Olive Oil is the backbone of everything we cook during the Holidays. And Philip Asquith — a fourth-generation olive farmer — grows them exclusively for us. His Olive Oil is the stuff of legend.
Phil’s farm in Ojai, California hosts thousands of gnarled, centuries-old trees. All of these Olive trees were grown from cuttings taken from some of the oldest and most renowned Olive groves in Europe. Phil’s family visited generational groves in Tuscany, Provence, and Sicily, taking cuttings from the healthiest, most productive trees and bringing them to California. In many cases, they were centuries old, some over a thousand years old. The result is some truly unique trees, which produce Oils not easily found in this part of the world. Their Columella & Noccelara Del Belice varieties are especially rare and consistently produce our very best Olive Oils. They harvest for us a few that are virtually impossible to find in the US, including Columella, Nocellara del Belice, Cailletier, and Lechin de Sevilla.
