About Serriana

Let me tell you about Serriana Olive Oil.

And why I began and run this business.

 I’ve always believed that we can do good for others as we do good for ourselves. 

And in front of you today, you can see that this is possible.

With these beautiful bottles of health enriching olive oil you also make a crucial difference to our planet and the people who look after our natural environment.

Let me explain:

You will already know that olive oil is good for you. 

It has many health benefits and is known to be both anti-oxidant and anti-inflammatory. In fact, some people believe it to be so good that they drink small shots of olive oil each morning!

 
And, the olive oil you have, from the Sierra Espadan, is some of the best, smokiest, most flavoursome, smooth olive oil you can find. Anywhere!

 
It’s like, I don’t know, liquid gold? 

Serriana olive oil will add an extra level of flavour and depth to any of your favourite dishes. And help you discover interesting new ways to cook.

 
However, there is much more to the oil in these bottles than meets the eye or even the tongue.

Little by little, the villages and fields are abandoned and the olive groves left to turn into patches of weeds.

But, isn’t that just how things happen, you might ask?

Well, let me tell you what happens next…

The fields, left uncultivated, become a forest fire accelerator. That is, their unkept and un-watered state means that spring grasses dry crisp in the hot summer and a simple spark can ignite and spread at unprecedented speed.

The loss of one field raises the risk of the loss of all fields, whole mountains and all the olive trees too.

Remember, these olive trees grow for hundreds of years – some, in fact, are thousands of years old. During each year of their life, these olive trees capture and have captured carbon. They deposit carbon in their branches, in their trunks and into the soil.

When we lose olive trees, we lose the capacity to capture carbon. And, sadly, the way of life that sustains mid mountain farmers and villages.

When you enjoy your mid mountain Spanish olive oil, you are supporting local farmers.

In turn, they cultivate and preserve the fields of olive trees that they inherited from their families’ family for generation after generation.


And each litre of olive oil that you enjoy keeps these hill farmers looking after their olive groves.


Your olive oil has been sourced from a farmers’ cooperative – where any net income is sharing amongst the community. This keeps profits local and communities stronger.

Across the western Mediterranean and across all soil types and methods of cultivation, a litre of olive oil has been found to support the capture of on average 10kg of carbon, net of farming carbon costs. (source: International Olive Oil Council)

And, whilst the cost of technology doesn’t yet allow us to measure carbon capture at an individual field or individual farmer level, I’m confident that the mid mountain farming methods of the Sierra Espadan mean that the olive oil you hold, would perform better than average.

In the Sierra Espadan, the villages, whilst found on high ground in sunny spots, are always located in the valleys near natural springs.

Hence, whilst the Sierra Espadan reaches as high as 1,000m, our olive trees are typically found at between 300 to 600m in altitude and quite close to the mid mountain villages. Here, they benefit from natural spring water irrigation as well as rainfall.

This benefits carbon capture in two ways. Firstly, the natural springs mean that olive trees are irrigated without water over-exploitation. Secondly, the raised altitude means that the cold winter nights are sufficient to kill off most bugs and reduce or remove the need for pesticides.

Research has found that this type of medium intensity farming is the most effective in capturing carbon through producing higher tree growth, for each litre of olive oil.

Hence, I am confident that our pure olive oil achieves, if not exceeds, the estimated net carbon capture of 10kg per litre.

When you eat your olive oil, you are supporting the trees that capture carbon!

We are so accustomed to thinking about ‘reducing’ carbon, that we forget that we can also increase carbon ‘capture’.

When you taste your pure mid mountain Spanish olive oil, you enjoy the delicious taste and wonderful health benefits as you do good for our planet.

You help the local farmers and villages to keep cultivating these beautiful and wonderful trees. And, through these magnificent olive trees, you are helping to *reduce* the world’s carbon.

I know that sometimes we wonder if our effort is only a drop in the ocean – but, remember, if it were not for all the drops, there would be no ocean.

That’s why I want to thank you for receiving and enjoying this pure mountain olive oil.

It’s good. Good for you, it’s good for our planet and good for the people who care for our world.

Neil