Answer: We have been visiting these four Italian producers annually for almost twenty years. When we visit we usually stay on the farm or in the homes of our producers. When they travel to the United States they stay with us in our home in Westport.

When a producer is able to pick their olives, crush and then bottle those olives in a very brief 24-72 hour period you are assured of the best possible olive oil. The second an olive is picked from the tree it begins to oxidize and create acidity. The sooner the pressing bottling and sealing the product the better the product. Where the producer stores this precious oil is equally important. The enemy to the flavor and highest possible antioxidant rate is heat and sun light. EVOO should always be stored in a regulated climate that does not exceed 65 degrees. The cooler the product is kept the better. While Spain may be the largest producer of olive oil in the world each country has the equal opportunity to produce the very best if they can protect this precious and healthy commodity. You may always find an Italian, Spanish, French, Lebanese or Tunisian etc. producer who follows the science of olive oil production. Finding that passionate producer who understands and values this product is not easy.

Unless you know the producer of the oil and trust this person you can’t really tell by looking at the bottle or even the information printed on the label.

For many years we have been visiting each of the farms we do business with. We know each farmer and the process of production that is used. We offer PUGLIAN EVOO produced along the Adriatic Coast. This oil we consider a multipurpose oil that can be used for dipping bread, on salads, and finishing as well as for sauté’s and cooking. We offer a very small variety and quantity of Tuscan Olive oils that we suggest be used only for dipping, finishing and on salads. Our Tuscan producers find themselves in the foot hills of Alps in the Apennine Mountain Range. For many years we have found that the olive oil and wines produced at these upper elevations offer some of the very best products on the market. The weather you experience in the northern reaches of Tuscany is quite different from the weather in Puglia where our orchards are located along the Adriatic Sea coexisting with cactus and never a frost is felt. Whereas the cooler winter weather of Tuscany produces an intense flavor due to the stress the olive trees experience during the colder winter months. While we have offered our products at some of the finest restaurants, gourmet shops, and country clubs in the Boston and Manhattan metropolitan areas we offer a high quality low quantity product that will most of the time be available until Thanksgiving, Christmas and Chanukah seasons. During this pandemic season some of our premium oils were sold out by the 4th of July. Locally we have provided our products for fifteen seasons at the Falmouth, Dartmouth, and Provincetown Farmers Market on Cape Cod and Southeastern Massachusetts.

Through the years we have been involved with Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) and have had an excellent relationship with our local farmers. In the past we have been involved with the Slow Food movement in the United States and the International Slow Food Movement in Italy. We have been able to raise enough financing to send a number of our local farmers to the Salone del Gusto, sponsored by the International Slow Food movement in Torino, Italy where our New England farmers have been able to meet with farmers from all over the world to discuss important agricultural issues that need to be addressed on all of our continents. In the future we would love to be connected to "pre order only" CSA's that are within sixty miles of Westport, Massachusetts. Should we be successful in achieving this goal we would be able to enroll several other Italian producers from both Puglia and Tuscany.