treat these emotions as data, this is how I see them.
Anger
When I feel anger, it is a sudden burst that shoots from the sides of my chest and flies up into my head. The feeling usually indicates a boundary was crossed. I have not encountered a time when getting defensive or argumentative has been productive, and in fact amygdala activation suppresses the prefrontal cortex, which is exactly what you need to resolve conflict. Anger is not my chosen negative emotion. Anger is usually not very useful, unless you need to physically intimidate someone to escape from a dangerous situation. As a regular "pulled out of the toolbox" response they can indicate a lack of emotional maturity. I define emotional maturity as being able to experience emotions and in parallel, choose an appropriate reaction. Feeling anger is not a bad or wrong thing, and in fact it should not be suppressed. The nuance is that instead of yelling at another person, an emotionally mature person quickly identifies the anger, that a boundary was crossed, and expresses their needs. For me, I usually need a few breaths and a pause to think. For larger things, I need to move. I will go outside and run, take a bike ride, or lift weights. The closest I can get to it these days is annoyance or frustration, and usually when I do not feel valued or listened to. When someone gets angry at me, I also realize they are entering a fight state, and there is not much I can do. Rational statements often do not work.
Anxiety
Anxiety used to be my negative emotion of choice. It was chronic, like a rope extending from my brain to my feet that was twisted to a breaking point. I did not understand what it meant to relax. The closest I got was when I retreated to my apartment to eat dinner in exhaustion. What I figured out over the years is that my anxiety was directly linked to control, and I had no strategies for handling it aside from avoidance. I would have a stressful interaction with someone, or a maladaptive belief or fear, ruminate about future outcomes, and avoid things. The false impression here is that if we ruminate, and if we rehearse, that somehow can better prepare us or control the future. It is mostly wrong. It is one thing to, for example, practice a talk or study for an exam. It is another thing to add a negative attribution bias to the mix and be constantly focused on preventing every tiny negative thing that might happen. I started to realize during the pandemic that my extreme avoidance was robbing me of just about every life experience. I decided to accept that nothing is in my control, and to reframe a "what if" thought into an "even if" one. The latter focuses on the fact that we are capable to deal with uncertainty. We can strive to do our best, and have confidence of being able to handle uncertainty. This strong sense of self and capability provides a baseline that is closer to peaceful.
A lot of my anxiety was linked to control and people pleasing. For the first, I experienced a little over a decade of adverse life events (that truly were out of my control) and then was committed to trying to prevent them. For the second, it comes down to interactions with people that are not predictable. Instead of choosing to not interact with the people, we might try to micro-manage our own behavior to keep them happy, and thus their responses predictable. Does that make sense? No, not really. When I recognized this pattern in myself, I decided to stop.
Other Emotions
I could think through more of these. For example, guilt is when actions do not match values. Envy is a feeling of inadequacy that really is the self identifying a desire for change or growth. Sadness is an inability to accept what has already happened or the current reality. I think it is important to remember that we do not have to mindlessly absorb others' maladaptive reactions. If a pattern is continuous and there is no indication of desire to grow, it is valid to step away. You are not responsible for managing someone else's emotions, or tolerating them if they cause distress.
We also might think of how we try to manage our own emotions. Trying to micro-manage everything under the guise of having control is a falsity. Building a cage around the self at best gives a false sense of security, and denies a lot of life experiences that will bring learning and growth. We are comforted by what is familiar. What is familiar is not often best for us. We learn and grow when we are exposed to new environments. New environments are not familiar. I certainly have stopped building cages around myself during these middle decades of my life, and I have no regrets.
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