The Olive Trees

Iunius Moderatus Columella in his
De Re Rustica, Liber Qintus, says "Olea, quae prima omnium arborum est" (oil is the main fruit among all trees).
In Apulia more than forty million trees are cultivated, which means that there is almost an olive tree for every single Italian: an enormous park.The varieties of olive trees in our region are numerous: Paranzana, Rotondella, Cima di Bitonto, Coratina, Cellina di Nardò Leccina, and each has its own individual characteristics.
But it is only in this area, in the countryside around Ostuni, right in the bosom of Apulia that the variety known as Ogliarola Salentina, one of the most extraordinary varieties of the species is grown.
Some of them started putting down roots when Cristopher Columbus discovered the New World, while here in this countryside the people had started building fortified farms, surrounded by high walls, to defend themselves from the continuous attacks of the Saracen pirates, who came ashore on the nearby coast in the night.
And the fruit of these marvellous secular trees, for centuries masters of our territory, yield our organically produced olive oil. These trees are all gnarled and bent, each one different from the next.
Each has its own history to narrate; there is the one bent by the winds, the other struck by lightning, the gnarled boughs of that other one look like a smiling face, and others look stern and fierce.
It would be our pleasure to take you round and show you each and every one of them; maybe in the not too distant future we could draw a map on the web and introduce you virtually to these trees. After all, they are the true protagonists, the bearers of the golden, organic oil we produce.