Carolyn Adair overlooked the Italian countryside of the Arno Valley and surveyed a grove of 100 ancient abandoned olive trees. With some trepidation, she asked: “Will they make olives?”
“That’s how much I knew about this business I was getting into,” Adair says with a laugh, as she recalls how 23 years earlier her olive oil endeavor came to be. Sinking into the cozy, floral sofa in her College Station home, Adair shares her many Italian experiences and the history of her olive oil business, Amici Italian Imports. As she speaks, the story springs to life like one of the flourishing olive trees in her photographs. Hers is a tale of potential, people, and passion for the flavors of Italy.
Amici’s Roots
A Houston native, Adair worked as Texas A&M University’s director of student activities for 31 years. During this time, she introduced students to new opportunities through study-abroad trips to Italy. “They just lapped it up,” she says. Many students later obtained international-related careers because of these experiences, she adds proudly.
These trips opened new doors for Adair as well. She says she quickly fell in love with the country and its people. She enjoyed spending time with the women in the kitchen where her group stayed. Although they initially viewed her as an outsider, her willingness to tackle the task of peeling carrots with a table knife soon earned her a place among them. “It was so fun,” she says. “That’s how you get into the
culture.”
Adair began to look into purchasing a home in Italy and found a centuries-old mill for sale that was the perfect size for an apartment. The building needed work and was stuffed with stored goods — and even a live chicken! “It was just filthy,” she recalls. “But I thought, Wow, this is my place.”
On one of her study abroad trips, Adair met Daniele Raspini, a young Italian man who picked her up one day when she was hitchhiking.. The two formed a strong mother-son bond, and in 1998, he sold a portion of his oliveto, or olive grove, to her. Much like her apartment, the trees were a mess when she first saw them. A long freeze in the mid-1980s had brought the branches to the ground where they became overgrown with brambles, but Adair was undaunted. She made the decision to retire from her position at Texas A&M and shifted her focus to her oliveto.
She asked Raspini to teach her how to care for the trees so that they would produce olives, and he readily agreed. He and his father, Gigi, showed her how to clear the brush and dead wood from the trees. In 2000, her first crop of olives grew, and her brand, Amici, aptly named with the Italian word for “friends,” was born.
Sharing the Flavor
Every year, Adair and her husband, Tom, split their time between College Station and Italy. They usually visit in the spring to prune the trees and again in October for the harvest and oil-making, Adair says. After the olives are picked, they are taken to a local processing facility, where they are pressed into oil — pits and all, Adair explains.
When she’s not participating in the olive-growing or oil-making process, Adair spends her months in Italy savoring the country’s beauty and interacting with their Italian friends and residents of Saltino, where she and her husband bought another house. “I know everybody in town,” she says. “I walk down the road, and everyone says, ‘Carolina, come here!’ And then we get a coffee.” Many Italian olive growers gladly helped her learn more about the art of making olive oil, she says.
Adair says she enjoys sharing this oil knowledge with others back in the States. Many are amazed at the flavor, she says. “I tell them, ‘That’s what an olive oil is supposed to taste like.’” Some olive oils are mixed with corn or other oils, but Amici is made of pure, organic olives, she explains. It is also extra-virgin, meaning it is the olives’ first press and has a lower acidity. “My oliveto is surrounded by little family farms, and they’re all making it for their own table,” she says. “I figured that’s about as good as it’s ever going to get.”
Such high-quality oil shouldn’t be wasted on cooking, Adair says. Its flavor can better be enjoyed by tossing it with pasta or using it to garnish salads and vegetables, she advises. “It’s good for your skin, your hair, your heart — everything,” she says.
Her 17-fluid-ounce bottles are currently available in four Bryan locations: The Farm Patch Produce Market, Old Bryan Marketplace, Village Foods, and Readfield Meats & Deli. She also ships cases of the bottles or 170-fluid-ounce cans to customers throughout the state. “Lots of people say, ‘We can’t be without this,’” she says.
The Next Chapter
Adair ends her tale and rises from her couch to find photographs of Italy and her oliveto. She returns with her iPad and begins to flip through hundreds of images. Her face lights up as she surveys the
picturesque villages, verdant hills, and shining clusters of olives. The Adairs could not visit Italy last year due to pandemic shutdowns, but they plan to return soon, she says. “There’s so much to love over there,” she adds. “It is so beautiful. I can’t wait to get over there.” And when she does, she’ll have plenty more memories to add to the Amici story.
