Urrah, through trial and error, we made it!

SPOILER: we did it, and it's arriving soon. Will keep you posted.

Last week we got down to a very summery Menfi (where? here!) full of energy and optimism to pick, press, ship the olives from our small olive grove.

Strong of an 80 litres of oil of olive commission from friends in the UK, our enthusiasm was soon crashed by some trifling agronomic hitches.

It was less than a veni, vidi, vici than a seat at the table, taste bread and olive oil, drink wine and eat delicious Sicilian patisserie!

The season was bad

Due to an unseasonal bout of rain in August,and soaring temperatures throughout the month of October the olives had matured early and got attacked by 

THE FLY

Now, this is luck! - or maybe simply typical - for some inexperienced naive amateur as we are.

The new olive oil

Last year was a bumper season, and we got lulled into thinking that the production would continue to grow exponentially once the new trees started producing this year.

The young trees were harvested first and produced around 60 litres of a really peppery young oil.

We have shipped 5L of this new oil. The most daring will be allowed to sample!

We got the ORO

Fortunately our Gaspare (see below), who helps us with everything at the Cipressi (that's the name of the house) had started the harvest without us and managed to produce 50 litres of excellent olive oil.

Perfect in acidity (<0,3), taste, colour the crop we call it ORO (by its former owner Mr Michele Oro) and the name fits quite well the description of this oil, with its golden green colour and its flavoursome and mild taste.

But that wasn't enough to satisfy everyone. Try to consider that an average Italian family (of 4) gets through 20 litres of oil a year.

Production costs

When we started reasoning about costs, (something that so far has not worried the lord of the land, Mr Ferrari) we were confronted with the undeniable: our production costs were unsustainable! And that without counting packaging and delivery costs. Oh my! Very romantic, but not very entrepreneurial.

Sciroca's

Sciroca is the man who will rent some of our lands from now on. He was rooting for all of them but my dad wants to play the farmer a little bit longer. The idea of going to Sicily to go to the beach fills Mr Ferrari with horror. I say: chill out dad!

Sciroca has 18 hectares of olive groves, is passionate about oil and wine, and most crucially, owns a tractor!

Talking to him we learnt a great deal about the oil. He had harvested already and had blended this oil that we really liked. We got 60L of his olive oil, too.

His oil is a blend of two varieties: Nocellara del Belice (65%) and Biancolilla (35%).

The result is a deliciously medium bodied oil that foregoes that spiciness that some find sometimes overwhelming of our own oil and is more balanced to the palate.

Meanwhile Bertolino...

Bertolino is a piece of land that swoops down a hill with views to the sea and the seldom goat.

Franco e Gaspare did all the hard work. Some trees had been affected by the fly but others were still intact. We harvested the good ones and left the other sadly laden with the fruit.

The result is another 50L of our strong, full bodied, spicy oil. The proof is in the pudding!

Packaging

Last year we found some beautifully (slightly more expensive) blank aluminium tin cans.

Well, forget about those this year! Rustic is the fashion! We have learnt the hard way that you can buy class only with time and good contacts.

We bottled around 60 1L cans to the brink: we wouldn't want anyone thinking we are scrimping on content? You can imagine our horror when Sciroca's oil finished before we filled up all of the tins. Well it turns out that you have to fill them 9/10 to the top.

Which is good news for you my friends!

In total we are shipping 100kg of oil. That's what I call a pretty good start.

Shipping

Finally we delivered the oil HERE!! Hope it arrives!

Little anecdote

I had the pleasure to meet the much revered Diego Planeta, the patriarch of a family with an agricultural experience that can be traced back to the 1500s. He produces delicious wines and oil. Sipping a killer Martini concocted by my mum (who until few months ago I incidentally thought was teetotal - little I knew!) he addressed me with a very smug smile: "80% of Sicily's 2013 oil of olive production has been lost to the fly", "Oh" said I, with with a compassionate look of surprise mixed to pain for the farmer's loss. Swift, a spark in his eyes cut my disposition, "Planeta's yield is been 100%". There you go, this is what it takes to be no longer an amateur!