As far as Sicilian winters go, this one has been milder than usual, and our friends from Switzerland who quickly hopped south to oversee their own olive grove, couldn’t believe the lovely, sunny, improvised lunch we set up for them in the garden (here a picture of it, at Casina Pignatelli). Nor could our friend Santo who joined in mid-meal, all two seats of him… and nor could we, after all, as we watched him devour the remainder of our half-boar half-pig roast (no, we are not vegetarians, but we do raise our own pigs and occasionally a cow, and enjoy meat once in a while – and yes, some of us are less non-vegetarian than others in the family and prefer to raise a dozen fleabaggy dogs instead). All that to say, warmth abounds at Becchina! – GaB
Bon Giorno!
We LOVE your Oleo Verde, Don Gianfranco Becchina.
Where can we buy it in Miami, Florida where my wife Holly and I live? Thank you and have a wonderful weekend.
Harry
Hello Harry,
Thank you for being such an enthusiastic fan of our Olio Verde. My father, Gianfranco Becchina, is currently covered in olives and up to his elbows in olive oil as we have just started harvesting and milling for our new, 2010 yearly production of Olio Verde. Hope you don’t mind if I answer in his place. As we already wrote to you via separate email, we make Olio Verde available in the United States through 2 importers/distributors (www.manicaretti.com http://www.primelineinc.com). Please look up their 1-800 numbers on their websites and call them for updated retail and restaurant information in Florida. For instance, Olio Verde is used at De Vito (Danny De Vito’s South Beach restaurant) and is retailed nationwide at Dean & Deluca and also Wholefoods. Not to speak of a famous pizza place and club in Miami (name I am currently blanking on, sorry) whose enlightened chef/owner drizzles Olio Verde on his fresh ovenbaked pizzas before serving.
May I kindly ask that you let us know, if you don’t mind, anything related to Olio Verde and Florida you may find out – so as to share the information with fellow blog readers and improve our historic database and feedback to our clients? Thanking you in advance from the bottom of our hearts for that.
Best regards,
Gabriella.
NB: I do recall buying a bottle of my very own Olio Verde in Florida in December 1996 at a special deli somewhat out of town, while on vacation in Coconut Grove, to bake a Swiss carrott cake for my hosts – that’s just to say, Florida and NY are the two first states to have embraced our olive oil, the latter even as early as 1989!
Hi, did you end up finding our Olio Verde via either one of our 2 US importers (manicaretti.com & primelineinc.com)? Thanks.
Ciao
I am Margie Roelands, traveling to Italy/Sicily with my friend Margaret Sylvester in a few weeks.
We will be in Sicily from January 29 – January 4.
Margaret owns a travel agency called Blissful Travel. http://blissfultravelswithmargaret.com/ She takes small groups of tourists to destination areas for a peaceful vacation that inlcudes organic cooking, yoga and body works, and local site seeing including visiting wineries.
I own a resort and winery on Lake Norfork in the Ozarks. http://www.blueladyresort.com and http://www.RaimondoWinery.com I specialize in Italian and Iberian wines, extra virgin olive oils and premium balsmic vinegars. I also do cooking classes and events. I am considering building an outdoor oven this year so I can make fire-roasted breads and pizzas for my guests.
I spent 25 years working in a corporate marketing job before 2005 when I decided to leave the job to open the resort and winery because it has always been my dream to make wine commercially. Our family made wine in California for over 70 years but never as a commercial winery. I took the step in 2008 and am very happy now.
Our trip to Italy/Sicily is for personal and busines pleasure.
Personal – Both of our families are from Sicily. Our grandfathers were born in Sicily, although we were born and raised in the US. Both of us have felt a void in our lives, like something is missing, and this trip will help us connect to our culture, the foods and wine of our past, and just to learn about our heritage.
Business: We have a group of 6-8 people that we are bringing back to Italy/Sicily in September 2012 and possibly booking the same size group annually. We’ve already contracted with the group for a 10 day stay. Now we are visiting to figure out where to take them on our September trip.
The group is interested in the following:
Cooking lessons with local Sicillians
Winery tours, including meeting the winemaker and special tour
Olive Oil Tours
Gardening or the concept of simple farming to grow local foods
Slow cooking concept – farm to table
Yoga and body works but not the fancy spa experience, more like a natural approach of taking care of your self
Some history tours
I am VERY interested in your visiting your business, tasting your oils, learning more about your process, and cooking with oils while there. Is this possible? I think we could form a great partnership for these trip and the possibility of exporting your oils to be sold in the US.
First of all, does this sound like something you would be interested in talking to us about?
Secondly, where would you recommend we stay while in the area? We most like the farm house setting among vineyards, olive trees, orchards, etc.
Thank you in advance for your serious consideration.
Warmest regards
Margie and Margaret