Cool Hunting

Making the farm-to-table connection all the more real, Nudo's "adopt-an-olive-tree" program delivers their delicious certified organic olive oil to your door along with the pride of ownership that comes from calling one of their trees yours. In addition to four 500mL tins of the tree's first cold press extra virgin oil in mid-April and three half-size tins of infused (lemon, chile and orange) oil in the fall, adopters also receive a personalized certificate, information about their tree and an open invite to "visit, hug or water the tree in person."

The clever idea comes from two former British television producers, Jason Gibb and Cathy Rogers who moved to the La Marche region of Italy in 2005 seeking a different lifestyle. From their initial 20 acres, the duo's enterprise now includes thousands of trees and nine small artisinal producers in the region and nearby Abruzzo, a strategy that not only helps keep up with demand but sustains smaller farms. It also means that, while most commercial olive oils use blends of questionable origin (read more here), Nudo oil comes from 100% Italian, hand-picked olives that go straight from the grove to pressing.

Nudo's high standards for quality make for an addictively tasty product. When I got a chance to try their orange oil recently, its delicate blossom-like sweetness won me over from first baguette dip. Drizzling it over baby Brussels sprouts with hazelnuts, I felt like the consummate home chef that I'm not. Fortunately, for the many days of the year that I don't cook, the Nudo tin, patterned with plump little olives, looks great sitting displayed on a kitchen shelf.

The tin itself (made from recycled materials as a more eco-chic alternative to glass bottles) is just one part of the brand's commitment to the environment, which includes a portion of the estate set aside as forest to offset their carbon footprint and their organic farming practices.

Adopting a tree costs $150 (shipping included) for a year, and through midnight tomorrow (Wednesday, 2 December 2009), they're offering Cool Hunting readers 10% off by entering the code "cybernudo09." (Check out all of the other goodies they peddle too!)

For those feeling lucky, we're giving an adoption package away to a person who follows @coolhunting and tweets their best recipe idea using Nudo olive oil before 11:59pm EST this Friday, 4 December 2009.