Avlaki Superb Organic Olive Oils

AVLAKI is a tiny, high quality artisanal operation, a partnership between painter Deborah MacMillan and Natalie Wheen, writer and broadcaster. It started by accident in 1996: we pooled resources to buy a small ruin by the sea to escape London stress. But to restore the place properly and legally, we had to acquire several additional parcels of land – all of which had olive trees growing. Lots of them – and we found ourselves with AVLAKI GROVES. AGATHERI came later, because it was just too beautiful not to buy: ancient fields, rich with wild flowers and a view which stretches for ever. When we started to research local farming practice we were horrified by what we saw: fields poisoned with chemicals, trees wrecked by aggressive harvesting, olives crushed into massive sacks and processed in filthy mills. So we converted to strict organic farming as soon as we could: Our fields bloom with all kinds of wild flowers and teem with wildlife in the many bushes and trees we leave for cover. We harvest the olives by hand and they go to the mill immediately in shallow vegetable crates to avoid bruising. We supervise the process at every stage from the tree through to the bottling.