The Gaeta Olive represents, to date, one of the flagships of our production.
A cultivar that recently saw production drop dramatically due to the “Burian” frost, which brought agriculture to its knees on Feb. 22, 2018, destroying its plants.
Experience, perseverance and structure have enabled us to be well organized to get through last year and this one, ensuring the distribution of Gaeta’s Nere olives, an Italian product with D.O.P. certification.
The Oliva di Gaeta is harvested in the first days of March so that it has reached the peak of its expression, both in terms of coloration made of a deep purple, and in terms of flavor, which ultimately constitutes its connotations of uniqueness.
Around the world we counted more than 350 cultivars that in outward appearance might have looked similar in flower, texture, and aftertaste, but nothing compares to this cultivar. It is left on the plant until it is fully ripe but, before it is “edible” (i.e., edible), it must undergo a debittering treatment, which consists of soaking the product in fresh water to which cooking salt is added, only after 60 days; it would seem that the operation is over…But no! Another 4 months will have to pass before the lactic fermentations take effect, thus making the olive edible.
This method,which is absolutely natural allows us to stabilize Ph in the long term, so as to ensure a shelf life of up to four years!
Fun fact and historical background: Gaeta Olives have been consumed for so long that they were mentioned as early as Virgil in the Aeneid. They owe their name to the merchants who flocked to the port of Gaeta from where they spread, although they came from inland. During the Middle Ages, the citizens of the Duchy of Gaeta began exporting it throughout the Mediterranean, making it in fact one of the most popular and well-known products still today in many parts of the world.
The Gaeta olive is delicious eaten plain, but it can also be used in the preparation of many dishes in our culinary tradition!
