FAQ

Yes.

Every Guardian is connected to a real olive tree in one of the Tuscan groves under our care.

The tree is named, geo-tagged, and photographed, so you can see exactly where it stands.

Its location and photographs remain available at any time through My Grove, your member portal.

Guardianship connects you to a specific tree in a specific place, and to the seasons, care, and harvest around it, for as long as your Guardianship continues.

What it doesn't include is legal ownership; Abandoned Grove continues to care for the tree and the grove.

Trees are assigned within an available grove.

Each one is documented, geo-tagged, and photographed so you can see exactly where it stands.

We do not currently offer a choice of individual tree or grove. Availability follows the real capacity of the groves under our care.

Each grove has a finite number of trees. Every tree is counted, documented, geo-tagged, and photographed.

When all available trees are connected to Guardians, the grove closes to new participation.

Its harvest remains with the Guardians who sustain it.

That continuity allows us to care for each grove properly while bringing another abandoned grove back into care, slowly and without compromising the land.

Yes.

Guardians remain connected to the same tree and grove for as long as their Guardianship continues.

If you received the tree as a gift, you will have the opportunity to continue with that exact tree when the gifted year ends.

If Guardianship is not continued, the tree returns to the grove's available capacity after the grace period.

Olive trees are living things, and they sometimes need pruning that temporarily reduces or pauses what they give.

If that happens to your tree, your allocation stays protected through the grove. It doesn't disappear for that harvest.

If you'd rather move to another available tree during that period, you can contact us and we'll help where one is available.

Membership exists because of restraint, and that restraint runs on both ends of the work.

Quality can't be scaled. Push a tree or a grove past what it can honestly give, and the oil suffers first, then the growth built on top of it turns fragile too.

A tree handled for quality simply gives far less than people assume, and that's the real limit membership works with, not a decision to make things harder to reach.

The same restraint sets the pace of growth: each grove is brought fully back into care before the next one begins.

Founder's Reserve is the one place non-members can taste the oil, offered after members have had first access, and only if anything remains.

Everything else, Guardian oil and Community Reserve, is for members.

None of it is made to meet outside demand. What exists is what the groves genuinely gave that year, and membership is how it's shared.

Root Membership connects you to Abandoned Grove as a whole, with no tree and no guaranteed oil.

Guardianship includes everything Root does, plus a named, geo-tagged, and photographed tree and two 500 ml bottles of oil from that tree's grove after each harvest.

A place within the Abandoned Grove community throughout the year: members-only access to Community Reserve, first access to Founder's Reserve and selected releases, letters and seasonal updates from the groves, invitations to tastings and gatherings, and the option to add a tree and become a Guardian when one is available.

Yes, when a grove still has available trees. Root Members can add a tree and become Guardians.

Root Membership is included within Guardianship, so you are never charged for it separately while your Guardianship is active.

Your relationship simply expands from belonging to Abandoned Grove as a whole to also being connected to a specific tree and grove.

Root Membership keeps you connected to the life of Abandoned Grove as the season unfolds.

Members receive letters and seasonal updates from the groves, invitations to tastings and gatherings, access to releases, and a closer understanding of the work behind the oil.

Availability for events depends on location, timing, and capacity, but membership keeps you connected to these opportunities as they arise.

Membership renews annually for as long as you choose to continue.

You can end it any time before your next renewal, your access continues through your active term either way, and nothing renews beyond that without your decision.

Thirty days after your renewal date.

It works the same way for Guardianship, for standalone Root Membership, and for a gift recipient deciding whether to continue with their tree.

Renewal takes place at the price in force at that time.

If pricing changes, we will communicate that clearly before renewal so you have the opportunity to decide whether you wish to continue.

Your renewal terms will always be clear, with no unexpected changes.

A gift tree gives someone a year connected to a real olive tree and the grove where it stands.

They receive a named, geo-tagged, and photographed tree with a handmade olive-wood nameplate in their name, one year of access to Abandoned Grove, two bottles of extra virgin olive oil from that grove after harvest, seasonal updates, invitations to tastings and gatherings, members-only access to Community Reserve, and first access to Founder's Reserve and selected releases.

The gift is not just the oil. It is a year inside the life of the grove.

