Kimberly Adams likes to cook, likes olive oil and vinegar, and likes to do things right. So when it comes to olive oil, Kimberly Adams is the one to seek out.
If you haven’t been to OV Harvest, you haven’t been introduced to gourmet olive oils and vinegars. This store, the newest in the family of downtown New Philadelphia stores, opened September 22. While olive oils, and vinegars, are common place to those who cook, Kimberly provides quality olive oils not available anywhere else.
“What I wanted to do,” Kim told me, “was to find a source of olive oil where I could know it was fresh. If you are cooking with it or just using olive oil for salads, if it isn’t fresh you can tell by the way it tastes and the way it smells. I started over a year ago to learn about olive oil, and its companion balsamic vinegar, and my research led me to start a search for really fresh oils and vinegar.”
When on vacation in North Carolina earlier this year, she stopped in Pinehurst where she came across a store which sold premium olive oils and vinegars. While her husband played golf one afternoon, she spent her afternoon at a specialty store in Pinehurst which sold, you guessed it, olive oil and vinegar. She was amazed.
A gourmet cook, she had been seeking various types of olive oils, and vinegars, and suddenly she had found them. More amazingly the store actually encouraged tasting of the different blends of oil and vinegar. She knew she had found something she for which she had been looking for years.. “It was,” Kim said, “like a candy store for adults.”
She knew not only had she found the olive oils she had been seeking, but a calling to bring their unparalleled flavor to the Tuscarawas Valley.
A conversation with her husband that evening clinched the deal and OV Harvest was born. On September 22, the store’s doors were opened on the southwest corner of West High and Second Street, SW, in New Philadelphia, Ohio.
The store is unique in that the olive oils and vinegars are truly fresh. Her stock comes from Veronica Foods, a distributor in California, which buys its oil from around the world. The best olive oil is the freshest, and to get it her supplier buys from both the northern and southern hemispheres.
The reason is simple. The prime harvesting season in the northern hemisphere is in October, November, and December. Olive producers in California, Italy, Portugal, and other northern hemisphere growers, therefore, harvest and press their crop in the fall months. On the other hand, southern hemisphere producers, countries such as Chile, Spain, Portugal, and Australia, have because a prime growing season in March, April, and May, which we consider to be the spring months of the year.
Because of the different growing and harvesting seasons, Kim’s current stock of oils are primarily from the southern hemisphere, and this writing being in the month of October, are the freshest oils available. The oil is shipped to Veronica foods from the grower in sealed, air tight containers, which preserves the freshness of taste as well as the quality of the oil itself. Veronica Foods then blends various herbs into the virgin oil to give it the distinctive taste which creates the olive oil’s special character. Once blended, the oils are shipped to OV Harvest in air tight containers which preserves the taste and quality by protecting them from oxidation during shipment and storage.
“This is important,” Kim says, “because olives are fruits like tomatoes and the fresher the oil, the better it is. Like tomatoes, olives picked and processed soon after, are tastier, juicier, and more succulent than those purchased from a grocery store. Oils stored for long periods of time not only lose their flavor, but over time their smoking point, the temperature at which oils will lose their ability to be used at high cooking temperatures, decreases with age.
To assure her customers of the freshness, the history of the oils are prominently displayed, including the type of olive used to produce the oil, where the olives were grown and pressed, the date of pressing, nutrition facts, and a listing of added herbs and spices, all natural, which make each oil distinctive.
The olive oils available include a myriad of blends. From a unflavored premium Extra Virgin olive oil, the best quality rating available for olive oil, the selection includes exotic mixtures including garlic, mushroom, and other blends of natural fruit and herbs. Best of all, all the olive oil offerings are available for taste testing on the spot.
Another offering of OV Harvest is balsamic vinegar which is imported from Modona, Italy. The vinegar is made by use of the Solera method of processing which consists of putting the grape juice over large fires to start the grape musk fermenting. It is then put into large barrels to ferment, and as it does the musk is transferred to smaller barrels until the desired fermentation is reached, a process which can take as long as 18 or more years.
When the vinegar has reached its peak, natural flavors are added to give it distinctive tastes which will enhance any meal. As with the olive oil freshness is the secret. While the long processing time would appear to destroy the fresh quality of the vinegar, the barrels in which it is aged prevent oxidation and preserves the unique flavors of the vinegars. There are no artificial additives put into to the Modona balsamic vinegar, no colors or sweeteners. The flavor comes from aging in barrels which date back earlier times, sometimes centuries. The resulting vinegar blends surpass any available balsamic vinegar through conventional sources.
OV Harvest is a unique gourmand find. For the cook looking that special taste which only the highest quality olive oil and balsamic vinegars can bring to food, a visit to Kim’s OV Harvest is a must.
Hours are Monday through Friday are 10:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., and Saturday 10: 00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. The address is 106 2nd Street, SW, New Philadelphia, OH 44663, the phone 330-365-9458.
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