The Olive Grove

Danny has embraced olive farming with the same vigor that his 20-year-old self grabbed hold of cooking. His passion for learning new things is at the heart of our latest project, and our partner Filippo Sardo is the catalyst for his enthusiasm and learning.

Filippo grew up in the olive grove beside his father Angelo, who taught him the art of caring for these magnificent trees. Working beside his father, Angelo realized that to guarantee the finest quality oil, he needed to cultivate the olives himself. In 1974, Angelo, utilizing his knowledge and experience, chose the Chiaramonte Gulfi area of Sicily as the site for his future growth. This fertile territory in the province of Ragusa boasts a perfect Sicilian climate for olive cultivation and is renowned for producing fine oils. Angelo purchased a property with 2,000 trees that were over 200 years old, and then planted more than 5,000 additional trees himself, establishing the family’s third olive mill. It’s this land that Filippo and his wife Marcelle have made their home, growing the olive grove in his father’s memory to produce an organic, cold-pressed extra virgin olive oil, aptly named Angelo.

The couple expanded their olive grove to include an agrotourismo B&B, which is where fate brought Danny and Michelle to stay in the fall of 2023. Over breakfast on their first day, the seed was planted for change. No one could have imagined that it would sprout and produce so quickly.

By the Spring of 2024, the two couples hosted their first tour of the region with guests from the United States, introducing them to an authentic side of Sicily you can’t get on your own. We could not have dreamed up a more perfect friendship. When we are not dreaming up new tours for clients, we are in the groves. Filippo and his pruning partner, Giovanni, are teaching Danny the art of pruning. Danny graduated from picking up branches to pruning our trees alongside them in 2025. We have added 350 trees to our inventory, which will be producing olives for oil in five years. Each fall, we hand-pick our small grove and press our olive oil daily to create our single-estate, small-batch EVOO, while also lending a hand to the Sardo’s operation.

Our tours include dinner at both olive groves throughout the year. However, we also offer one tour annually where guests can pick a few olives, enjoy a lunch in the field, and then experience the evening pressing at the mill. These lucky guests take home a 500ml tin of oil pressed that day.