It's hard for me to believe that three years ago, we were exploring Mediterranean Olive Harvest sites in Turkey, Italy, Catalonia, and Crete. It feels like yesterday. Those experiences and the great joy we found in talking with growers and producers were the fuel for our book, The Chemical Story of Olive Oil: From Grove to Table, that has now been out for 8 months.
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| 2014 Harvest In Tuscany |
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| 2014 Harvest in Crete |
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| 2014 Harvest in Catalonia |
Since that time, we have given dozens of talks, been interviewed on the radio, taught a total of five college classes on three campuses, and have taught several week long summer workshops. Plans are in place to offer courses in Olive Oil Chemistry to retailers in the Finger Lake Area. Two of us were certified as having completed an olive oil tasting course at UC Davis and one of us is on her way to being a member of an Olive Oil Tasting Panel in Turkey.
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| Making Olive Oil Soap - Amherst College |
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| Leading Tastings near Izmir Turkey |
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| Inaugural Zeytin Okulu (Olive Oil School) near Izmir, Turkey |
We have become advocates and spokespersons for olive oil's health benefits and it isn't unusual to get email from former audience members who tell us that we have transformed them into olive oil junkies!
In the lab, close to a half dozen students have worked on or are working on ways to measure the age of the oil, the free fatty acid content (a marker of quality), and the polyphenols so important for the health benefits.
What's next? One of us is working on a translation of the book into Turkish (ZDN), one of us has become a Food Fellow of the Kahn Institute (POH) and another is working on a revision of Chapter 10 of the book to include Climate Change Effects on Olive Oil Production (RAB).
Libellula,
also known as a dragonfly, is a small flying insect with iridescent
wings one only sees in abundance when a land is managed free of
pesticides and other chemicals. A new mail order business, Libellula Adopt, makes it possible for individuals in the US to "adopt" a tree from the Italian region of Sabina and receive oil in return. The owners write, "The idea to adopt an olive tree arose as we strolled around the olive
groves surrounded by frolicking dragonflies. Due to their delicate
nature, dragonflies only exist where the air is pure and where the land
is free of pesticides. Therefore, Libellula is a symbol for purity and
prosperity." Those who "adopt" a tree receive much more than their extra
virgin organic olive oil (4 x 0.5 l). Like participating in a CSA, they receive newsletters, invitations to visit, and participate. This is much more
than just a retail agreement - it is a way to help support a community
that struggles to hold onto its cultural identity as small farmers whose
lands have been in the families for hundreds of years. 
One of the founding members of this business is Julia Franchi Scarselli, and I had the pleasure of meeting up with her one day in early May. Julia, a double major in Environmental Science & Policy and Architecture from nearby Smith College, was finishing up her senior year and getting ready to start out on a road trip to introduce consumers around the US to the olive oil produced in her home town in Italy. Having grown up in two cultures - Milan, Italy and Virginia, USA, she is well equipped to help manage the online mail order business her family set up to market the olive oil produced the Italian village of Montelibretti, in Sabinia, where her father now lives. 
