A Serendipitous Discovery: How We Began Importing Olive Oil from Castelbuono

While on vacation in Sicily, my husband and I stayed a few days in Castelbuono, a small medieval village in the Madonie Mountains.  It's known for its castle, from which its name derives, among other things which we later found on our visit.  They also have a smart, unique & eco-friendly way to collect their garbage using donkeys:)

While dining at a few of their restaurants(which are all locally run), we noticed they served an incredible olive oil. Curious, we checked the bottle and saw it was produced right in Castelbuono. When we asked the restaurant owner(who was also our waiter) about it, he pulled out his phone and without hesitation gave us the producer's number—because in small towns, everyone knows each other.

When we got back to our place, I eagerly called the producer, and he warmly invited us to meet in the piazza (center square where locals meet to socialize over an espresso or gelato).  So, we went to the piazza not knowing what each other looks like, but because we were not locals, he found us easily with a glance.  From there, we took a walk (about a mile) with him to his shop, chatting along the way.  When we arrived, he welcomed us in to his humble bottling shop, with stainless steel tanks housing oil that yet had to be bottled by hand.  He then scurried across the street for fresh bread so we could properly taste his oils.  He shared his family story, his products, and spoke about his work and life path.

During our visit, he said something that stuck with me that translates to something like this in English:

"Life is stressful no matter what, but if you enjoy what you do, life can be a little lighter and the stress is not as weighing."

We imported this extra virgin olive oil because we enjoy bringing delicious and special products back from our travels, making life "a little lighter", when you can share good experiences and thoughts with people you love and are thankful for…

We hope you get to try this rare, direct-from-the-source Sicilian olive oil.  Their names "Cassiopea and Andromeda" names of constellations, are a high quality olive oil, using Castelbuono native olive varieties such as Biancolilla, Belice and Cerasuola.  It's a special product that you can get at Ciaccia's unless you prefer to travel to Sicily (which we recommend) and dare drive on the roads to this small town.

Check out the pictures of the donkeys of Castelbuono, and Enzo, this olive oil producer.