Inspiration
Founder, Elise Magistro
Italians call it un sogno nel cassetto – a dream in a drawer to be realized in some distant future, a time that seems so far off as not to be real. And then one day it suddenly is.
I loved my work as an Italian language and literature professor, but after traveling back and forth to Italy for over thirty years to research, write and translate, the moment had come to open the drawer and map out a different kind of future.
Sicily and Tuscany were my touchstones in this endeavor, places where I felt at home throughout my life. Food played a central role in this sense of familiarity as I was fortunate to have grown up in a family where Sicilian dishes made regular appearances at our table. In Italy, the seasonal and local nature of the Italian table made a deep and lasting impression. Even today, many years later, what grows in local fields seasonally determines, in great part, what is prepared in most Italian kitchens.
Any off-hours I had in Italy were often spent discussing and preparing food with friends and family, activities that inevitably led us into their gardens and olive groves. While always happy to expand my culinary repertoire, with time I found myself less curious about how to prepare particular dishes and more intrigued by the single ingredient common to them all: extra virgin olive oil.
The more questions I asked, the more I learned that the world of extra virgin olive oil is vast and not easily mastered without considerable commitment.
Fluency in Italian was critical in this endeavor, as I could interact directly with small producers, gaining valuable insights into growing and production techniques. Back in California, I attended workshops at UC Davis’ Olive Center and on subsequent trips to Italy completed sensory analysis and milling courses. Still, I was unsure where all this investment was taking me. When exactly the idea of planting my own grove and becoming a bona fide producer took hold is difficult to pinpoint. But after observing a memorable Sicilian olive harvest in the fall of 2011, I realized that the time had come to open the drawer - to exchange my pen for a hoe, as one acquaintance put it - and to take the leap.
Luretík was born in 2016 on ten acres in the fertile Santa Ynez Valley, just north of Santa Barbara, California. The name is a nod to my mother's parents, who were farmers, and translates from their native language - French Basque - as from this earth. (At the time, it also seemed auspicious that the parcel was adjacent to the Central Coast town of Los Olivos, and that my husband's last name translates to "tree gardener!”) Finally, while sentimental reasons are probably the least logical justification for selecting olive varieties, I wanted to maintain deep personal connections to Sicily and Tuscany by planting cultivars native to those regions, producing extra virgin olive oils similar to those I love most.
— Elise Magistro, Founder
