Homestead Ventures · Sicilian Olive Oil Project
Many of the Sicilian homesteads we vet already have mature olive trees in production. We don’t plant and wait a decade. We reclaim the grove, prune, press the harvest, and build a biodynamic Sicilian olive oil from trees that have been standing for generations.
This is not commodity oil. It’s small-batch Sicilian extra virgin from trees that have been standing for generations, bottled as a living product, not a supermarket blend.
Why Sicily
Native cultivars — recognized under the Sicilia IGP — give oils that taste like the island: green almond, tomato leaf, artichoke, pepper.
The Sicilia PGI requires a fruity profile, peroxide value at or below 12, and polyphenols at or above 100 mg/kg. That’s the floor. We aim higher.
The government already supports rural restoration with tax incentives and grants. The trees are in the ground.
The work is reclaim, prune, harvest, press.
The trees we already have
Homestead Ventures scouts properties with productive groves attached to stone casali. That is the model — not saplings and a decade of patience.
A mature olive tree typically yields on the order of three to five liters of oil in a normal year (the range is wide — roughly one to fourteen liters depending on cultivar, weather, and alternate bearing). Oil yield from fruit in Sicily commonly sits around twelve to seventeen percent by province; Biancolilla is often lower (about eleven to twelve percent) because of a large pit; Nocellara can run fifteen to sixteen percent.
A grove of about one hundred mature trees is a real starting brand: on the order of fifty to one hundred liters in a modest year, more in a heavy year. That is enough for a first commercial harvest cohort — a single-origin bottling from a single cultivar on a single harvest date. As more scouted homesteads come online, the pool of fruit grows without waiting for saplings.
Note: Exact grove inventories are verified per property before we publish specific hectare or tree counts. The numbers above are the honest range — not a marketing figure.
What biodynamic means here
Demeter is the international standard: the farm treated as one living system, soil fertility without synthetic chemistry, specific preparations, closed-loop thinking. Sicily already has Demeter-certified farms. That is the direction — not a marketing word on a conventional bottle.
Practically:
The standard
This is not a commodity oil. It is not a house blend. It is not a regional average built for shelf stability at scale.
Every bottle is traceable to a single grove, pressed from a single cultivar, on a single harvest date. What comes off the trees on the day of harvest goes into the tank, into the bottle, and onto the label — unblended.
Premium single-estate oils already exist — California and Spanish single-origin producers at roughly $30–$80 per bottle. Sicily has the story those brands don’t: ancient cultivars, IGP territory, the reclaim-the-grove narrative. Freshness is the product. Extra virgin is a perishable. Single-origin, harvest-dated is how you keep it honest.
The business plan
Not a moonshot. A staged build where the trees are already producing.
Reclaim
Bring scouted Sicilian properties with mature trees into production under one milling standard. First harvest bottled as a limited single-origin run — one grove, one cultivar, one harvest date.
Tree-adoption option: a supporter is tied to a specific tree or row and receives oil from that harvest.
The Subscription
Quarterly shipments to a founding subscriber cohort. Single-origin, harvest-dated, single-cultivar bottles. Skip or cancel anytime. Gift subscriptions.
A “founding pantry” tier locks in first-year pricing and a named share of the first commercial harvest.
Scale the Pool
More homesteads, more trees, same mill protocol. Each new grove pressed alone. Each new cultivar bottled alone. Scale without blending. Still small-batch. Still Sicilian. Still biodynamic.
Revenue from oil sits alongside the site’s existing Sicily returns: grove income, agro-tourism, restored casali.
The opportunity
Same frame as the Ragusano donkey project. Early supporters are not buying a plaque. They are in before the first bottled harvest reaches market.
Tier 01
Fund pruning, harvest labor, and first milling.
You’re at the origin. Your capital brings a scouted property back into full production — the pruning, the harvest labor, the first pass through the mill.
Tier 02
Adopt a tree or a row.
Your name goes on a specific tree or row. Every year that tree produces, you get an allocation of oil from that fruit. Continuity across harvests. Named on the harvest list.
Tier 03
Fund the subscription launch.
Grove and mill are proven. Your capital funds the bottling, labeling, and shipping pipeline that gets the oil into subscriber pantries on a quarterly cadence.
This compounds with the homestead model already on the site: you restore the land, the land produces, the product ships.
Not a founding partner?
Not everyone we talk to is positioned for a founding-partner slot — and that’s fine. If you want to see this oil come to life and hold the first bottle when it ships, there’s a way in at every level. Backers named. Product delivered. No equity, just early access to something real.
Level 01
A simple way to be part of it — and to hear from Sicily every month.
Join as Friend →Level 02
The tier where you actually hold the product — the first bottle of the harvest, single-origin, harvest-dated.
Join as Supporter →Level 03
The full backing tier — and an open door to visit the grove yourself.
Join as Patron →Every supporter, at every level, helps get this oil out of the grove and into the bottle. A small bottle still counts as a launch.
The close
Investor Briefing
For serious backers who want the numbers before the conversation.
Mature groves already producing. Biodynamic Sicilian extra virgin. Single grove, single cultivar, single harvest date. Rough startup costs and revenue ranges by grove size — and the subscription math that changes the whole story.