Verdale Olive Estate, Two Wells, SA

"The olive grove of Academe, Plato's retirement, where the Attic bird trills her thick warbled notes the summer long" ~ John Milton, English Poet

A short Sunday afternoon drive led us to Verdale Olive Estate in Two Wells.  Now Two Wells isn't really the type of place that entices you in to stop and enjoy a coffee.  It is quite small (although larger than I had anticipated) and simply a country town on the flat, dry and dusty Adelaide Plains not far from the mangrovey beaches of Port Gawler and Middle Beach where our day concluded.  However I had seen a piece about this new olive tasting cellar door on Postcards recently and noted the address so we could pop in when we needed to stock up on olives.  [The mention of "chocolate olives" also enticed a number of members of our family as well.]  Well I sort of noted that address, we had to stop and ask some locals just where to head in order to find the olive grove.

We were not disappointed.  We were welcomed in and allowed to browse around before sitting down to taste some olives, their olive tapenade and a superb sundried tomato and capsicum dip containing olives of course.  We ordered a Greek Pizza which we watched being cooked in a wood-fired oven.  Interesting, an indoor wood-fired oven working hard on a 33degC day with air-conditioning on in the room as well.  It all worked though - it worked very well.  My Generous Gentleman declares the coffee was excellent!

The food was all delicious - so fresh.  The olives were simply divine and tasted as though they were real fruit freshly picked - of course there is a lot of treatment that goes on with olive production but you could tell these had not been sitting on a shelf in a supermarket and goodness only knows where before that.  And, of course, our aim is to support local growers buying local produce direct whenever we can.

If you are ever travelling along Port Wakefield Road and have a hankering for a cup of coffee, a freshly made pizza or some olives I definitely recommend you stop in at Verdale Olive Estate.