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rebuilt american classics

on the way to my farm from dalaman airport, you pass by a large open site on your left, it is absolutely filled with restored american classics as well as numerous old cars that would have gone through the crushers a long time ago but they are awaiting to be lovingly rebuilt by the owner of these premises

his rebuilt classics are exported to all parts of the world, take a look at some of these pictures

the med diet

i find it rather funny seeing programs and ads on tv and reading articles in the papers about the med diet, when people are shown drizzling olive oil onto salads etc
if you ever need cookery lessons in central london, then take a look at this website http://eatdrinktalk.squarespace.com/

picture no 2 the med diet as i see it is to almost drown your salad with good pure olive oil and add the juice of half a fresh lemon and just dunk fresh crusty bread into the golden oil, this is just for starters
take a look at some pictures i took at a transport cafe i dined at on the way to my farm from mugla
also have a look at the egg on toast, picture no 3 that is what i call an egg, this is produced on my farm by my free range chickens
picture no 1 is ayran served at the transport cafe, ayran is a popular drink in Turkey made from fresh yoghurt water and a touch of salt a very refreshing drink on a hot day

picture no 4 is sweet paprika being reduced to a puree under sunshine next to my swimming pool, this normally takes about 5 to 6 days
picture no 5 is local cheeses etc on display at dalaman farmers market

picture no 6 peppers on display at koycegiz farmers market

sweet paprika drying on the terrace prior to being taken to the mill

1	2
3	4
5	6

sleeping on the job

i have just arrived back from the farm in Turkey, where i spent the best part of 2 weeks brushing off the young suckers from the mandarin trees, which have been grafted into lemon trees

it sounds easy but under a blazing sun it is very tiring, i visited a number of farmers markets whilst there and took some pictures of traders sleeping on the job just to prove how hot it was

fresh Cyprus olive oil just arrived

i have finally recieved my delivery of fresh Cyprus olive oil, pressed in early Nov 2008 but only just recieved because our transport people set out at this time of year because of road conditions etc
any way it is worth waiting for
i have just started packaging it so it is ready to go right now
it is the best olive oil that i have produced to date, full of flavour with that peppery kick on a delayed timer

in my opinion it is better this year because i transported my olives 20 miles further to have it stone pressed and boy it was worth it

at £9 per liter, i think it is well worth the money you would pay double elsewhere
i do look forward to serving some of you

regards mem

wild wild herbs and capers

have just got back from 3 weeks of hard work on my farm in Turkey
last year we had 800 mandarin trees grafted into lemon trees, as the new shoots take, the old branches are cut off so i spent a lot of time helping to drag the branches of 800 trees back to a central point where firewood was separated from twigs etc

on 3 occasions we drove into the mountains to collect wild oregano as well as sage and wild rosemary
we located so much of it, i gently dried a lot of it and bought it back to the uk for sale at the farmers markets, boy you need to smell this wild stuff (wild oregano is one of the most powerful natural
anti biotics known to man)
while we were picking wild herbs, we came across wild caper bushes or a better description would be brambles, we tore ourselves to pieces collecting not the capers berries as it was too early for them, but the more succulant caper shoots, these you pick like you would pick asparagus break it off where it is still very tender

these we bring back to the farm and wash, we then put into a large container adding 2 handfuls of coarse salt and some citric acid we then fill with water and seal
i can promise you the rewards are great after a month, remove what you require and rinse, you then add olive oil and lemon juice and tuck in, this is not available in the shops, although i am having some transported over but it is well worth those scratches, it is also worth seeing the wildlife you encounter on these trips eg large tortoises as well as on one occasion a whip snake, these are majestic animals which i do not approach neither do i harm them or allow anyone working on my farm to harm them as they are what i consider to be the farmers best friend, they eat poisonous snakes as well as rodents and there eggs
oh and not forgetting a baby pup walked into my farm and was adopted by me and my staff, he is already showing signs of being a good guard dog, we named him Obama.
for anyone interested i have posted some pictures below
some of the other goods i had prepared for transportation and for sale in the uk farmers markets are baby walnuts in syrup, bergamut marmalade, pommegranate molasses, preserved lemons, chilli flakes, sweet paprika, caper shoots, wild herbs, eg wild oregano, wild sage, and what is known in Turkey as wild rosemary is in fact wild lavender, these are all produced and prepared on my farm or picked in the wild and prepared on my farm
i look forward to meeting some of you at the alexandra palace farmers markets or at whitecross street food market
you can check for dates in the farmers market section of my web site

