The Many Values in Recovering Abandoned Olive Groves in Tuscany

Summary

Abandoned Grove, a project near Florence, focuses on restor­ing neglected olive groves to ben­e­fit the local com­mu­nity by employ­ing socially dis­ad­van­taged work­ers. The com­pany has res­cued over 5,000 trees, pro­duc­ing high-qual­ity extra vir­gin olive oil while pro­mot­ing envi­ron­men­tal sus­tain­abil­ity and social inclu­sion. The founders, Fil Bucchino, Andrea Pagliai, and Gionni Pruneti, aim to expand their project inter­na­tion­ally, con­nect­ing with envi­ron­men­tally and socially com­mit­ted millers and grow­ers.

In Tuscany, a project near Florence focuses on restor­ing neglected olive groves, blend­ing envi­ron­men­tal and social com­mit­ments to ben­e­fit the local com­mu­nity.

Since its incep­tion in 2014, Abandoned Grove has res­cued over 5,000 trees and employed nearly 60 work­ers from socially dis­ad­van­taged back­grounds.

The com­pa­ny’s founder, Fil Bucchino, teamed up with Andrea Pagliai, an olive grower with expe­ri­ence in social farm­ing, and mas­ter miller Gionni Pruneti.

The recov­ery of these neglected olive groves is cru­cial because when agri­cul­tural spaces are aban­doned, we lose land­scape beauty and local cul­ture.- Gionni Pruneti, mas­ter miller

Together, they worked to estab­lish a pre­mium expe­ri­en­tial brand with a strong eth­i­cal foun­da­tion rooted in the local area but with inter­na­tional ambi­tions.

“I was born in Florence and spent my child­hood in Italy,” Bucchino told Olive Oil Times. ​“Then, mov­ing with my par­ents, who are doc­tors, I lived in dif­fer­ent coun­tries, includ­ing Somalia, Venezuela and Canada, where we even­tu­ally set­tled. I also stud­ied bio-med­ical sci­ences and co-founded a punk rock band.”

This glo­be­trot­ting and eclec­tic atti­tude led the for­mer bassist and song­writer to dis­cover the world of extra vir­gin olive oil.

See Also:Restoring Abandoned Olive Trees at Leonardo da Vinci’s Home

“The pas­sion for music pre­vailed, and I spent almost ten years trav­el­ing and tour­ing world­wide,” he said. ​“Meanwhile, my par­ents spe­cial­ized in nutri­tion and opened a clinic pro­mot­ing the Mediterranean diet in the 1990s.”

“During the har­vest sea­son, they would send me Italian Olio Nuovo while out on the road, and we would orga­nize din­ners with my tour­mates as soon as the oil arrived,” Bucchino added. ​“During those nights, I began notic­ing the power of con­nec­tiv­ity of extra vir­gin olive oil.”

A few days of olive har­vest­ing in the early 2000s were piv­otal in help­ing him rec­og­nize the value of high-qual­ity extra vir­gin olive oil.

“I was in Tuscany on a break from the tour when I tasted an oil dif­fer­ent from any­thing I had tried before, and now I can say that it changed my life,” Bucchino said. ​“At that time, despite my music career going well, I felt a shift within me as my thoughts were increas­ingly con­sumed by the busi­ness side of music rather than the art.”

“On the same week­end, while har­vest­ing at my fam­i­ly’s olive grove, I felt things like never before,” he added. ​“My wife Halina encour­aged me to get closer to the feel­ing, and I started study­ing the olive oil art. Like with music, I threw myself into the world of qual­ity extra vir­gin olive oil and never looked back.”

To recre­ate his expe­ri­ence, Bucchino started pro­duc­ing his own extra vir­gin olive oil. He part­nered with Olivart, a com­pany led by Pagliai, who col­lab­o­rated with the award-win­ning Pruneti broth­ers.

Abandoned Grove workers enjoyed a pause in the Tuscan olive harvest. (Photo: Fil Bucchino)

“At that time, Andrea [Pagliai] was already com­mit­ted to recov­er­ing neglected groves and pro­duc­ing an excel­lent oil while address­ing social issues,” he added. ​“As for Gionni [Pruneti], he is not only an olive grower but a true artist who can bril­liantly inter­pret each olive sea­son through his milling,”

Sharing the same entre­pre­neur­ial vision and val­ues, they teamed up to pro­duce a pre­mium prod­uct that would pos­i­tively impact the region and com­mu­nity.

