The producers behind Agrestis have won five World Competition Gold Awards for the endemic Tonda Iblea monovarietal cultivated in Sicily’s southern mountains.
In Buccheri, the highest village in Sicily’s Hyblaean Mountains, millenary olive trees stand out imposingly as ancestral guardians of the territory home to Agrestis.
“Our orchards are mainly composed of centuries-old trees, with several of them probably dating back over a thousand years,” said co-owner Pietro Nicotra.
Agrestis was founded in 2003 in the southeastern corner of Sicily by Nicotra’s father, Lorenzo, and his friend, Giuseppe Paparone. The company aims to pursue quality and highlight the autochthonous olive variety Tonda Iblea.
Our goal is not only to produce high-quality extra virgin olive oils and olives but also to safeguard these ancient groves.- Pietro Nicotra, co-owner, Agrestis
“Our olive trees are scattered on these steep slopes according to an extensive, uneven planting pattern,” Nicotra said. “In spring, the spacings between them become blossoming meadows. The organic management allows us to keep the groves healthy, thriving and rich in biodiversity.”
Once consumed primarily as a table olive, Tonda Iblea is increasingly used to produce award-winning extra virgin olive oil.
One of these is Agrestis Fiore d’Oro DOP, a monovarietal that has won five Gold Awards at the NYIOOC World Olive Oil Competition, thanks to its complex profile. Its green tomato, apple, and balsamic scents melt with notes of fava beans, asparagus, celery and basil.
See Also:Producer Profiles“Agrestis was among the first companies in the area to carry out an early harvest,” Nicotra said. “Consider that here, in the past, by tradition, the harvest started on December 8 [Immaculate Conception Day, a public holiday in Italy].”
“When we were kids, we helped our parents to collect the olives during Christmas holidays,” he added. “They started harvesting in November, then in October, and now we pick the first fruit in late September.”
Today, Nicotra manages the farm with his sister, Julia, father and Salvatore Paparone, son of the company’s co-founder. Julia joined the team two years ago and oversees the company’s communication.
“Julia and I are bilingual thanks to our mother, Rosa, who is from Germany, and this prompted me to attend a linguistic high school,” Nicotra said. “Then, I earned a master’s degree in business economics while Salvatore studied food science and technology. Having different educational backgrounds, we use our own skills in a specific area of the company.”
A team of field workers supports the team all year round. During a good harvest season, up to 30 people are employed to collect the fruit of 20,000 trees. The groves stretch over 120 hectares, which the company partly owns and partly rents.
“We do not know who planted our olive trees,” Nicotra said. “I heard a legend about the Greeks, who arrived by ships, since the valley where the orchards are now located was a navigable river, found wild olive trees on its banks and domesticated them. However, this suggests that the olive cultivation was spread by the ancient populations that settled in this area.”
Further back, millions of years ago, the Hyblaean Mountains were a submarine volcanic complex formed by tectonic uplift. This resulted in fertile ground, where today, olive trees thrive at an altitude between 600 and 700 meters.
The ancient trees’ extensive roots can absorb water from deep soil layers, making them resilient to long periods of drought on the island.
“These old olive trees do not need to be irrigated, and in any case, it is not possible to set up an irrigation system due to the irregular arrangement of the old orchards,” Nicotra said. “However, lately, they have struggled more with the prolonged water stress.”
“Indeed, we had to cope with the effects of climate change, which led to a lower production for two consecutive years,” he added.
The Sicilian farmer said that the most significant problems occurred during the olive flowering period, generally the most delicate phase of the tree’s life cycle.
“We quickly passed from frigid winter temperatures to extreme heat and mugginess, like there was no spring,” Nicotra said. “Here in the mountains, we have humid nights with frost, and if the morning temperature reaches 28 ºC to 30 ºC, it easily burns the flowers, which happened last year.”
Furthermore, Nicotra said that due to its varietal characteristics, Tonda Iblea needs ideal climatic conditions for good pollination. To facilitate this process, the ancient peasants planted pollinating varieties beside it, such as Biancolilla, Nocellara and the locally called Oliva Lunga, which Agrestis now uses to create blends.
The company relies on a mill in the nearby city of Ragusa to transform the fruits within hours of picking them. The mill’s cutting-edge machinery allows for optimal extraction of the six extra virgin olive oils Agrestis produces. A few of these are certified with the Monti Iblei Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) and the Sicilia Protected Geographical Indication (PGI).
“Due to the drop in production, the last harvest required fewer workers and concluded earlier,” Nicotra said. “In early December, we picked the last fruits to be processed for the table olives. In the summer, we monitor all the plants, and based on how much fruit they bear, we decide which ones to set aside for this purpose.”
In addition to processing olives in brine, the company has revived an ancient dry salting method called ‘Passuluna.’ This method involves putting the fruits in barrels with salt and continuously turning them for a month. The result is an intensely flavored product.
“Our goal is not only to produce high-quality extra virgin olive oils and olives but also to safeguard these ancient groves and their territory,” Nicotra said. “Let me say that our business is a matter of preserving this land.”
He explained that in the past, each family in this small mountain village looked after its own orchard, but nowadays, many plots have been abandoned due to the lack of generational change. Since its establishment, the company has rented or purchased abandoned and semi-abandoned orchards to revive them.
“With our work, we keep the orchards clean, preventing wildfires and reducing hydrogeological risks,” Nicotra said. “In the summer, when the temperature is very high, a wildfire may spread easier if fields are filled with overgrown grass and bushes, and a small blaze can destroy an olive tree that has been there for centuries in a moment.”
“Then, when the land is burned, and plants are no longer supporting it with their roots, mudslides can easily occur after torrential rain,” he added. “It is well established that this situation is exacerbated by climate change. Our goal is to carry out sustainable olive farming, which, based on scientific evidence, helps tackle it.”
When the team recovers an olive grove, neglected plants are usually subjected to reform pruning, which involves cutting off the main branches. This implies a waiting period of several years before new shoots start sprouting and the olive trees produce fruits again.
“Working on this sloping land requires more effort and drives up production costs,” Nicotra said. “This adds to the climate issues we are facing and the consequent drop in production in the last few years. And yet, this doesn’t stop us from advancing on our path and improving ourselves, striving to do our best even in this difficult period for olive farming.”
He mentioned the comments of some visitors impressed by his team’s tenacity in working while pursuing quality in such a challenging context.
“Some time ago, at the end of a field visit, an experienced agronomist told me that we ‘should be paid to continue working here’ since, in his opinion, it is not economically feasible,” Nicotra said. “He called us crazy, as he wondered how we could cultivate these plots and still be a flourishing company.”
“And still we continue, with passion and commitment, to make this work, which is giving us so many satisfactions,” he concluded. “Our products are widely appreciated, and our customers know that the quality we offer goes hand in hand with our commitment to protecting these ancient olive trees and their environment, which are a true heritage of all.”
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