I recently went up to Santa Barbara (actually north of there near Goleta) to visit Craig Makela, owner of the Santa Barbara Olive Company. We've had their olives on the menu and wanted to share with you (through a video) why we think they're so amazing.

Part 1 of the Santa Barbara Olive Video

Craig is the descendant of the first commercial olive farmers on the west coast. He uses beyond organic techniques to grow and cure some of the best olives in the world. In the video, he explains the details of how it works. You can tell when he's explaining things that he thinks it's the coolest thing in the world...the way that each part of the process works together in order to return almost everything they take from the earth. We hope you'll think it's cool too, as well as enjoy the tasty product!

You can try the olives anytime at Sea Rocket Bistro. They're just 2 bucks on our new tapas menu and we always have an assortment of green and black, such as garlic-stuffed, hot pepper spiced, or citrus marinated.

Part 2 of the Santa Barbara Olive Video

Part 3 of the Santa Barbara Olive Video

Part 4 of the Santa Barbara Olive Video

One other really interesting tip we picked up from Craig is that you can use olive wood in your grill just like you would cedar or other woods for flavor. As you can imagine, he's got an unending supply of wood trimmings, and sent me home with a bag full of thick branches to try out. I have to say that the steak I grilled over that charred olive wood was the best I've ever had!