HISTORY
From the lates research we have been able to acquire documents provings, from wich it emerges that most of the members of the BENZA family, already in the 1600, lived and worked in Val Prino, in the first inland of Imperia.
At the beginning, they were dedicated to the cultivation of vegetable gardens and vineyards, wheat and olives, then, around 1700, they specialised more in the cultivation of olive trees and in the commercialisation of oil.
The passion for the land, the enthusiasm for this work and the desire to continue the tradition, have motivated our family to exercise the activity of oil press operator here in Val Prino.
After years of work in small frantoio a sangue (blood mills), one of our ancestors, in the year 1853, as certified by a notarial act, bought the first frantoio ad acqua (water mill).
More than 150 years have passed since then, the time has transformed almost every aspect of our lives, but our family’s passion for our job of oil millers has been unchanged. The necessity to adapt to the times led us to build a modern, last- generation, continuous system oil mill, with modern machines that respects maximum hygiene, with which today we produce our natural, genuine oil. Our passion for the countryside has led us to expand the farm and increase the number of olive trees to be cultivated.
So, we have started buying, cleaning, maintaining, and working the lands around our properties, restoring abandoned ones, and re-discovering little treasures, such as vegetable gardens, ancient varieties of fruit trees, bealere (canals), mulattiere (mule tracks), caselle (little stone houses), and piloni votivi (votive pillars) that had been abandoned and deteriorated by time. Today, the farm has more than 30 hectares of olive groves, with around twelve thousand trees, as well as orchards and vegetable gardens.
In addition to oil, we have increased our production line with what the territory offers us. Taggiasca olives are offered preserved in brine, pitted in extra virgin olive oil or made into delicious creams: olive paste and tapenade.
The vegetables and fruit from our gardens and orchards are worked and packaged as soon as they are picked, in order to exalt their organoleptic characteristics and preserve their freshness and goodness.
For this reason, a large part of the products that are in the shop at the Frantoio and on e-commerce come from our farm.
THE OIL MILL
The origin of a great oil has a fascinating and rich of tradition process. In addition to the care dedicated to the cultivation of olives and to the choice of the best fruits, there is a secret, the advantage of being oil millers.
The big difference from someone who only selects or bottles, is that we have the total control over the product, from the countryside to the sale of the product. We use the experience and knowledge acquired over generations, together with everything new we learn every day, to offer it to our customers in the same products that we bring to the table for our families.
