If you're searching for an original yet not too costly idea for a keepsake
to put on your guests' table setting, I've found that gifting Lucca Olive Oil
has been a real winner with guests. The oil is delicious and hard to find
outside of Italy, and the bottles are so pretty that your guests will keep them
to set their table with long after the oil in them has been used.
I usually go to a local farmer in the Morianese, one of the most well
known regions for olive oil here, and ask him to sell me a few liters. Then I
buy special tiny glass olive oil bottles and decorate them with raffia that a
friend of mine has a team of mentally disabled adults weave around the bottle.
The proceeds then go to supporting their group home. It's a nice way to
contribute to the local community.
Remember when buying your bottles to make sure that the bottle does not hold
more than 100 ml of liquid so that your guests can safely bring it with them on
the plane as hand luggage. Even if you don't have your own wedding planner,
this gift is easy to make. Go to any farm, fattoria, in the Lucca area
and get your olive oil. I really like the oil at Fattoria Bernardini Mansi, but
it is a bit dear. Another good place is Colle Verde. Prices for good olive oil
range widely. If you're buying from a well known farm expect to pay about 10 to
14 euro per litter. If you're buying from a local farmer that makes oil for his
family use as a hobby, you can get them down to about 8 or 9 euro a liter if
you are very lucky. Olive oil is harvested in November and December, so if your
event is in June 2009, you want oil from November 2008. Don't touch anything
stored in a clear glass bottle as the light ruins the olive oil. Make sure you
buy your oil in a can.
If you can't make it out to a fattoria then the second best would be
to go to a local macelleria like a butcher shop except the good ones are
expanded to sell lots of fresh hot daily dishes and a variety of locally
produced staples like olive oil and wine. Ask the butcher for a Lucca produced
olive oil and see what he can propose. Avoid the gourmet specialty shops inside
the city as they will charge you twice what the butcher is charging you and are
probably getting their oil from the same farms. If the label on the olive oil
has a local farm's name on it, chances are you're getting good oil at a
reasonable price. Also, make sure you specify that you want oil to season
(condire) your foods and not to cook with as cooking oil is a different
grade alltogether, far less aromatic and flavorful. As you are giving your
guests just a small amount, seasoning olive oil is a much better choice as a
little will go a long way to adding pizzazz to their grilled veggies or fresh
salads. You will find that the color is closer to green yellow than to green
and that the oil will look a bit cloudy. That is a good sign.
For containers, try going to an agraria which is a local farming
supplies market. There is one on the Borgo Gianotti, just outside
Porta Santa Maria gate. Walk down the Gianotti headed towards Luna Park,
go more than half way down the street and if you have your back to the walls,
you'll see a store on your left with lots of wicker baskets outside it, go in
there and wander around and you should be able to find some small olive oil
bottles. For the raffia, as most people don't have time to hand weave, I would
say just put a nice ribbon on the neck of the bottle to dress it up a bit. The
tiny bottles' shapes are so pretty that they don't need much decoration. I've
posted here pictures of my finished bottles so you can have an idea of what
to aim for in terms of the final product.
