Adopt An Olive Tree

ADOPT AN OLIVE TREE FROM THE GHOSTS OF ITALY. Symbol of Peace & Abundance. The Ghosts of Italy's #AdoptAnOliveTree initiative offers anyone; from book-readers of #GhostsofItaly, friends, and friends who are family, a special opportunity to share in and support an organic, wild-cultivated sustainable olive grove in Alta Irpinia, Campania, Southern Italy. It's a pay it forward story; tramandare is Italian for handing down something of the family. There are 25 organic and wild-cultivated 'Carnevale’ olive trees in the historic San Benedetto circle grove just below my balcony and a dozen more near the crest of the hillside covered in yellow broom. Zia Maria and her husband Vincenzo hadn’t tended the trees for at least the last three seasons; they weren’t getting any younger, one year had been too lean, so they had let the harvest go. In 2016 she offered the trees to me. After a year of fielding resistance from relatives both near and far, 'Why save the trees?', this year I partnered with a local grassroots non-profit chapter of the greater Irpinia Associazione Olivicoltori ~ The Olive Guys ~ experts in the caring and pruning of millenial and younger olive groves and harvesting their oftimes abandoned trees. 'Carnevale’ is a monovarietal fruit, awarded DOP status in Calitri, Alta Irpinia. This means, the trees in the historic San Benedetto zone, are a designated and protected varietal of olive exclusive to Calitri. Wild harvested and fresh pressed, the small black Carnevale produce a mild yet luxuriously rich and complex fruity oil. Wouldn’t you love some on your table?