organic extra virgin olive oil
UnOlivo
You're right on time! Adopt an olive tree while they last.
The project
Adopt an olive tree from the farm "UnOlivo" in Larva (Spain) and receive your harvest in the form of organic extra virgin olive oil at home. The Farmer Elisabet will take care of your adoption and take its picture. Also, you will be able to download the adoption certificate and, if you wish, plan your visit to the farm. You do not enter into any long-term commitment: once you receive your harvest and you enjoyed the experience, you may decide to renew and extend the adoption.
What do you adopt?
Adopt an olive tree that we cultivate under the Organic Farming regulations of the European Union since 2013.
During the process of adoption you can choose a name which we will use to identify your olive tree.
The UnOlivo country estate is a family company whose grove and oil mill are located in Larva, a small town in Jaén. All of our olive oil is organic and the process is done entirely in-house, from farming to harvesting, packing and tagging, thus guaranteeing the traceability of the product.
The olive variety that we grow is picual, characterized for being vigorous, with thin and pointy leaves after which it is named. The leaf’s underside displays a whitish color, for it’s also known as “blanquillo” (whitey) or “nevado” (snowy). It is the most common variety in Jaén and one of the most relevant in Spain.
This variety has distinctive features which have made it popular. Its crop is quite stable from year to year, as well as being very resistant to cold and droughts, essential characteristics for the olive grove’s location. It is also more resistant than other varieties olive knot disease (olive tree tubercolosis)
Picual olives are grown exclusively to produce olive oil, since they are not edible. Once mature, olives fall from the tree easily, easing harvesting. The olive oil from this variety is quite stable due to its high amounts of oleocanthal, polyphenols and oleic acid. These substances allow the olive oil to be stored for many years while preserving its qualities and avoiding oxidation or it becoming stale, as well as withstanding high cooking temperatures.
In our olive grove, which is about 25 years old, each olive tree can produce around 35-45 kg of olives per year.
We offer two distinct qualities:
* __Organic Green EVOO__ (early harvest): harvest occurs in October, when olives are not ripe yet and still display a green color. We need 12 kg of olives to extract 1 liter of extra virgin olive oil. The whole extracting process only takes a few hours. It is a pretty fast process to ensure that oxidation is minimal. A limited production of 4000 liters is obtained in a single day in October
* __Organic EVOO__: it is harvested in November and during the first days of December. The olives are then ripe and take a deep purple color. We need 5-6 kg of olives to obtain 1 liter of olive oil
Our olive oil has received national and international awards in countries such as Germany, Japan, Israel and USA. Some examples are the “Gran Mezquita Oro” award in 2016, 2017 and 2019, granted by olive industry’s professionals from the south of Spain; or the BioPress’s award in 2017 (German magazine for organic produce).
The productive life of an olive tree is around 100 years. For as long as you want to keep it and we can continue taking care of it, you can renew your adoption year after year. If your olive tree dies, we will replace it with no additional cost and assuring the delivery of your harvest from others.
What will you receive?
Each season we will send you a box with:
1 x__ 5 Liter Can Organic EVOO__
The olive oil is greenish-gold; lighter in scent and taste. It is suitable for direct consumption and cooking.
1 x __Organic EVOO__ (500ml glass “Frasca” (bottle) with dispenser)
It’s a useful dispenser to serve the olive oil: it is reusable, avoids dripping and easy to use only the desired amount of oil.
1 x__ Premium early harvest EVOO__ (500ml glass bottle)
The result is an intense green olive oil with scents of freshly cut grass, tomato plant and artichoke; along with riper notes of fresh fruits such as apple or green banana. In the mouth, it has a smooth entry, which reminds of the scent notes, light bitterness and progressive spiciness, plus it has a good body and persistence. Recommended to consume raw, mainly with cured meats, salads, cheese, bread or already cooked food.
All the olive oil in the box is picual variety, it is highly recommended to keep the olive oil away from the light and heat. Do not keep the olive oil cold, it should be kept in a cool place.
1 x__ Organic early harvest EVOO Jam__ (150g bottle)
Perfect fit for ice cream and desserts, to spread on bread and surprisingly good with savoury food (like anchovies and tomato), and it goes very well together with cheese and pâté. We make it with early harvest olive oil; keeping the flavor kick and the characteristic scent of the picual, which is softened by the jam’s sweetness. Once opened, keep the jar upside down and never cold, and consume within 20 days.
When will you receive it?
Please, check the deadline for participating in this project (deadline for adoption) below. As of this date the Farmer will start preparing the orders that are to be shipped.
You may select the delivery date of your box as suggested by the Farmer at check-out.
We begin production in October with the early harvest olive oil. Then, we stop for a few days so olives can ripen, and we start again in the first days of November, harvesting organic olives until the first days of December.
The oil needs some time for the particles in suspension to settle. We start to bottle the newly extracted olive oil in the beginning of January. For those reasons, we believe that February is the best month for you to receive our UnOlivo EVOO.
Why should you adopt?
* Learn who produces your food, how and where. Receive your food in a conscious manner
* Buy directly from the farmer. Help to generate wealth and better jobs in the rural areas
* Plan ahead and enable the Farmer to produce on demand. This way we can avoid overproduction and fight food waste
* Reward Farmers who make an effort to use environmentally-friendly packaging and cultivation techniques
Organic
Cultivation in sparsely populated areas
How does it work?
Meet the Farmers
Adopt and plan your harvest
Let the Farmer and nature work
Receive your harvest at home
Adoptions available until the 25/01/2021
Delivery starting on the 25/02/2021
Adopt an olive tree
Name
Delivery country Spain
Final price:
57.65€ / Season
Includes adoption, preparation and shipment of the order.
