Jovial Olive Harvest & 2017 Pre-Order Special

This is one of the beautiful organic farms where the olives are grown for jovial’s Reserve Blend Extra Virgin Olive Oil. To spend the day on this farm is to understand why the people in this area are so proud of their heritage. They like to be small, to do things by hand, and there are no aspirations to modernize, even though these farms are now passing on to the younger generation. While Italian wheat farmers grow the same hybridized wheat seeds sold worldwide, and Italian apple farmers have removed their tart and crisp ancestral varieties and replaced them with Fuji, Golden Delicious and Pink Lady, the people here in this region know there is nothing more important than saving these old olive trees, some dating back 1,000 years.

I have lived in Italy for 25 years and seen the changes to the food system here as an outsider, and it’s heartbreaking. Large supermarkets are replacing the neighborhood fruit and vegetables stores, people are buying packaged meat and processed foods. When I peer into shopping carts, I silently think to myself- No, don’t go where Americans went in the 1980’s. You can already see the physical changes, people are gaining weight, their skin not glowing the way it once did. It is so important to keep the world’s food traditions alive, because once globalization takes over and another farmer decides its time to pull up an old tree and replace it with one that promises mechanical harvesting and higher yields, we have all lost something.

When Romans expanded their empire to this region of Veneto in Northern Italy, they brought ancient varieties of olives with them. They must have known the micro-climate around Lago di Garda would protect the olives from hot summers and that it would create a cool fall that would allow the olives to ripen slowly. Thanks to Roman ingenuity, this year’s extremely hot and dry summer did not effect the harvest. While other regions of Italy have reported having yields up to 40% less than normal, the day I spent on this farm was the celebration of a good year!

And when you celebrate with Daniele, who is the owner of the farm and the frantoio that presses the olives, as well as a winemaker, it is always a day to remember!  This year, I invited Lorenzo, our pasta maker and his friend Massimo, a chef from Lucca, to join me. We had been cooking together at the villa in Lucca a few weeks before and both Lorenzo and Massimo had said how much they loved Daniele’s wine and olive oil. After watching the harvest, the three of us walked up to the wine cellar where Daniele stores his organic Amarone wine. This small place is a little piece of Italian paradise, and a taste of Daniele’s fine wine and olio nuovo proved that he is a true master of his craft.

Once the olives are harvested and packed into crates by hand and transported no more than 2 miles down the road to the press. They are cleaned, pressed at temperatures that average less than 75°F, the water is separated from the oil by centrifuge and then stored underground in stainless steel tanks until it is bottled each month. The oil is not filtered, but decanted, like wine. Everything here is done right! The olive press and bottling facility are even heated with radiant heat produced by burning the olive pits that are discarded during production.

Now, you can pre-order this 100% Freshly Pressed Reserve Blend Extra Virgin Olive Oil at a great price! Here’s what we have to offer:

• Great price – $21.66 per liter delivered to your door, we keep our profits at a bare minimum because we simply want you to taste this authentic product that they hold so dear.
• Polyphenols – Buying 100% fresh oil means you’ll get a powerful serving of antioxidants that just are not present in blended oil sold at retail.
• Ancient Varieties – Preserve biodiversity and support a small group of farmers dedicated to saving three ancient varieties of olives that date back 1,000 years.
• Flavor – Your salads, sauces, soups, and pesto will never taste this good. Olive oil is the key to Italian cooking and the mildly fruit flavor of this oil is 100% authentic. 
• Convenience – Pre-order online while supplies last and when the oil arrives in late December, we’ll ship it directly to you, freight included!
• Custom Bottles – We even use a custom bottle made just for us that holds 1 liter of oil but is easy to handle because of the top crown. Plus, the oil never spills down the side of the bottle after pouring.