Or the story of how an olive grown, picked, and pressed in a family farm in Italy made its way to your kitchen table.
But before we begin the story, here’s a look back at the journey leading up to this year’s harvest...
In 2021: Our olive groves were hit in April by a freezing Siberian wind. Most of our olive flower buds froze and died that night. A scorching summer with little rain followed. In total, we lost 90% of our harvest.
In 2022: A year of plenty; a year of celebration for farmers across Sabina. We poured our resources into nurturing the land and were even able to add three new farmer’s groves to our collective!
In 2023: What started as another plentiful year turned tumultuous. Harsh rainstorms pounded the earth followed by hot sun that burned our olive flower buds. We did our best to nurture the buds that survived, but still lost about 75-80% of the harvest.
And now the 2024 Harvest...
Put simply, throughout his life in Italy, Camillo has never tasted olive oil as fantastic as the 2024 harvest.
We were blessed with a brisk winter which kept our trees “sleeping soundly,” followed by a warm spring. Even as we fought against a hot, dry summer, the quality of the olives continued to improve. While the lack of rain kept our olives small and less juicy, the concentration of flavor and antioxidants increased.
And thanks to our wonderful Grove Adopters, we’ve exceeded our sustainability goals this year!
We’ve planted over 150 new olive trees, restored over 2,000 abandoned olive trees, and converted over 500 olive trees to organic production.
As many of our neighbors say, good olive oil is like good wine; it’s all about how you take care of the land and the trees that produce the fruit.
So hats off from the land, the olive trees, and our family farmers to each of you; thank you for being part of the Libellula family.
Julia & Camillo
P.S. If you’re ever in Italy, please come by for a visit!
