The story

It was 1940 when Michele planted the first olive tree in a bare land called Topporusso in the heart of Tavoliere delle Puglie, a fertile and flat country in the south of Italy famous for the sun and mild weather.

Those were hard years, after war, characterized by hardship, but also rich in hopes and new perspectives. Years full of true values and tenets like family, honest work, rough hands, genuine products and good tastes. Years in which water was difficult to find and the land hard to work.

All these cares Michele felt when he saw his first olive tree, frail, bended and delicate in a large uncultivated and flattish land… when he stroked its branches and its leaves, when with his punch made the land compact under its roots to let it grow to be great and strong.

What was his wonder and proud when he saw the first olives on the branches and when the first oil came out from the millstone of the oil press, so strongm so golden, so healthy and tasty, characteristics that are still present in Topporusso extravirgin oil.

Many years passed and the olive trees became 2000, the land is now much more fertile and rich, thanks to a dam close to the olive tree grove and Topporusso farm has become one of the well-known farm of Tavoliere delle Puglie.

Today the farm is managed by two of his 4 sons: Gaetano and Pasquale. They take care to preserve that familiar heritage and to continue the work started by their father… farming the olive trees with healthy and traditional methods, remembering always the lesson learned by their father: you must be true and fair with the land, since the nature does not present you anything, but, if you deal it honestly and trusting, it always returns back what you have given.