Guided by a deep respect for tradition and a passion for olive oil, we are a boutique producer of olive oil situated in Umbria, Italy, where we nurture our olive groves to ensure that our oil embodies a harmonious blend of taste, quality, heritage, and sustainability, and that it reflects our ambition of bringing people together from around the world in a shared experience, a common moment, that dates back thousands of years. We are not, however, a commercial enterprise and currently sell no oil but instead use what limited oil we do make for personal living and enjoyment.

In general terms we take inspiration from Italy’s own ‘slow food’ movement, which started in Rome in 1986 (www.slowfood.com). The aim is not just to bring back to vibrant life a typical working Italian farm but also to promote now unused, historical plant varietals and to return lost knowledge about old species and forgotten approaches to cooking and eating. Ideas that you can find in unusual books such as ‘Profumi e sapori perduti: il fascino della frutta antica’.

This reflects a fear that our relationship to nature and to food might now be wholly commodified; whether at the top end of the market or elsewhere; whether it is glamping or Michelin stars or bestseller lists. There may be decreasing scope left for the local, the imperfect, the inefficient, or the wayward, and so for the individual, the unusual and the serendipitous.

We dream of developing Sambucaro somewhat along the lines of Benton End in England, which mixed together in a successful and meaningful way the creative passions of art, gardening, and cooking.

In any case, our life and the work we do finds its own time or best moment in step with the nature around us and the seasons. We find there is an ebb and flow in the levels of energy and productivity across the year depending on how circumstances come together and how we or others tackle the day. 

We draw inspiration both from our setting and from our dreams rather than forcefully creating and driving through a schedule or a plan, rather than imposing a relentless and perhaps untethered desire for full control, immediate gratification, or perfect certainty. We are patient to allow things to happen and flourish rather than impatient to clearly secure a guaranteed return, which desire often creates tension and proves counterproductive.

We equate the slow life with ‘the good life’; one less driven by abstract ideals or external pressures which may have little real link either with one’s own, individual personality or with nature and its cycles. We believe in the power of nature working its magic through time, community and conversation. 

This is how life should be. it has meaning, is given special value, precisely because we create, sustain, and hold important concrete relationships in some form or other, with nature, with other people, and with the past; whether the relationship is based on family, love, friendship, or respect.