“I would ask how it was pos­si­ble to come across all those aban­doned groves in the heart of Tuscany,” Bucchino said. ​“I real­ized that local grow­ers can’t com­pete with the low prices of the big indus­try or mar­ket­ing-dri­ven brands who sell sub­par oil under a Tuscan label, ulti­mately exploit­ing the com­mu­nity. I intended the oppo­site, namely to help the com­mu­nity thrive.”

Over the years, they have recov­ered more than 5,000 trees of local vari­eties, includ­ing Moraiolo, Frantoio, Leccino, Pendolino, Correggiolo, Olivo Bianco and sev­eral unknown eco­types, from which they pro­duce mono­va­ri­etals and blends.

Protecting local bio­di­ver­sity is a fun­da­men­tal goal at Abandoned Grove, focus­ing on sus­tain­able land man­age­ment and qual­ity pro­duc­tion processes.

“The point is that even if an olive grove is pri­vate, it is a com­mu­nity asset,” Pagliai said. ​“Environmental, ter­ri­to­r­ial and social spheres are closely con­nected, and every­thing related to the land shares the same fate. Hence, it is our duty to care for these neglected lands.”

“When I started work­ing in this sec­tor in 2008, my first aim was not to pur­chase land but to bring aban­doned, unpro­duc­tive and poorly main­tained olive groves in Bagno a Ripoli back to life,” he added. ​“With my for­mer asso­ciate, we started with two plots total­ing about ten hectares. As the work pro­gressed, it gave us great sat­is­fac­tion, and the num­ber of peo­ple offer­ing us their lands grew expo­nen­tially.”

Pagliai’s social com­mit­ment started when a friend handed him two hectares of land where she used to employ some­one in a social farm­ing project.

A coffee break during the harvest at Balatro grove. (Photo: Fil Bucchino)

“She told me she would leave me the land only if I con­tin­ued to work with those peo­ple,” he said. ​“I accepted and started to pro­duce veg­eta­bles to diver­sify pro­duc­tion and ensure the work­ers have year-round employ­ment. I became pas­sion­ate and imple­mented the project. Shortly after, Fil [Bucchino] asked me to join forces.”

Since 2014, Abandoned Grove has employed 57 peo­ple through social projects. Some of the work­ers have men­tal health or sub­stance abuse issues.

The ini­tia­tive also includes indi­vid­u­als who have been released from prison and need assis­tance rein­te­grat­ing into soci­ety. Most projects are super­vised by Coop21, a social coop­er­a­tive spe­cial­iz­ing in train­ing and edu­ca­tional and cul­tural ser­vices.

“Several peo­ple have suc­cess­fully rein­te­grated, and some have become our employ­ees,” Pagliai said. ​“Today, six peo­ple are work­ing with Abandoned Grove through a Coop21 project.”

“Agriculture is inher­ently a social issue, as we pro­vide work to local peo­ple while safe­guard­ing the land and pro­mot­ing a cir­cu­lar econ­omy,” he added. ​“The prod­ucts are bought by con­sumers who under­stand that they are not just sup­port­ing a busi­ness, but the entire local econ­omy and social inclu­sion. Abandoned Grove brings all these ele­ments together.”

See Also:Meet the Start-Ups in Central Italy Reviving Abandoned Olive Groves

One of the com­pa­ny’s core val­ues is that the pro­duc­tion process, includ­ing bot­tling, label­ing, and pack­ag­ing, is car­ried out in the com­mu­nity near the orchards.

“I do every­thing near the groves even if it costs more,” Bucchino said. ​“This helps the local com­mu­nity and enables an oil that best inter­prets the essence of the har­vest sea­son and the spirit of the com­mu­nity.”

In 2019, he co-pro­duced ​“Obsessed with Olive Oil,” an award-win­ning doc­u­men­tary inspired by his expe­ri­ence, which advo­cates for qual­ity and tells the sto­ries of peo­ple whose lives have been pos­i­tively impacted by extra vir­gin olive oil.

