Last Friday, ALTO Olives received a haul of trophies at the 2018 Royal Fine Food Show.
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Awarded not only as Champion Olives, but also claiming three Golds, nine Silver and five Bronze medals for its products, it’s not the first time for ALTO Olives.
The farm received its first championship in 2014.
“Table olives have been very tricky to get right… we are very humbled,” said grower Westerly Isbaih.
“My father decided to make the brand ALTO, which was based on our oils around 2010, but then he started doing table olives because we grew so many different varietals.
“It took another five years before he could get that formula right,” she said.
The olive grove in the foothills of the Great Dividing Range near Crookwell has 20,000 olive trees of different European origin varieties. Growers had shifted away from traditional agricultural practices, said Mrs Isbaih: “People doing viticulture; people doing truffles.”
“Harvest is such an intense time… you have a small time to get the olives off the trees before they are attacked by frost.”
Show circuit regular Rita Beattie also succeeded and will now represent Crookwell at the Sydney Royal Show in 2019.
Placing first for her ‘magnificent’ fruit cake, she competed against the winners from 15 shows across the state, from Boorowa to Queanbeyan.