About Me:

Almost 15 years ago, chasing up different flavors of Anatolia, especially the local olive cultivars, I traveled the Mediterranean Coast of Turkey inch by inch. I ran into the problem of having to travel long distances with the olive fruit in order to get it to a quality olive oil mill. Then, with the mobile production facility we designed to produce the highest quality olive oil from these hidden cultivars, we produced very exquisite olive oils and collected dozens of awards in the most prestigious competitions from all around the world such as New York, LA, Japan etc. Antalya Tavsan Yuregi-Beylik, Mardin Halhali, Manisa Uslu were some of the special varieties we have discovered and introduced to the world. 

Over the years I have been invited to the organizations in olive growing countries to share my experience and gladly observed that this work is an inspiration for many producers.  

I am now chasing olives on another geography, California… I have been working meticulously for a while on my personal initiative Olive Truck, started its journey in California this 2019 harvest season.

California is very ambitious in high quality olive oil production as it is in wine. With California Olive Oil Council’s (COOC) great support to the industry, in the last 10 years, California’s share in total consumption in US has grown rapidly. Every year, more high-profile olive oils are produced and they stand out with their top quality competitors from Italy and Spain. 

As Olive Truck, we set out to take these developments to another level by bringing our own experience, state of art -vacuum-milling- technology which lets us make the freshest/fastest production from tree to bottle. Thanks to our mobile milling approach, this year, our early harvest olive oils made a great difference in the field with the lowest acidity and the highest polyphenol content and most importantly with their complex flavor profile.

Consequently, Olive Truck olive oils took their place in the most prestigious stores in California and in other states.

I wanted to share with you the excitement of carrying the legacy of thousands of years of olive / olive oil culture in Mediterranean to another geography, California.