116 ~ Olive oil season - orders open!
My nephew Keegan recently had a fine harvest of organic, heritage olives in Umbria, Italy (above), and you can again share in the end product - his 2024 extra virgin oil. What a nice gift at Christmas for yourself and your own family. Some warm Italian sunlight in a bottle - a nice counter-balance at this winter solstice time.
You can learn more about Keegan and his oil from a couple of my previous posts, 62~Olive of my eye and 91~A man and his olive oil – and maybe yours. He and his wife Francesca are two of my favorite people in the world - good souls, doing good things with their organic, heritage oil. And you can share in the tasty goodness if you like.
If collectively we can put together an order of at least 20 bottles (0.5 liters each), the price per bottle with shipping will be $27 (that’s the straight retail price from Keegan to you; rest assured no middleman cut to me is included in the price).
You’ll need to pick up your bottles here at the farmhouse (good excuse to visit!), or I can drop them off the next time I’m near your place if you’re local.
If interested in participating, by Saturday, January 4, let me know how many bottles you’d like in the Comments below or by email (williamrobichaud@yahoo.com) , and make payment by PayPal (c/o same email above), or Venmo to @goshawk99, or by check to 7537 Lakeview Road, Barneveld, WI 53507. We’ll then get this wonderful transatlantic trade route rolling again!
If you don't live near me, Keegan might be able to ship to you directly, and six bottles would probably be a minimum order to ship to one address. If interested in this option, you can contact him directly: keegan_ed@yahoo.it. He also has available 3-liter bags-in-boxes of the same wonderful oil, and if interested you can ask him about cost and shipping for one or more of those. If you’re local to me and interested in the 3L box, just let me know, and I’ll figure out total cost plus shipping with Keegan.
Below are some images from the autumn 2024 olive harvest and oil pressing - with captions by Keegan. Looks like it was quite an international effort!
“Part of the harvesting team. From left to right: Antonio, Harouna and Keegan. Harouna is a good friend from Senegal and he has been joining us for the harvest since the beginning of our olive oil project. Antonio is a retired chemistry teacher from Calabria with a big passion for extra virgin olive oil. His pay is in oil.”
“Damith (left) and Harouna (right) using electric shaker rakes to harvest Leccino olives. Damith, from Sri Lanka, works as a gardener and caretaker for friends of ours that own a big farm house not far from us.”
“Madhavee from Sri Lanka at her first olive picking experience. She arrived in Italy only a couple of months ago to join her husband Damith (in photo above). She is removing twigs and leaves from Leccino olives.”
“Francesca and Camillo supervising the harvesting work.”
“Heritage Rosciola (reddish) and Canino olives.”
Green gold…
