The Queen Creek Olive Mill

Hey Friends,

The most common used olives used at the olive Mill

     I've made it to Spring Break!! As a family, we have so much packed into one week. Monday morning marked the start to a much needed break. The Surretts headed for Queen Creek, Arizona to go get some waffles. I don't usually wake up early, but breakfast is a good reason to do early mornings. Why travel thirty minutes just to go get a waffle? Simple, because it's the Queen Creek Olive Mill. The Olive Mill makes waffles the size of my face infused with vanilla olive oil. Fluffy, moist, and topped with whipped butter - oh yes, I ate it all. When you walk into the restaurant, you walk first into a store filled with all sorts of olive oils. Extra virgin olive oil, virgin olive oil, blood orange olive oil, chocolate olive oil, and of course there is a bacon olive oil. The store gave off a rustic farmhouse vibe that totally filled my tank and the environment was amazing. The environment is very welcoming, the company is family owned and the Mill is family grown. After breakfast we roamed around the store, and signed up for the tour of the Mill. We headed outside to get the story behind the business. The Olive Mill's sole purpose is to produce high quality extra virgin olive oil with farming practices that exemplify their dedication to the environment and our health. A lot of thought goes into one bottle of oil, which is reason enough for me to buy a bottle. During the tour we learned that the Mill has at least seven thousand olive trees growing, and that it only takes one hour to process two and a half tons worth of olives oil. It's mind blowing to see how much can be done in one hour. Also we tasted fresh extra virgin olive oil, and let me tell you it's not like the stuff from the store. This was the read deal. When you swallow real extra virgin olive oil it leaves a burning peppery taste in the back of your throat. And evidently in Italy, they leave what's called pomace inside the oil and import it here, so we aren't getting the full experience let alone the real oil.

     My inspired writing juices began to flow. A classic, yet relevant, metaphor played out in my mind. I pulled from Matthew 23:26 - "First wash the inside of the cup and the dish, and then the outside will become clean too." What the Italians do is pretty similar to what we so often do. We are a culture that is so easily worried about our outsides instead of focusing more on our insides. When the pomace is left inside the oil, it's not at it's best or displaying it's best qualities. When the pomace is left inside the oil, the consumer doesn't taste the true oil. When the oil is mixed with other unnecessary ingredients and isn't pure oil. We are the oil and this messed up world we live in is that pomace. When we allow sin into our lives it does two things. It dirtys up the inside of our cups and clouds our vision. We convince ourselves it's alright, because no one sees the inside of the cup, it's only the outside that people are watching. Well, that's a lie. Eventually cups over flow the more they are filled. So, eventually what ever is inside will flow out. Then everyone will see what is really inside you. If you're filled with pride, it'll show. If you're filled with jealousy, it'll show. If you're filled with doubt, it will show. In the same way I can taste the difference in olive oils, I can just as easily see the insides of the cups based on the outsides. Some people's outside may be convincing, but is their inside worth believing?
     Through out this week let's clean our cups, so that it shines. This week my cup will over flow with grace, kindness, and patience. This is a challenging thing for me, to watch what comes pouring out. This week I don't want to worry at all if my cup happens to over flow. I want it to over flow and have it be evident of what I'm full of. "The fullness of Him who fills all in all." -  Ephesians 1:23. Let's rid ourselves of the pomace in our lives and fill our cups with pure and authentic olive oil.

XOXO - Em
P.S. New cards up in the etsy shop- The Art of Stationary
This past week $127 has been donated to my campaign!! That's awesome. Please consider donating, it would mean a lot to me! - Emma's Mission