Adopt an olive tree? What a cool idea.
Here’s how it works: You go to a beautiful website and scroll through the various orchards on offer. There are more than a dozen in Le Marche and Abruzzo, with a picture of each, a little biography of the olive farmer, and a description of the oil they make. You choose the orchard you want, and “adopt” one of the olive trees. They, in turn, send you the oil from your olives when it’s pressed. (The next olive oil will be shipped in March.)
This is, in essence, an international CSA (community supported agriculture), a way to collaborate with a farmer, become part of his farm. It offers the consumer a way to participate in the creation of a product, while providing financial security to the farmer.
Best of all - you can go visit your tree and meet the farmer. Hard to think of a better excuse to visit rural Italy.
In the interest of full disclosure I have to admit that I’ve never done this. But I’m about to adopt olive trees for all my friends.