I’ve said it before but I’ll say it again: making your own jam or marmalade is a real eye-opener to how much sugar it contains. Whenever I visit my parents I love to pick grapefruit fresh off the tree. It’s fun to shake the tree and duck out of the way of the falling fruit. A grapefruit dropping on your head is not a pleasant experience! Fresh grapefruit are rich in vitamin C making them ideal to eat for breakfast as they enhance iron absorption from your breakfast cereal.

Not everyone can handle such a stringent attack on their taste-buds first thing in the morning. Some prefer to eat their grapefruit toned down with lots of sugar, that is, as marmalade. I have just made my second batch of marmalade this year. I lined up all the jars after I had filled them and worked out that each jar contains approximately one grapefruit and one cup of sugar. Oh dear, at least it makes a great gift for friends.

Are the following words types of cheese, pasta, grapes or olives: frantoio, koroneiki, leccino, pendolino, picholine, picual?

If you answered olives, you would be right. But even more interesting than their unusual names is that they are grown in the Waikato. Believe it or not, the Waikato, New Zealand’s premier farming region, produces more than great meat, milk and cheese. A group of around forty olive growers, including retired farmers, an accountant, a marketer, a builder, and a debt collector are now producing extra virgin olive oil – this year about 1500 litres of it – and it tastes yummy. I know because my uncle Richard is one of them. A born and bred sheep and cattle farmer, he now makes delicious, nutritious extra virgin olive oil. He has just sent me three bottles and I can’t wait to try it.

What I like about this oil is that each bottle is made from pressing just one type of olive. The Olive Estate (that’s the brand name of the oil this group produces) doesn’t blend varieties. Not that there’s anything wrong with blending but it is fun to taste the difference between a koroneiki and a frantoio. From a nutritional view point the most important thing is that this oil is extra virgin. ‘Extra virgin’ is the best quality oil made from the first press of the olives. It is the richest in antioxidants and other nutrients. Virgin olive oil is made from a second pressing so it’s not quite as good as extra virgin. Lower down the quality scale you have ‘pure’ and ‘light’ olive oil. ‘Light’ olive oil is simply a lighter flavour and colour – it’s no lighter in kilojoules or fat!

If you want to try a little extra virgin pendolino, visit the farmers markets at Pirongia, Morrinsville and Tamahere, or e-mail: theoliveestate at yahoo.co.nz  –  As for me, I’m looking forward to drizzling some of the koroneiki olive oil over a classic Italian salad of fresh mozzarella, tomato and basil. Thanks, Uncle Richard!

Mention cholesterol and what food jumps to mind? Probably the egg. Since the early 1980’s it has been the much maligned food icon of high cholesterol. True, it is high in cholesterol but it has hardly any saturated fat which, as we now know, is the real culprit that sends our cholesterol levels soaring. A ‘big breakfast’ of eggs with fatty bacon, sausages and toast lathered with butter will certainly send up your cholesterol level. The bacon, sausages and butter will do a pretty good job of that even without the eggs! But egg sandwiches (without butter), poached eggs, nicoise salad (hard boiled eggs, green beans, tuna, potato, tomatoes with a garlic, balsamic vinegar and olive oil dressing), scrambled eggs or omelette with tomatoes, mushrooms, onions and herbs are all fantastic nutritious meals.

So it was with a collective sigh of relief that we heard the good news – we’re finally allowed to eat more than 3 eggs a week. At least that’s the latest decision made by the Australian Heart Foundation who now allow up to six eggs a week. It follows similar relaxing of egg restrictions by the Irish and British Heart Foundations based on the latest science.

It’s never felt quite right to limit something as nutritious and unadulterated as an egg. And I wonder, during these past 30 or 40 years of minimal eggs, what we have eaten in its place – perhaps a low fibre, sugary cereal for breakfast or maybe chocolate nut spread sandwiches for lunch? Just a few weeks ago a friend asked me if it was OK to give her kids more than three eggs a week. “They really love eggs,” she explained. “And I feel mean saying they can’t have them.” I told her that of course she could give them more – and there it was again, that sigh of relief.

Eggs are high in protein, they have great satiety value which means you won’t feel hungry for ages after eating them, and they have all sorts of antioxidants and other nutrients for good health. The yellow colour of the yolk is from an antioxidant called lutein. It helps protect the rods and cones at the back of your eye so you are less likely to suffer macular degeneration. Even more interesting is a nutrient called choline. It has anti-inflammatory effects and, like folate, is critical for normal development of the brain. That’s a whole story in itself which I’ll write about sometime soon.

See also: my article on 15 eggs a day!

Every autumn the olive tree hanging over our balcony drops its fruit everywhere. And every year I have wondered if they are edible. Finally this year I picked a handful and tried them out. They sat for 40 days in a bowl on the kitchen bench soaking in water which I changed every second day. Finally after 40 days I drained them and covered them with salt for two days. Then I rinsed them and packed them in a sterilised jar with thyme, garlic and lemon, and covered with olive oil and red wine vinegar. Two weeks later we finally had our first tentative tasting. Would they taste OK? And more importantly – would they poison us!

They are definitely edible and we are still alive, but next time I would use less vinegar and stick with the oil. Yes – there will be a next time but it will have to wait until next year. Olive season is well and truly over in NZ.

(Yes, those really are my olives in the photo above)

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Related: Home-made olive recipe at iChef