Give an olive branch

For any self-respecting “foodie”, the choice of olive oil is one way to separate the would-be Ramsays from the mortals. Now, thanks to a scheme run by Cathy Rogers and Jason Gibb, you can get oil from your own olive tree

Rogers and Gibb now live in Le Marche in Italy and have run Nudo—an adopt-an-olive tree scheme—since last October. As Rogers explains: “We wanted to do something more physical and food-related and liked the idea of living in a different country.”

Their olive grove consists of 881 trees. Once a customer has adopted a tree (for £60) they receive its harvest of oil for a year. The olives are picked and pressed by Rogers and Gibb. “We did a course on how to prune the trees—there was me with a five-month old baby strapped to my back and about 50 gnarled Italian men. They think we’re bonkers,” says Rogers.

She thinks Nudo is popular because people are more in touch with food these days. “People want to know more about the provenance of food. As they can visit their tree, they are also buying a lifestyle.” www.nudo-italia.com