Fruit & olive production at chateau carman

 

château carman is a 45 donum mainly citrus and olive grove on the foothills of the agla mountains, we have in the region of 2500 trees producing on average 5 tons of olives, 60 tons of lemons,  we have now grafted 800 of the mandarin trees into lemon trees, so in 3 to 4 years time we should be producing in the region of 150 tons of lemons 


we also produce smaller quantities of pomegranates, apricots, oranges, seville oranges, avocado, cherry, walnuts, almonds, plums, figs, mulberries and much more  

we normally make some of these into preserves etc as well as being eaten by family and friends


 




in October / November we prepare the domat olives, as well as the memecik olives and the kalamat olives that are grown at Château Carman we then vacuum pack them and transport to the  UK, some of these olives are picked when green and prepared in brine and lemon juice, we also pick them when they turn black and prepare them in dry salt. We will also be pressing approx 2.5 tons of these olives for extra virgin olive oil, although these olives are three times the size of our Cypriot olives we only get one liter of extra virgin olive oil from every ten kilos of olives 

the extra virgin olive oil that is produced from these olives is a very tasty and highly sought after , this single estate extra virgin olive oil is sold under our château carman label 

 
   
   

a picture of the house where the previous owner lived, we have since converted this into a 2 x 2 bedroom self contained apartments for guests

 


   

Domat olives

 

at chateau carman i produce 3 different varieties of olives to organic standards

the memecik, this is the smallest of my olives but really flavorsome, we pick these when black in november / december and cure in dry salt

the domat grows to the size of a small walnut, we pick these when green in october and slash them by hand, these are then put in fresh water for a number of weeks, after which they are cured in brine and citric acid, they are ideal for marianating yourself at home

the chakistes this is the green domat olive marinated in garlic, corriander seeds and pieces of lemon

salama this is the domat olive but picked when black in november december and then dry cured in salt

the kalamat this is a huge olive picked when green in october we hand slash these olives and prepare them in the same manner as the green domat olives, thay have a crispy nutty flavor about them
all my olives are vacuum packed in 250gm, 500gm and 1 kg sizes and are all available from 
my online shop ,  you are welcome to visit my store in clerkenwell or pay me a visit at any of the farmers markets i attend 


beware of some commercially produced olives which are cured in lye (also known as caustic soda) some people are allergic to olives prepared in this way 
 

 

we have now started to produce pommegranate mollasses, sweet paprika flakes, hot chilli flakes, we also prepared our first batch of preserved lemons which was extremely successfull, my plans are to produce in the region of 500 kilos per annum, in 2009 we will start to produce walnut preserve, quince preserve, bergamot preserve, and much more and only using our own produce


i have also started to bring over and package sucuk from my cyprus farm this is made from the juice of grapes with dry almonds in the middle 
 

 

just to give you an idea as to what is involved in producing pommegranate molasses 

it take the juice of 12 liters of pommegranate to boil down adding salt to make one liter of mollasses this is what i will be bringing over this is not the commercially produced stuff with all the additives but 100% pure mollasses so expect the price to be high 
 

 

our chilli and sweet paprika flakes are also grown on the farm and dried in the sun they are then taken to the local mill and turned to flakes after which we put the flakes out under the sun adding olive oil and salt, they remain under the sun for 3 to 5 days turning from a brick color to a dark red, at this point we pack and send to the uk 

lemon and mandarin infused olive oil

during the months of October and November we go to the press on average 8 times depending on what sort of harvest we have had, we divide our harvest into three,  60% is pressed as chateau carman extra virgin olive oil, 25% is pressed as lemon infused olive oil and 15% is pressed as mandarin infused olive oil

this is done as follows on the morning we go to press with our freshly picked olives we also pick a few cases of each of fresh lemons and mandarins, we then press in batches

the aroma in the mill draws the attention of all, over a period of a month or two we go to the press about 8 times

due to demand we are now seriously considering pressing basil infused as well as oregano infused olive oil

we welcome any enquiries regarding any of our produce

 

look out for our new products coming soon

 

  • melon candy
  • lemon candy
  • sevile orange candy
  • fig candy
  • baby walnut candy
  • eggplant candy
  • quince candy
  • pomegranate molasses
  • chili flakes
  • sweet paprika
  • pine nuts
  • locally produced pine honey
  • bergamut candy
  • wild caper shoots
  • wild sage
  • wild oregano
  • wild lavender
  • sumac
  • preserved lemons

please note everything is produced to organic standards
email chateaucarman@aol.com