MATINUM
The origin of Mattinata, my home town, can be traced back to the Roman village of Matinum, named after Mater Matuta, an indigenous Latin goddess, whom the Romans eventually made equivalent to the Dawn Goddess Aurora, and the Greek Goddess Eos.
Ruins of a Roman olive oil deposit on our shore.
We are in Puglia or Apulia, where that funny pointy-looking houses called ‘Trulli’ are!
But they are a little further south. We are from the far north, the spur of the Italian boot.
Mattinata is one of the small communities situated around the foot-hills of Mount Gargano.
Almost all the green to be seen is olive trees.
Mattinata is renowned for the quantity of its Extra Virgin Olive Oil.
Our economy centres around hospitality during Summer, and olive oil production during Autumn and Winter.
This is what makes people from my hometown so special and made me become a better version of myself. As a child growing up here, I always felt blessed. All of my memories bring me back to this paradise, where the time seems to stop, and the wind whispers to your soul. (OK that’s deep! where was I…?)
The Adriatic Sea breeze blows in its plains, valleys and mountains, creating a variety of UNIQUE MICRO-CLIMATES, signature of our products' EXCELLENCE.
Mediterranean shrubs, pine forests and wild olive bushes all around the coast, blend perfectly with our indigenous olive tree variety called “OGLIAROLA GARGANICA".
Olea Europaea (Olive Tree), is one of the most important fruit trees EVER!
Extra virgin olive oil is a cocktail of health-promoting micro elements that make it the KEYSTONE of the Mediterranean diet. For centuries it has been widely used in folk medicine by the Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans; to name a few.
For generations, my family has been taking care of our estates, situated around the hills of our towns, organically.
Due to the unique terroir of each estate, any produce from these hills is considered to be at its best. Those steep hills, often seem to challenge our commitment to achieving our outstanding produce. The use of machinery up here, is almost impossible. Harvesting can be very dangerous, and sometimes is not even worth trying.
Olive leaves are one of the byproducts of farming our groves, and they accumulate during the pruning season.
Recently, olea europaea leaves, have attracted growing interest in the scientific community, who realised that they are the richest source of olive phenolic active compounds, responsible for the olive tree health benefits.
One of the greatest realisations of our time, if we think that it was already mentioned in both the Bible and Koran. More scientifically, olive leaves's medicinal properties, were first documented and explained in the 1st Century AD when Pliny the Elder , a Roman author, naturalist and natural philosopher, writes about it in his “Naturalis Historia”.
Therefore important scientific and technical efforts have been made to determine the value of this agricultural waste.
