Slow Food Presidium 
Masseria Il Frantoio, owned by Armando and Rosalba Balestrazzi, is located in Ostuni in the heart of the “Piana degli Ulivi millenari” and in the protected area of the park of the Coastal dunes. The estate, organically run since 1991, covers 72 hectares, 60 of which are olive groves with 1600 trees of different varieties (Leccino, Frantoio, Pecholine, Coratina) planted 25 years ago and 2600 millennial olive trees of Ogliarola Salentina aged between 1000 and 2000 years. This farm produces 5 different extra virgin olive oils: Tre Colline DOP Slow Food Presidium, Tangere Stellas, Pitted Gods, Leccina Monocultivar and Pendici. The production also extends to 35 types of rosoli (sweet liqueurs) among which the only one in the world made from olive leaves for which Rosalba has received a commendation from the Ministry of Agriculture in 2005. You also find jams, snacks, sweet and savory almonds and fried broad beans. The accommodation business is combined with the oil production activity. On an ancient oil mill stands the fortified farmhouse of the ‘600. Its 18 rooms, furnished with period furniture and equipped with all comforts, welcome guests who come from all over the world.Masseria Il Frantoio offers a typical cuisine, linked to the local and regional traditions. Its fresh seasonal products, picked directly from the countryside, delight every palate with their goodness and simplicity.
Italian olive growing, with its immense heritage of olive trees, farmers and olive-pressers that populate the peninsula right down to the southernmost islands, is experiencing a moment of extreme difficulty. The crisis is linked to the process of industrialization of olive cultivation, with the creation of new mechanized machinery and increasingly technological processes, oils of quality less competitive. The age of olive trees, hundreds or even thousands of years old, spread across the peninsula, further contribute to making the production of Italian extra virgin olive oil more demanding and costly. Thus, the market, oriented towards the lowest price, increasingly rewards low quality oils. For this reason Slow Food has created a national Presidium that promotes the environmental, aesthetic, economic, and health value of Italian extra virgin olive oil. It is a national project because producers of extra virgin all over Italy, in different areas of production, face the same crisis.
