Borgo Naera — Frequently Asked Questions

The oil

What kind of olive oil is this?
Extra virgin, certified organic, early harvest. The olives are picked green and cold-pressed within a few hours at the beginning of October.

Which varieties do you use?
Cerasuola, Biancolilla and Nocellara del Belice.

Why a blend and not a single variety?
This is the historic blend of western Sicily, and it holds together for reasons that go beyond taste. The varieties help pollinate each other. They balance each other in the glass, one brings pepper, another softness. And they hedge each other across seasons: a year that suits one may not suit another. We're not chasing a monocultivar. The mix is the point.

Can I cook with it?
Yes. We use ours for everything. The idea that good olive oil can't be cooked with is a misunderstanding. Extra virgin is more stable under heat than most oils, not less, and it smokes somewhere around 190–220°C, well above normal home cooking.

Heat does reduce some of the polyphenols, and the taste comes through most clearly raw. So prioritise the raw uses if you're buying a small quantity. But don't save it for special occasions.

How long does it keep?
Best within a year of harvest, and best in the first 45 days after opening to have the best properties. It won't spoil quickly, but the freshness fades, which is why we ship in 0.5L formats rather than large tins.

How should I store it?
Somewhere cool and dark, away from the stove. Not the fridge.

Where it comes from

Where are your olives grown?
In the province of Trapani, in western Sicily. Part comes from our own grove; part from a partner farm nearby, run by a young couple. Both are certified organic. We're on the ground for the full harvest and the pressing, working alongside them so both lots come in the same way and end up as the same oil. Making sure both are harvested early and pressed within hours of picking in the best conditions.

What does organic certification actually mean here?
Certification is mostly a set of rules about what you don't put on the land: no synthetic pesticides, no synthetic fertilisers, checked by annual inspection in soil and leaf samples. We never used synthetic pesticide or synthetic fertilizers, but got the official certification this year after inspection.

Regeneration

Where does the regeneration happen?
On our own land, for now. That's where we plant, large, well-spaced olive trees with aromatics between the rows, hedges, new fruit trees, flowers, because it's the only place we can experiment freely and live with the mistakes.

The aim is the same approach on every hectare we work with. That means either extending it to our partner farm, or buying and managing more land ourselves. Once we will have put everything in place on our land, we will continue with more hectares.

Is it revenue or profit that goes back into the land?
This year, revenue. Every cent from the memberships goes into planting: trees, aromatics, hedges, and advice from people who know more than we do. Our plans cost at least everything the memberships bring in.

As this grows, we may not always be able to put back the full revenue. The membership will keep funding regeneration, but from profit, what you pay, minus what it costs us to produce, package, ship and sell the oil. We don't print that promise on the bottle.

Ordering and shipping

Why do you sell before the harvest?
The quantity is fixed. We can't make more oil once the picking is done, and we won't buy in oil from elsewhere to cover extra orders. Because this oil cannot be bought somewhere else. What the trees give is what there is.

And it lets us plan. We press once, bottle once, and ship once. Pre-orders tell us how much to press and how much packaging to order, so we're not sitting on stock that slowly loses its freshness.

Does that mean you can sell out?
Yes. Once the harvest is allocated, that's the year. Memberships in particular are limited.

Where do you ship?
Switzerland, Italy, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Austria and Spain.

When will my order arrive?
Orders open before the harvest and ship during the month of November, once the oil is pressed and bottled. If you order after November we will ship within 5 days.

What is the refill pouch?
A 0.5L pouch that pours straight into your bottle. Same oil, less packaging. Everything else we send is cardboard.

The Keepers Membership

What do I get?
Two options: 3 litres a year across three deliveries, or 7 litres across four. The first delivery includes a bottle; the rest are refill pouches. Every box also has seasonal herbs from the grove and a recipe.

Can I cancel?
Any time after the second order is payed.

Can I recycle the pouch?
The pouch has an aluminium layer that keeps light and oxygen out, and that mix of materials can't be separated for recycling. In Switzerland it goes in the general waste bag. In the EU it goes in your household packaging collection.

We're not entirely happy about this. We chose the pouch because it weighs a fraction of a glass bottle and travels flat, so refilling costs far less in fuel and packaging than shipping you another bottle — the bottle you already have is the part meant to last. But light-to-ship and recyclable shouldn't have to be a trade-off, and we're looking at formats that do both.

The farm

Why "Borgo Naera"?
A borgo is a small cluster of houses, not a villa, not a resort. Ours is two, and perhaps one day a third.
Neaera is a nymph in the Odyssey and it means "newly risen": first light, the beginning of something. It fit three things at once. The property was a ruin when we found it, and is slowly becoming a place to live in again. The land is being regenerated. And the oil itself is pressed within hours of picking, at its freshest.

Why the "Keepers"?
In the Odyssey, Neaera's daughters were left to watch over the herds on the island of the sun - Sicily. Our herd is the trees, the olives, and the young orchard growing up around them. The houses are named after the daughters, but they're not the point. The trees are.
When you join the membership, you're funding the trees that go in the ground. That makes you one of the keepers too.

Can I visit?
If you're already travelling in Sicily, get in touch. If we're around, we'd love to show you the grove, but we're not there year-round, so it depends on timing. 

Can I help with the harvest?
We don't take volunteers for now, there's nowhere to stay on the property yet.