“I came from punk music, which is about com­mu­nity and chal­leng­ing the sta­tus quo,” he said. ​“When punk music gained pop­u­lar­ity, it wasn’t because punk changed; it was because the world finally caught on. Today, we are united by a mis­sion, and I believe this same prin­ci­ple also applies to high qual­ity.”

“I started this project to never com­pro­mise on qual­ity, peo­ple or the planet,” Bucchino added. ​“Of course, it’s not easy. I’m an ide­al­ist, but I’m begin­ning to see that peo­ple are grad­u­ally rec­og­niz­ing its value, and more are becom­ing aware of what qual­ity and sus­tain­abil­ity truly mean. We only make avail­able the oil we pro­duce. I can’t let go of the vision of cre­at­ing an oil that can touch some­one’s life as pro­foundly as it did mine.”

Now, Abandoned Grove plans to expand to other com­mu­ni­ties in dif­fer­ent coun­tries and con­nect with more envi­ron­men­tally and socially com­mit­ted millers and grow­ers who strive for qual­ity.

Abandoned Grove has recovered more than 5,000 abandoned olive trees in Tuscany. (Photo: Fil Bucchino)

The fruits of the recov­ered olive trees are deliv­ered and crushed at Pruneti’s mill in Greve, Chianti. He runs the fam­ily com­pany with his brother Paolo, which pro­duces extra vir­gin olive oil and irises.

“The col­lab­o­ra­tion with Abandoned Grove came about nat­u­rally, as I imme­di­ately con­nected with the vision behind the project. It has been a beau­ti­ful jour­ney, and I hope the project con­tin­ues to grow because it holds great value on mul­ti­ple fronts,” Pruneti said.

“The recov­ery of these neglected olive groves is cru­cial because when agri­cul­tural spaces are aban­doned, we lose land­scape beauty and local cul­ture,” he added. ​“Each har­vest sea­son, we wit­ness how olive oil pro­duc­tion becomes a cel­e­bra­tion for the entire com­mu­nity.”

The Moraiolo vari­ety is pre­dom­i­nant among the res­cued olive trees. This hardy tree thrives on the ter­raced hill­sides of Tuscany. The extra vir­gin olive oil from this vari­ety, com­mon in cen­tral Italy, offers notes of arti­choke, herbs and almonds, with medium to intense fruiti­ness.

“We olive grow­ers regard this vari­ety as the ​‘old olive tree of the peas­ant,’ which requires sig­nif­i­cant care due to its ten­dency to grow upwards,” Pruneti explained. ​“Because of its chal­leng­ing form of cul­ti­va­tion, which demands more labor, it is often the first to be aban­doned.”

“At the begin­ning of each new pro­duc­tion, I always ask myself how I can add value from my per­spec­tive as a mill oper­a­tor,” he said. ​“These oils have their own char­ac­ter, shaped by the hilly ter­rain where the trees orig­i­nate and the man­ual labor required for prun­ing and har­vest­ing, as they can’t be mech­a­nized.”

“The added value lies in pro­duc­ing dis­tinctly char­ac­ter­is­tic extra vir­gin olive oils from these unique vari­eties,” Pruneti added. ​“Therefore, we must man­age them care­fully from the har­vest, cal­cu­lat­ing the opti­mal mat­u­ra­tion times, to the mill, where, among other things, we must set the proper tem­per­a­tures and malax­a­tion times to obtain oils with a strong, dis­tinct char­ac­ter.”

One of Abandoned Grove’s lat­est suc­cess sto­ries, as described by the founder, is the revival of an olive grove with more than 260 cen­turies-old Moraiolo trees in Bagno a Ripoli, which had become an impen­e­tra­ble for­est.

“We brought it back to life in three years, and last year, we com­pleted the first har­vest,” Bucchino said. ​“The incred­i­ble thing is that we dis­cov­ered the olive grove had endured not only the his­toric frosts of 1956 and 1985 but also a wild­fire. Now, the trees are vibrant and pro­duc­tive again, show­cas­ing this extra­or­di­nary species’ remark­able strength and resilience.”