Environmentalist
Farmer 360
Pesticide-free
Organic
Young Farmer
Small Farm
Family Farm
Visitors welcome
Elisabet Gallardo
I'm Elisabeth Gallardo and I am passionate about the olive oil world. We seek the highest quality in our products and we deliver them to your home. There isn’t a better reward for our work than being phoned to repeat an order or being congratulated for our olive oil quality.
My family has always been connected with the olive grove; UnOlivo began its journey in the early 20th century. In 1900 my great-grandfather Julio was a noted oil broker of Castillo de Locubín (in the Southern highlands of Jaén). He bought oil from the local producers and sold it in Motril’s port (Granada). He was known for his entrepreneurship, and he prospered thanks to his tenacity. With the Spanish civil war’s outbreak, this visionary had to leave his trade.
His fighter soul, his passion for olive oil and the respect for the earth’s products did not disappear. They arose again over 20 years ago through his grandson Julio Gallardo, my father. He followed his ancestors’ steps, taking it further and starting his own oil production. The effort finally paid and drove a new challenge, building and owning an olive mill, giving way to UnOlivo.
I remember harvesting with my family from a very young age on vacations and weekends, we had to go to the land! These were great days when rather than working we enjoyed eating from a “perol” (a large typical skillet where food was prepared for everyone), and had a great family day together.
Before UnOlivo, we already had an olive oil mill, but it was my initiative to create a brand, to sell our EVOO bottled instead of in bulk. I’ve been in charge of coordinating the entire process personally: building up the brand, creating the website, designing labels, catalogs… the entire UnOlivo project was born under my direction. It's like having a baby and watching its growth and maturity. This project evokes in me the same feelings, making us prouder every day of what we do and how we do it.
We take care of the olive grove throughout the whole year, collecting the olives for about two months in winter and sending bottled olive oil on any date. Thanks to that, my brother and I can employ several people from the town throughout the year, plus keeping our positions.
The legacy continues, and we will always make it progress! Apart from supporting my father in the original project, my brother and I aim for high quality organic olive oil: early harvest and premium. We commercialize our bottled olive oil both in the national and international markets.
The olive oil future for small producers like us is quite uncertain, with low prices as the main problem. The olive oil is under the farmer’s profitability threshold, and it is not profitable to take care of the olive grove and collect the olives. If prices remain the same, many farmers will have to give up. Also, the competition is strong since super-intensive plantations are proliferating, where the quality of the product is lower. They end up depleting the land, employ less people and need a lot of water and other products. Traditional olive grove farmers can’t compete against that.
Options like CrowdFarming are vital for small farmers, giving us visibility. Also for consumers it is interesting - you won't find anyone who cares and looks after the product so much as small and family-run businesses.
Elisabet Gallardo
"We firmly believe in “from field to table”, “from producer to consumer” without retailers. Producers can offer fair prices, sufficient to keep us on business while guaranteeing top quality and affordable products to consumers."
UnOlivo
UnOlivo
The plantation is located in the municipal area of Larva, the smallest municipality in Jaén. It is the last town that belongs to Sierra Mágina range, a beautiful natural spot with many sunshine hours. We carry out a controlled irrigation that makes our picual olive oil equilibrated and smooth. This area was known as “the desert of Jaén”, since it barely rains and it was a land destined to the cultivation of cereals. As the rains weren’t plentiful, cereals dried up and the land became barren.
When my father bought the land in Larva, it was fallow, we planted it with olive trees and an irrigation community was created among the residents of the area. Now those lands have nothing to do with a desert, to the contrary, now it is an orchard! There are young olive groves wherever you look at and it is a rich and productive land. The area has transformed from an aging municipality that young people fled in order to work and have a future, to being an area where many young locals ”Larveños” settle to take care of their family’s lands.
The country estate has 53 hectares (579,613.3000 yards) and has belonged to my family for 25 years. In the estate there were 6 hectares of traditional centenary olive groves and 47 hectares of fallow land, which were planted with the picual variety olive trees when it was purchased. Larva is a mountain region, where there weren’t olive mills to process the olives. We had to transport it to other larger towns, which was time consuming. Due to this, we decided to invest in building an olive oil mill to ground our olives and offer a service to other farmers in the area. Today, our olive oil mill is the only industry in the town.
During the harvest season we employ about 11-14 people, and the rest of the year we have a 4 people team. Three out of those four are freelancers: my father Julio, who is the company’s manager and in charge of dealing with the farmers who provide us the olives and managing the olive grove day-to-day; my brother Alberto, devoted to production, is the olive mill master and is in charge of bottling and preparing the orders; and myself in charge of the administration and sales.
For us, water is a key factor. The water for our olive grove comes from the irrigation community “Llanos de Larva”. We count with accumulation ponds which we fill during the winter to be able to water the plants during the spring and the summer, and we use drippers to water the olive trees.
Ten years ago we certified our country estate as organic, since then using only organic products to fertilize and take care of our olive trees. Additionally, we use by-products from the oil mill and the olive grove to fertilize the land. We compost the leaves that we collect in the factory, and the pruning waste is grinded and added to the olive grove soil, turning into organic matter assimilable for the plant. We have a little wormery, where we produce humus that we use as compost. In the factory we separate the pit and the olive flesh from the olive and we use it in the boiler as biomass.
Technical information
Address
UnOlivo, Larva, ES
Altitude
700 m
Team
3 women and 4 men
Size
53ha
Cultivation technique
Organic agriculture
Irrigation
Drip irrigation
Location