this is my new emblem mr olive oil
i hope you like him

pictures of some of my staff relaxing after
some really hard work

drying some wild lavender

wild lavender	a view of some of my grafted trees
picking wild caper shoots	a grafted lemon shoot	obama
a view of grafted trees	picking wild oregano
whip snake	a young caper shoot	a view of the house as storm clouds gather

alexandra palace farmers market

my first attendance at alexandra palace was a very pleasant and worthwile experience, although it was meant to have been held at the park due to overbooking we were redirected to campsbourne school which was a couple of hundred meters down the road

i found the onsite management to be both very helpful and friendly, i was also very pleasantly suprised to the responce i recieved as well as the sales i generated, on my return from Turkey i am planning 2 visits per month

i would also like to thank all my customers for your loyal support, i will continue to do my utmost in bringing you the best and freshest produce from my farms

Cyprus olive oil

my name is mehmet murat du carta, i was born in Cyprus in 1950, but raised and educated in the UK, i own olive groves in Cyprus and Turkey, where i produce one of the best value for money extra virgin olive oils that money can buy.
i take great care and pride with my products, and for the quality oil that i produce at the price that i charge i would challenge any one to find better

7 years ago i inherited olive groves in Cyprus from my late father who together with my mother back in 1950 had planted several hundred of the Cyprus olive tree variety on various plots of land that they owned surrounding the village of louroujina in central Cyprus.

for many years the oil produced from these trees was sold to the co operatives who would sell it on to major olive oil producing countries such as italy, who in turn would repackage it and sell it as italian olive oil
my family would allocate about 50 liters of this oil for our own consumption in the uk, where at the time the only olive oil available here was from the chemist

i was not aware of the quality of oil we was producing until i was given a bottle of expensive spanish olive oil, my personal opinion was that my oil was far far superior so i started to import my extra virgin olive oil and black dry cured olives to the U.K. where in my first year i gained some recognition by having my oil described as "Englands best olive oil" by the New York magazine, i have since had many other worthy write ups in the times, the hello magazine as well as tiscali where i was described as a food hero.

5 years ago i purchased a large olive and citrus grove in the koycegiz area of Turkey, where i now produce my lemon and mandarin infused olive oil as well as my extra virgin olive oil , i also produce quality table olives that i cure in the same manner that my family has used for centuries, that is with brine and lemon juice and in the case of black olives in dry salt
(not as some of the commercial producers do in a substance that they call lye which is another name for caustic soda).

i also produce preserved lemons, sweet paprika, pomegranate molasses, and candied fruit and much more.
i have also recently planted 20 meyer lemon trees

i import to the uk and package and sell my cyprus produce under the murat du carta label, which i named after my late father.
my produce from my Turkish groves is labeled chateau carman
you are welcome to visit my store in the clerkenwell area of London, where i would be very happy to let you sample my produce, or you can purchase my goods via my online shop at www.planetmem.com

i have very strong views on producing and selling pure extra virgin olive oil, i dislike the fact that some producers set out to mislead the general public by labelling their oil as extra virgin when it is blatantly obvious that they have chemically adjusted the acidity levels in order to do so
some producers also blend there oil with various seed and nut oils and still label it as extra virgin olive oil.

i dislike the fact that some major retailers are selling extra virgin olive oil claiming it is from the tuscany area of italy and selling it at £ 3.99 per liter knowing fully well that it has never been any where near tuscany
a friend of mine who moved to the tuscany region of italy some 20 years ago paid me a visit recently, and during a conversation we had on the olive oil of the region he told me that the local producers charge the locals 20 euros per liter for extra virgin olive oil and that they sell out very quickly, due to the fact that the locals appreciate pure extra virgin olive oil and are prepared to pay the full price for it, that alone should speak volumes as to what the general public are really buying in the UK

i look forward to receiving your comments

a view of my market stall, with up to date products

we are as you can see continuing to add new products to our stall, very soon there will be preserved lemons, candied grape juice, chili flakes, dried morel mushrooms.
dried oranges, mandarins and lemons (for decorative purposes only) and much more

back at whitecross street market after being away for 2 months

it was nice to get back to whitecross street after being away for so long, eric was his usual jovial self, helping everyone

it was good to set out my stall especially with all my new stock, which drew a lot of attention, lots of people tasting my 6 different types of olives produced and prepared by me and my family as well people tasting my infused olive oils and preserved lemons

i sold quite a lot of olives (especially the chakistes which we prepare with garlic/dry cracked corriander seeds and small pieces of lemon) as well as some preserved lemons and paprika, the most important thing for me was the fact that people asked if i would be there in the following weeks

as long as people like what i produce, i will continue to do so to the best of my ability, i will have to go back to the farm soon in order to catch up with work as well as preparing my next batch of preserved lemons

