Tomorrow I am leaving for Italy, where I will be teaching and doing research for the University of Gastronomic Sciences for a year. I will be living in Bra, the headquarters for Slow Food. In the next few weeks I hope to embark on my olive oil apprenticeship on the road to becoming an extra virgin olive oil sommelier. I will also be traveling down to Amelia to see Francessco and many old friends. Updates on this year’s harvest will be posted regularly on this blog, along with photos. In November, I will be helping with the olive harvest and I plan on putting our oil into the bottles myself. It doesn’t get much more transparent than that.
Don’t forget that you can preorder 2008 Amelia Oil by downloading an order form on our site. Shortly, we will be able to accept visa and mastercard, hence we will be able to ship to the United States. I will keep you posted.
Wow. Good for you. I look forward to reading about your travels and experiences on your blog (and linking to them, too :). How exciting. Totally jealous!
Costas (from http://www.iloveoliveoilblog.com)
Let me be the first to welcome you.
CB
Hello, I am in South Africa and through reading I have developed a passion for olives and olive oil. I am not financially in a position to farm for myself. I have planted and orchard of 18 trees. I am very interested in attending a olive oil making course that will enable me to apply for a position with one of the big olive farms in South Africa. Can you provide me with advice. I have looked at some of the Italian sites, but I do not speak italian. I am a anthropologist by education and have lectured and practiced photography for the last 10 years.
Your advice will be appreciated.
Regards, Johan Botha
Johan,
It sounds like you have been bitten by the same olive bug. Great! Have you tried asking the companies in South Africa what sorts of qualifications they are looking for? I know in Italy registered olive oil tasters are employed by the big olive companies. The course I was thinking of taking is through the ONAOO. This is their site in English: http://www.oliveoil.org/eng/home.asp
As I embark on the olive oil sommelier adventure, I will keep folks posted on this blog.
Let me know what you get up to and keep in touch.
All the best,
Rachel