When Virgin is (Extra) Good For You

"I have a big thing about people trusting what is in the food they buy. I'm 100% responsible for what's in my product and I'm proud of it."

With her first pressing sold out within three months, Patrice Newell's second pressing of Virgo Extra Virgin Olive Oil has been eagerly awaited. Ex-television presenter Newell is passionate about her 10,000 acre property, Elmswood Farm, and the bio-dynamic production of her olives, a project that she celebrated in her best-selling book, "The Olive Grove."

Elmswood Farm rises from river flats to a mountain top sometimes dusted with snow in the Upper Hunter region of New South Wales. This area is known for the quality of its grapes. And where grapes grow well, olives grow well, too.

"There's a lot of talk about fats in diet at present and olive oil is a clean fat - it's good for you," she said.

The growth and production methods she uses are stringently organic. "Another key issue is that we pick the olives and process them straight away, and six weeks after picking the oil is on the shelves."

Virgo is named for the purity of the product as well as Patrice's astrological sign.

"The label also has my name on it. I have a big thing about people trusting what is in the food they buy. That's what the organic industry stands for. I oversee the growth, pressing and bottling of my product; I'm 100% responsible for it and I'm proud of it. To me, putting my name on it says to the consumer that if they have any problem, they can ring me.

"I believe in the nobility of food production and that the first principle of good farming is to listen to the land. When people buy our produce I want them to know of the care and effort that went into it."