Prima Mensa, A Love Story... (I)

Miguel, I don’t know if you remember him, he is the farmer who represents the 4th Generation of an olive farming family that you will already know under the name of San Miguel Olive Grove.

Yes, thanks to him we got Arraigo, whose extraordinary flavour and quality have resulted in unprecedented success...< /p>

When I met Miguel he took me to his Olive Grove, specifically to an area of ​​which he is incredibly proud. And he told me:

– Julio, the oil that comes out of these olives is spectacular. Every year I make a selection and I take them just when they change colour, when they start to lose their green and before they turn black. It’s the one that my friends and family have.
– And why is that, Migue? Why don’t you do more?
– The thing is, if you pick the olives as soon as possible, they reach 8% at most and you get almost two-thirds less oil than if you pick them black. No one pays you what this oil is worth...

So I was, as my son would say, shocked. Miguel looked at me, realized it and said – Do you want to take a little bottle? To which I replied, perplexed… Really?!

The drive home took forever. I had that glass bottle, without a label or anything, on the passenger seat. I was looking at it like a child who had found a hidden treasure...

As soon as I got home, I grabbed a small plate, a dish, and sat down at the kitchen table. I took the little glass bottle and opened it carefully. I took a deep breath... Multiple smells of olive groves reached me, it was almost as if I had split an olive right there, in my house, in my kitchen...

Almost nervous, I poured some oil. It fell like a cream, an intense green. I took a small piece of the bread and dipped it until it was well soaked...

Really, I couldn’t explain all the sensations that occurred at that moment...

All I know is that I kept pouring what I already thought was liquid gold and dipping over and over again. And again and again different sensations came to me. It was as if, with each piece of bread, the flavour was adding and adding without stopping.

Then I called Miguel, Migue , as the one closest to him likes to be called, and I told him: Migue, this Oil must be made known… < /p>

And here you see me, a year and three months later, making my dream come true and, why not say it, Migue’s dream, the dream of four generations of olive growers... May this oil go from the olive grove to your house, without more, as they have been doing as a family for more than 100 years. Only that family is now bigger