You need a litre of extra virgin olive oil, a handful of basil inflorescence and ten basil leaves.
Pick the basil inflorescence in the morning, leave them to dry if they are dewy, then place them in a tightly sealed container. Add the oil, close and leave to macerate for three weeks in a dark, cool place. Add the basil leaves and leave to macerate for another week. Finally, filter and decant into small bottles: you will have an excellent seasoning to use with salads, pasta, minestrone, vegetables, soups…
You do not have a garden where to pick basil? It is the right opportunity to invest in a small basil plant to keep in your kitchen. With a little sunshine and water, your small plant will yield enough basil for each and every one of your recipes. If keeping a basil plant alive is a challenge you are not willing to undertake, don’t worry, you can always purchase basil leaves directly from the shop.

While visiting a gourmet store, you may have come across aromatic olive oil and probably never thought that you could actually make the best one at home. In fact, nothing could be easier than preparing good aromatic olive oil.

​There are a few, simple rules to follow in order to obtain excellent results. The ingredients are: fresh aromatic herbs and high-quality extra virgin olive oil. If you grow the herbs yourself, pick them early in the morning. Then marinate the herbs and olive oil in a glass container for a given period of time. You are then ready to dress salads, vegetables, fish, grains etc. A bottle of aromatic olive oil, with a handwritten label, is also a great gift idea!

So make sure to stay tuned on our blog for delicious aromatic olive-oil recipes and slow-food inspiration!

Does the title of this post sound a bit pretentious? Well, sadly, it’s true. Genuine, healthy food cannot be low cost. Products manufactured by the large-scale food industry can be, but the quality ingredients needed for a wholesome diet cannot be delivered to the public with prices that replicate those of food industries.

All across Europe, local family businesses delivering tasty bread, fresh, savoury meat, flavour filled fruit, etc. have fallen into decline over the last decades. Think for a second, when was the last time you enjoyed a tasty plum? Or bought some pears that didn’t perish within a couple of days?

A growing number of people, if not all of us, has become accustomed to the food with non-existing flavour offered by the big distribution. Only an aging minority, witnesses of locally grown, authentic ingredients could tell you what a vegetable should taste like and when it’s in season. The quality of food in supermarkets is a disappointment, more harmful than it is nutritious.

So, dear reader, if you’re interested in the topic and have read thus far, one must pose you the question: which category do you belong to? Are you a mainstream food consumer or an aging, more demanding consumer?

If you are a mainstreamer, you most likely purchase your groceries from large chains, paying three for the price of one! Seems like a great deal no? Yet this is the precise moment economics kill quality. Why? Big scale producers, with unbeatable bargain power push down the prices of ingredients potentially at the expense of quality. Low-cost/low-quality ingredients increase margins.

The traditional, local family business model has no chance to survive in this scenario, unless, two conditions are met:
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1. The local producer, while delivering the highest quality, has the skills to fully exploit new digital technologies and reach consumers directly. In this manner, we cut off a number of intermediaries that do nothing but add cost and no value.
   
   
2. Buyers invest more time in becoming educated consumers, professionals of food, acting as shareholders of their own healthy nutrition and paying a fair price.
   
   

At Gorrasi Olive Farm, we strive to produce the highest quality Olive Oil. We are of the opinion that if both of the above conditions are met we achieve a system that is a win-win for all.
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Whether you follow the three-for-one sales or are more demanding when it comes to the provenance and quality of food please visit our Store and buy Extra Virgin Olive Oil directly from our olive farm.