Innovative olive farmers

Following in the footsteps of vineyard sharing concepts like WineShare and St. Helena Winery’s Adopt-A-Vine, Nudo lets customers adopt an olive tree. Founded by two former British television producers who decided to ditch the rat race for a farm in rural Italy, Nudo is an olive grove that offers trees for adoption. Customers pick their own tree from one of eight sections of the grove. Each plot of land is described in detail; for example, Il Sogno: “Reached via the (friendly) farmer’s field next door and a small bramble forest, the trees here are more au naturel but seem happy that way.” For GBP 60 (USD 110/EUR 90) per year, plus shipping, customers receive all the produce from their adopted tree. Besides an adoption certificate and booklet about the tree, this includes a spring package containing extra virgin olive oil, and an autumn package of lemon olive oil and handmade soaps. (To be precise, the oil doesn’t come from the actual tree, but is a share of the crop produced by a section of trees.) So far, 548 of the 881 trees have been adopted. The exact amount of oil depends on the year’s harvest, but each tree normally produces between one and three litres per year. Which makes for fairly expensive olive oil, but of course the charming story is a large part of the deal. Not only can customers drizzle their salads with oil from their very own tree on an Italian hillside, but if they decide to visit the grove, adopters are offered a picnic under the shade of their knotty olive. Everyone benefits: consumers can connect to the source of their (organic) food; new, entrepreneurial farmers gain a steady income; and small scale, artisanal farming helps keep the countryside looking quintessentially Italian.