The Flowers Explore - The Station 31072 Artisan Oils - 2021/10/23-24

Today we're traveling to Georgia on our way to Florida for the winter. Leaving Tennessee, it was too far to get all the way to Florida in one day, and so an overnight Harvest Host was perfect! 

Trying to find a place in Georgia, she came across The Station 31072. Here Oliver Farm sells their Artisan Oils and Flours. Sounds interesting. Let's go!

Our travels for this year are nearing an end. Hard to believe this is our 26th stop since July 7th! It's a 5:30 hour drive today. I hope we don't hit traffic like yesterday. 

The Georgia border snuck right up on us and we didn't catch it on camera. Best we can do is the Visitor Center. 

And why not go ahead and stop here while we're at it. Upon opening the door, we were greeted by a wave of heat and humidity! We're definitely in the south now! 

Luckily for us, the drive wasn't bad. There were pockets of traffic, but it didn't slow us down excessively. 

Along the way, we drove by the Truett's Grill (founder of Chick-Fil-A). If we weren't pulling Beauty, I'd be tempted to stop at this full service sit down dining restaurant. What I really want to visit though is a Chick-Fil-A Dwarf House where they have different side dishes and they even sell Ribeye Steak!

Along the roadway they are signs for fruit stands and orchards. 
"Peaches" - yeah, I'm sure they're good. 

"Peach Jam" - okay, meh.

"Peach Cider" - ooh. I bet that's tasty! Again, if we weren't hauling Beauty, I'd be very tempted to stop. 

We're here! The Station 31072 is an old gas station that the Oliver family converted about a year ago to sell their Artisan Oils, Flours, and lots of other local goods. 

Here Theresa met up with Clay Oliver, who directed us to a couple different options where we can park. We can pull around the back and park next to another RV that got here earlier. There's the Oliver Farm, where they grow everything, or there's a wide open field right next door that belongs to their neighbor. 

An open field with no neighbors sounds perfect to me! 

Let's go inside and see what this is all about!

They're known for their oils, but this station has so much more going on inside. There's jams, jellies, flour, honey, rice, artwork, and many other home goods. 

Clay Oliver started trying making Sunflower Oil years ago, and it has received rave reviews! It's been featured in magazines, like the Georgia Travel Guide. 

When they were featured in the Food section of The New York Times, their business exploded. They tried to prepare ahead of time, but it's hard to predict that kind of demand. 

These days there's a new problem in their supply chain. They use a particular flip-top bottle from Italy, but because of resources prices of the bottles are 70% higher than they were last year, and that's if you can get them in the first place. 

Honestly, I wasn't sure what exactly I would use the oils for. I don't cook with specific oils, or go looking for the oil's flavor. I also don't make vinaigrettes or special things for salads. We should buy things we're going to use, so Theresa and the kids picked out a few different things. 

Let's head back across the street, to the field of Conner's Produce, and back to the RV. 

We ended up choosing a jar of Phickles Pickled Carrot Sticks ($10), Kyvan Honey Apple Hot Salsa ($8), and Striplings Jalapeno Beef Jerky ($8). 

We asked Clay about the process of how all these oils get made. He gave us a brochure with their website info where there's a whole documentary on the process. 

Seriously! A 30 minute PBS documentary called TasteMakers that goes into the history of how they got their start, the process of how they make it, and a look at some of the local businesses that utilize it. 

All four of us sat down and watched it and got a much better idea of how it all works. 

Dried sunflower seeds are fed into a screw-press. And it's not just sunflower seeds. They also grind peanuts, pecans, okra seeds, pumpkin seeds, and coriander seeds. The liquid comes out one side and the hard material comes out the other.  Not long after they started, they discovered they could actually grind the hard material into specialty flours too!

Well after watching that, now I wish I would have bought a sampler of the different oil flavors. Unfortunately it's after hours and they are closed. They also close on Sunday, so we won't get a chance to try the oils this time. Perhaps we'll be back again on another stop!

Can't forget to put our Georgia sticker on the RV. 

The next morning, we got everything packed away and hit the road! It's time to go to Florida!