Danilo Manco
Danilo has been making his own award-winning blends of olive oil since 2001, and for as long as he can remember with his family before then. His family olive groves are in Puglia in Southern Italy where he grew up and developed his passion for making olive oil.
Danilo’s life is intimately connected to the seasonal rhythm of olive growing. He inherited his skills from his father and grandfather but he traces his passion to a life changing epiphany as a young boy harvesting olives with his grandfather. Frustrated by his own slow olive picking he picked up a wooden stick and started to thrash at the olive branches. His grandfather stopped his attack and asked him how he would feel if the stick was used in the same way on him. And in that seminal moment a life lesson in good husbandry was learned, and a drive for sustainable “goodness” born.
He feels lucky that he can weave his passion for olives, the land and his love of working with his family into a business that gives him so much pleasure. "Everyone in the family gets involved: from the oldest and most experienced member of the family to the youngest and newest novice"