k&k olive

Our project arose on our first visit to Corsica in 2012. We had always dreamed of an olive grove in Styria, which would never be possible with our climate.

On our first visit to Corsica, we met Ivo and Emilie Borel at the market in Bravonne. Ivo is Italian, and is the 4th generation in his family to be entrusted with the production of olive oil.

The Oltremonti estate stretches along gently rolling green hills on the banks of the Bravonne and covers 35 hectares on the east coast of the Île de Beauté.

The olive oil is cultivated organically. The mill uses the most up-to-date technology. And so you can find a diverse range of extra virgin oils, from very mild to fiery. The fresh-peppery notes on the palate can be traced to the high amount of polyphenols (vitamin E, tocopherol, squalene).

In order to broaden the palette of polyphenols, we have also added red wine from Bordeaux (the Lavau family), as well as sardines from Portugal. Naturally, Prosecco must not be absent from our offer, and this comes from Nani Rizzi, Azienda Agricola, Valdobbiadene.

A small PopArt store in Feldbach should invite the gourmets to an olive oil, the connoisseurs to a glass of wine, the communicators to a chat and the dreamers to a minute of mediation under the olive tree.

All of this with an olive-green footprint: no need to travel great distances – come to us instead.

According to lore, the native olive oil that came from the first pressing of olives was used in the lamps of Jewish temples. The oil from the second pressing was used in medicine and the third was for soap.

Hippocrates (460BC-370BC), the founder of medicine as a science, sat on the island of Cos under an olive tree and recommended the use of olive oil for a long life. Cleopatra used perfumed olive oil as a cosmetic product, Homer wrote poetry by the light of an oil lamp.

The Mount of Olives with the garden of Gethsemane contains within it, probably the oldest olive trees (2000 years old) in the world, and is a tourist attraction today.

In the Bible, oil and its partner wine are mentioned in the book of Genesis. In Capernaum, the birthplace of Jesus, there was also an olive press.

The olive is the symbol of the Mediterranean Levant. The high crops of Mesopotamia and Egypt were the creators of olive oil.

Idlib in Syria was possibly the home of the first domesticated olive tree. In Ebla (60km south of Aleppo), 30,000 cuneiform tablets were found, detailing nutrition and agriculture. These tablets are mankind’s oldest written source.

Not far from Tel Aviv, 100 oil mills were discovered, erected by the Philistines in 100BC.

Islam also valued the olive tree. The Qur’an describes the olive tree as the tree that grew up out of Mount Sinai.