i am hoping to venture into producing on my farm hot chilli flakes, baby walnut candy, watermelon candy, seville orange candy, eggplant candy, quince jam, bergamut marmalade, as well as buying in carobs and carob mollasses which you should try blending one to three with tahin (sesame paste) and spread it on your toast for breakfast it will keep you going for the best part of the day

i have also enquired with some of the local ladies who make real pommegranate mollasses, this is made by boiling pommegranate juice over a log fire reducing it and adding salt as you go this is called black lemon juice in Turkey and is brilliant on salads and in stews etc, made in this way i am told it has a 5 year shelf life

the only draw back is that it takes 12 kilos of pommegranate juice to make 1 kilo of mollasses, this will obviously be a lot dearer than the mollasses that i sell at the moment, which is commercially produced and only contains a small amount of real juice, my plan is to have 10 kilos made so i can bring it over and see what the response will be

see you all at whitecross street market soon

chateau carman october 2008

just returned from my farm in Turkey, where i spent a thoroughly enjoyable and hard working one month
i had my first two lots of guests stay for 2 weeks each
marge and eric stayed in the 2 bedroom apartment which has now been named margic after the two of them
and the 2 alans stayed in the main house
having them all as guests actually made it into a thoroughly enjoyable holiday for me
they would on most days disapear in their hired cars and visit beaches as well as historical places
i believe thay had a new experience in shopping at the turkish markets especially with the help of my sisiter in law who was visiting from Cyprus at the time
we would all gather around the swimming pool on most evenings and take it in turn to cook or we would all dine down by the lake at the alila hotel, where they serve wonderfully fresh and very tasty food

olive oil and olives
i loaded all my produce onto the lorry for delivery to the uk, where once i recieve it i will start to package my olives which we have prepared in 5 different ways
i will also bottle my extra virgin olive oil which i infused one batch with freshly picked mandarins and the other batch with freshly picked lemons all from my own citrus trees
i have also produced and prepared on the farm my own organic sweet paprika which has been prepared with pure olive oil and salt, this is also naturally sundried
i have bought in locally produce such as pine nuts, senna leaves, wild rosehip, wild oregano and frankincense
which i will be packaging and selling in line with my olive oil and olives

lemon produce
we have this year produced in th region of 50 tons of lemons on the farm, which we sell locally although
i have had 800 of my mandarin trees grafted into lemons
this will ensure that my crop in 3 to 4 years will be in the region of 150 tons
anyone in the market for lemons
i also spent quite a lot of time cutting down mulberry trees for their branches and using them to prop up our overladen olive and lemon trees
i will add some pictures soon
again many thanks to marge and eric as well as the 2 alans

food hero

This is a recent article that appeared on the tiscali website with the heading food heros, this makes me extremely proud thank you

The best olive oil you'll ever taste
We all have at least one, a "go to" supplier of amazing food, a neighbourhood restaurant where the cooking is fantastic and you don't have to sell body parts to afford a meal or a bar where they make life changing cocktails and you can always get a seat.

Well, now is the time to start spreading the love by sending us details of your secret treasures so we can share them with the rest of the country. Just tell us who they are and why you think they deserve recognition and we will do our best to make sure they receive the acclaim you think they deserve. I'll start the ball rolling by letting you in on my secret source for some of the most delicious olive oil and olives in the country sold not in a smart delicatessen or high street supermarket, but from the back of shop selling fuses, plugs and cables.

Mehmet Murat, owner of Embassy Electrical Supplies in London's fashionable Clerkenwell, is of Turkish Cypriot extraction and after inheriting olive groves from his parent's small farm in Lurugina, started selling the oil and olives from his small shop under the name Murat Du Carta. The venture was so successful that he purchased another property in Turkey and planted a grove of a further two thousand trees to meet demand.

In 2007, a passing journalist for New York Magazine discovered the shop and declared the oil "England's best". I can't claim that as, despite my best efforts I have not tried them all, but I can tell you that Murat Du Carta is stunning stuff, deliciously green and fresh, the perfect oil for salad dressings, drizzling over pasta or even just sopping up with chunks of crusty bread.

