Sambrini, Olive Oil History...

A group of temporary employees poses after a day of harvesting at the Mountains of Toledo. Olive oil crops were already the main agricultural income for this region as the evolution towards a cultural gathering was flowing easily. Olive oil as the center of the economy but also as a quality product much sought after by the emerging markets. Time for party, music and community enhancement was found soon after the olive harvesting period would end, around the first months of the year in this area, winter time. With the years, every town would compete with dances and balls, showers and honorary celebrations where guests of honor related to the production and trade of olive oil could be offered receptions and gifts.

Olive oil is the single cooking fat in the kitchens at Marjaliza -no butter or margarine, no lard, no vegetable shortenings, no other vegetable oil. Olive oil it is used in quantity and almost in every cooked dish: meat stews, potato cazuelas, grilled vegetables and roasted lamb, among others. Knowing that the oil they use comes from the olives they gather year after year makes everybody feel deeply involved with the land. Anastasio SAMBRINI learned it from his mother, the very best in town making food preserves and other big casserole stuffs she brought to Toledo from the Basque Country. Melting, early fusion, if one's allowed! Images of her would come to Anastasio's mind, years later, at the mill's porch, decanting freshly made jams, jellies, pickles, bottle fruits and other concoctions impossible to recognize at first sight. 

She also prepared wonderful olives for the rest of the year. "These vegetables are packed with every nutrient you could wish for", she would say. Never lacking home-grown produce, make a note. No fast-food mentality as everything in the property -nuts, seeds, fruits, leaves- contributed to one dish or another. As a natural way of living away from big cities, that was exactly what they were looking for after moving South from Portugalete.