The giver chooses how it's shared: Abandoned Grove can send the gift by email on the date they choose, with their personal message included, or they can use a printable card to give in person.

Either way, the recipient's access begins on that reveal date, not the purchase date, when they receive a private invitation to claim their tree and enter their member world.

The gift is paid for in full, including shipping, so there is nothing left for them to do but claim it when they are ready.

Their year in the grove begins on the reveal date, whether they claim that day or later, and runs for the full term from then. The invitation stays open throughout that year, and the oil ships to the delivery address they give us when they claim.

Harvest happens each fall. After that, the oil is milled, evaluated, tested, and prepared under controlled conditions before it ships.

Because a gift's reveal date can fall at any point in the year, timing depends on where it lands: if the reveal happens before that year's harvest, the recipient's first bottles arrive with that same cycle; if it happens after, their first bottles follow the next harvest instead.

Access ends one year after the reveal date, or after the final year of a multi-year gift.

For thirty days after that, the recipient can continue with their tree by becoming a member. After that window the tree is released. No one, giver or recipient, is ever charged without making an active decision.

The gifted tree becomes part of their existing relationship with Abandoned Grove.

They do not receive a duplicate account. The additional tree, its updates, and its grove-specific oil allocation are added to what they already have.

Each additional tree becomes part of the same relationship with Abandoned Grove.

Every additional tree is geo-tagged and photographed and includes another two bottles of extra virgin olive oil from its grove after harvest.

Abandoned Grove is a business built around restoring and sustaining olive groves, producing exceptional extra virgin olive oil, and creating a lasting relationship between people and place.

We are a Certified B Corporation and a member of 1% for the Planet, reflecting our commitment to considering the impact of our work on the land, people, and communities around it.

Participation sustains the groves, the people who care for them, and the work required to make exceptional oil possible. It is a relationship, not a donation.

Fil Bucchino is an internationally recognized olive oil expert, professional taster, educator, and judge.

His work spans the grove, the mill, sensory evaluation, education, and the table. He is the only Canadian listed in Italy's National Directory of Virgin and Extra Virgin Olive Oil Experts.

For nearly two decades, Fil has advocated for quality, transparency, and a deeper understanding of what exceptional extra virgin olive oil can be.

His work has included teaching and collaboration with Yale University, the Chianti Classico Consorzio, embassies, chambers of commerce, and leading voices across the olive oil world.

He also co-produced and hosted Obsessed with Olive Oil, the first feature-length documentary dedicated to olive oil quality, and later co-hosted The World of Olive Oil on PBS.

Abandoned Grove measures the health of the groves as living systems, not only the oil they produce.

Through LIFE Olivares Vivos+, independent research measures what returns when a grove is cared for as a complete ecosystem, including wild plants, birds, bats, pollinators, and beneficial insects.

The work focuses on restoring biodiversity, protecting the land, and allowing the grove to function as it was meant to.

Since 2014, the groves have also been a place of second chances, offering agricultural work to people rebuilding their lives.

Through this work, people contribute to the care of the groves while becoming part of the place, the community, and the harvest around them.

The work is not separate from the oil. The people who care for the land are part of what makes the harvest possible.

Custodianship is a deeper relationship with Abandoned Grove, created for organizations, families, hospitality groups, and individuals who want to sustain the work at a larger scale.

Each Custodianship is shaped around the relationship you want to create, including how the oil is shared, how people are brought into the experience, and how the connection to the grove is expressed.

Custodianship is typically created around a larger number of trees, with twenty trees as the starting point.

The exact relationship is shaped around grove availability, the people you want to include, how the oil will be shared, and the experience you want to create.

Yes.

Your Custodianship allocation can be shared with the people who matter to you, whether that is clients, teams, family, guests, or a wider community.

How the oil is presented and shared is shaped around the relationship you want to create.

Custodianship can include private tastings led by internationally recognized olive oil experts, gatherings, private dinners, grove visits, personalized communication, and different ways to share the oil with the people who matter.

Each element is shaped around the relationship you want to create, the people you want to include, and the way you want the harvest to be experienced.

Yes.

Custodianship can be shaped with public recognition, private acknowledgment, or no external recognition at all.

The relationship can be as visible or as discreet as you prefer, while remaining connected to the grove, the harvest, and the work behind it.