If you live in London, it is well worth popping into Mehmet's shop. He is always happy to give sample tastes and to tell you more about his oils. If you live further away, check out his website at www.planetmem.com or contact him at:
EMBASSY ELECTRICAL SUPPLIES
76 Compton Street
London
EC1V 0BN

TEL: +44 (0) 20 7251 4721

The great olive oil fraud

Murat Du Carta / Chateau Carman

Producers of extra virgin olive oil, table olives and citrus fruit from our groves in Cyprus and Turkey

Tel 020 7251 4721

Email axipa@aol.com

Website www.planetmem.com

The great olive oil fraud

For many years now we have been led to believe that most commercially produced olive oils are the best and most pure available, unfortunately we were in some cases deceived

In previous years Olive oil from the supermarkets was all that was available to most of us, unless you was one of the lucky ones as I was to have 2 x 25 liter containers shipped to us every year from our own groves in Cyprus, we would share our gift with members of our family as they would share theirs

The rest of our produce would be sold off to the co operatives, who would ship it off to the commercial producers mainly in Italy for blending and repackaging

Many olive oils sold in British supermarkets are blended from a variety of different oils and the acidity levels chemically adjusted in order that they can be labeled extra virgin olive oil

Some of these commercial producers have been found to have blended their oils with cheap hazelnut oil as well as or with sunflower oil

It is also a fact that they have been importing olive oil from Spain, Greece, Tunisia and Turkey, blending it and marketing it as superior Italian olive oil

They have also been importing olives from the other olive producing countries and producing olive oil and marketing it as superior Italian olive oil (please note that the best olive oil is made with olives that have been picked within 24 to 36 hours, I doubt very much whether they can pick and ship olives from countries such as Tunisia and press olive oil within 36 hours).

I urge you to read the articles regarding this great fraud by clicking on the links below

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/1580807/Italian-police-crack-down-on-olive-oil-fraud.html

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/08/13/070813fa_fact_mueller

I have written this article so that people can see that they have not in all cases been buying the genuine item

Most genuine producers are finding it difficult enough marketing their genuine products at realistic prices

Bearing in mind the higher costs of looking after the trees, as well as the cost of packaging and transportation

in my case my costs of transporting my oil from Cyprus is in excess of £1 per liter, add to that the cost of looking after the trees, harvesting the olives , taking to the press, packaging and marketing etc.

How on earth are supermarkets in the UK able to sell for example a one liter stone capped glass bottle of olive oil labeled as extra virgin olive oil produced in Tuscany, Italy, which I have sometimes seen on special offer at £3.99

In my case it is not cost affective to get organic certification, although everything I produce is to organic standards, might it be an idea to create an independent organization of small olive oil producers, or is there one already in existence?

please rest assured that my olive oil is from my olive groves in Cyprus and Turkey where myself or members of my immediate family not only look after the trees but also pick the olives when they are green or turning purple and take to the press within 24 to 36 hours at the most

For those of you with any doubts, you are more than welcome to book a stay on my olive groves in Turkey and see at first hand, depending on the time of year the looking after of the olive trees or come Oct / Nov the picking and the pressing.

I then have the oil and my table olives transported to the UK where I sell it through my shop in clerkenwell as well as at whitecross street market and through the internet You are more than welcome to put my oil through any test you like; it is pure extra virgin single estate oil and only available from me directly

Regards mem

Nov visit to Cyprus and Turkey

just got back from first Cyprus, where olives were non existent this year apart from maybe just enough to provide for the immediate family
and then Turkey where we picked and prepared over 3 tons of olives the size of small plums, after picking we select the black olives for the table where we wash and put into a container with dry salt and allow to cure, and the green turning black olives for the table but in a different method where we cut each olive slightly lengthways 3 times and put into salt water and citric acid to cure
the olive oil that we produced in Turkey this year was naturally infused with freshly picked lemons and another batch with freshly picked mandarins you should have smelt the aroma at the press, we had all the locals committing themselves to doing the same next year, we should have our delivery by april 2008
we will be at whitecross street market on the first friday and saturday of december, our stall will be open until 9 pm on the friday



my 84 year old mum who planted these trees in Cyprus back in 1950 when she was carrying me

i will be abroad until the 21st of oct

if anyone wishes to purchase any of our goods please note i will not be able to deal with it until i return on the 21st of oct 2007

i apologise for any inconvenience but will deal with it promptly on my return

getting better

friday the 5th and saturday the 6th is the best yet people are getting to know us and returning for repeat orders i am now offering free olives with purchases of our 1 liter and 2.5 liters of oil, so sales are up

we have now introduced our own green and black olives which rather than selling prepacked, we are now preparing and packing at the point of sale

we have also increased our sales of dried olive leaves, which people are buying for either making tea, or burning as an incense and more recently someone has purchased some for burning at the alter

the next whitecross street food market is the first friday and saturday of november, its getting better, so come and get a bargain

sunday the 29 july 2007

Really good atmosphere at whitecross street , lots of tastings, lots of interest

sold a fair quantity of olives as well as olive oil and pomegranate sour.

