In the quiet months after harvest, while the oil rests in our cellar, we turn our attention back to the earth.

This is when the real preparation begins. Not with machines or chemicals, but with a journey.

Each winter, we collect organic manure from the remote slopes of Karaburun, where sheep graze freely on wild herbs in a protected coastal reserve. The Karaburun Peninsula, together with nearby Sazan Island, forms Albania’s only marine national park. It is a place where land and sea still breathe as they did centuries ago.

Getting there is not simple. We travel along broken roads built long ago, pass through military checkpoints, and load the manure by hand from mountain shelters where the animals rest. These sheep, raised on wild forage and clean air, give us something precious. Their manure becomes the foundation of our soil’s renewal.

Back in Risili, we allow it to settle and mature. When the time is right, we spread it slowly across the groves. There are no synthetic fertilizers. No chemical shortcuts. Only what nature provides, returned with care.

The transformation is subtle. The leaves become richer. The roots reach deeper. The trees grow quieter and stronger. And the oil, season by season, becomes more itself.

We do this because we believe in care that goes full circle. What nourishes the sheep nourishes the tree. What nourishes the tree nourishes us.

This work is slow. It is physical. And it is essential.

Every bottle holds the olive’s gift, but the depth comes from the soil beneath it.