173. Save the Olives

Save the Whales. Save the Bay. Save Lake Tahoe. Now we need to add Save the Olives to the list.

Puglia, the region that comprises the heel of Italy’s boot, is under dire threat of the Xylella bacterium, which has already killed 21 million olive trees and threatens 37 million more. These trees, some several centuries old, represent not just the economy of the region, but also its cultural heritage. Driving down the highway there, one passes acre after acre of dead and desiccated trees. There are certain grafting techniques that appear to ameliorate this, a mammoth and costly undertaking. To learn more, watch the one-minute video of Helen Mirren, who has a home in Puglia, describing the problem.

This would certainly be terrible in the abstract, but for me, it’s personal. Tonio Creanza and his wife Jennifer Bell are leaders in the project of preserving Puglia’s cultural heritage, through their Messors workshops, where people from around the world come together to work on restoring ancient art found on the walls of caves of the region. My husband Ben and I had the privilege of working on that project in 2018, and then returned in 2019 to help harvest the olives in the Creanza family’s grove, which they have maintained outside Altamura for seven generations.

So I immediately said yes when I heard from Tonio that they were organizing an olive oil tasting in the New York apartment of another past workshop participant, to raise awareness of the threat to the olive trees. Tonio led us through a tasting, emphasizing how we can tell the “sincere” olive oil from the mediocre, which includes many of the familiar brand names we find in the grocery store. (Look for an actual address on the bottle, as well as the bottling date. The phrase “cold-pressed” is meaningless. If you coat your mouth in the olive oil and then inhale through your mouth, high-quality oil will produce a burning sensation.)

Jennifer made an incredible meal, bringing out course after course of wonderful vegetarian dishes.

Since 2018, we have used only Creanza family olive oil, ordering a case every year, although we don’t bathe in it, as Tonio claims to do.

We will now turn our attention to supporting efforts to fight this deadly scourge. These people and this place are so special to me that I am simply grateful to have the chance to play a very small part in preserving Puglia’s cultural heritage.