some of the comments as well as questions were as follows

1 your olives are too salty
2 are your olives cured in lye as my daughter is allergic to these olives
3 your olive oil is very light
4 is it organic
5 what olive tree is your oil produced from
6 why do you package your oil in plastic, does this not degrade the oil

1 this week i served up slices of orange and offered them as a taster together with my olives, people were amazed at the combination, but this is what my parents and relatives used to bring to the fields as their pack lunch, peasant food try it with my salty olives you will be amazed

when ;they were working in the fields harvesting whatever, depending on the season these are some of the food items that they would take with them, but there would always be olives and hellim, and they would all go really well with black salty olives

fresh broad beans, artichoke, cucumber, tomatoes, hellim, red melon, fresh bread, hard boiled eggs, radishes, kol rabbi, raw cauliflower and if they found any nettles in the fields well that was an extra treat they would cut the tender part and peel the outer skin that would leave a tender succulent stalk which would also go with olives
so from now on you will see some of the above being offered as a taster on my stall

2 my olives are cured in salt and nothing else you can normally tell the salt cured olives as they go wrinkly, the firm fleshed olives that you normally buy are cured in lye (another name for lye is caustic soda) they are then flushed and boiled for a few minutes, some people are allergic to this so beware

3 my olive oil is very light it is so light it is almost drinkable, it is also very fresh and aromatic

4 my olive trees are looked after by close relatives who spread natural compost from their herds of cows and sheep
they also prune the trees once a year and cut away the suckers, the groves are in a part of cyprus which recieves very little rainfall, we do not water them or spray them, they are hardy little trees

so they are grown to organic standards but i have no certification, this is partly due to the north of the island not being recognised as well as the recognised government of cyprus making it very difficult for the turkish cypriot community to get any certification or recognition or transport to the outside world etc, i have my oil and olives transported overland through Turkey

5 my olive trees are known as the cyprus olive tree, and yes there is such a tree

6 the pet bottles i use are of such a high quality it will not impair the quality or the flavour in any way whatsover, in fact do not be decieved by some of the fancy bottles that are used to package oil nowadays
if you visit the presses during the appropriate months you will see most of the oil producers waiting there turn to have there olives pressed
you will see them transferring the oil to mostly 25 litre plastic jerry cans which are then taken away and allowed to settle prior to filtering and bottling

i hope the above information is helpful to you, see you at whitecross street market this friday and saturday

sat 28th july

saturday we sold three times the amount that we sold on friday, it was an interesting day with lots of interest, lots of tastings and a lot of feedback from what we sold at the previous events

people were coming back and telling us how good our oil is, so thank you everyone

eric the master butcher was demonstrating how to butcher a pig, which he done with great expertise and speed oh and the band that was playing for us were superb, i feel it gave the event a touch of class

hope to see you there tomorrow (sunday)

lots of interest on the official opening of whitecross st market 27 july 07

lots of people tasting and making positive comments on the quality of the oil and olives a few made comments regarding packaging good olive oil in plastic (please note that the pet bottles we use do not impair the olive oil in any way ) we continue to bottle it in this manner because it is £2 per litre cheaper, so the saving is all yours although we do bottle our oil in quality dark green glass bottles

we have displayed our black dry cured olives with segments of orange, please try our olives in combination with orange it really is a different taste

hope to see you there on sat and sunday the 28th and 29th

regards mem

Whitecross street food festival on the 27th 28th and 29th July

http://www.whitecrossstreetmarket.co.uk/

make a day of it

there will be plenty to see and most certainly piles of excellent quality produce to sample

here is your chance to sample our excellent olive oil as well as our black dry cured olives

or sample our pomegranate sour, an excellent alternative to balsamic vinegar

hope to see you there

i was quite pleased with our 2 days at the whitecross street food fair on the 6th and 7th of july, we sold a few bottles of oil as well as olives and pomegranate sour

i feel we are there to stay at the one monthly events, we made an impact and it is all about getting yourselves known and trusted

the 3 day event is on the 27th 28th and 29th of july when there will be some celebrity tv chefs on hand to show some of there cooking skills

i look forward to seeing you all there

nov 2006 olive oil finally arrived

i have now received my oil and black olives from nov 2006 produce , i have spent most of the week bottling and packing ready for our first appearance at whitecross street food market

i can assure you that the oil is superb and the olives are top class, i have added some olive oil to theses prior to packing as they are delivered dry

i am afraid that due to increased costs re production and transport we have had to raise our prices

my much awaited delivery of my olive oil has now arrived and i have started bottling, it is now on the shelves

at 76 compton st london ec1v 0bn (i hope you enjoy)

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