Dobar dan! My name is Martin. I grew up in Canada, in a quaint little village by the sea on the Pacific Northwest. A few years ago I fell madly in love with my family's olive oil while attending our annual village harvest in Croatia.

I've been using olive oil my entire life, but I never appreciated it as much as when I picked and pressed the olives myself. Since then I've been drinking more olive oil than ever before. I use my liquid gold on just about everything, from steak to seafood and more. Believe it or not, it makes an excellent coffee creamer.

Nowadays, I've come to see that few are more obsessed with Real Oils than I am. But for more than merely its sublime taste, I have learned to deeply respect the ancient power of this humble fruit. Olive oil is a miracle.

In the fall of 2017 I closed my laptop and never returned. Software just wasn't for me. But before heading back to Canada I decided to make a pit stop in on the Dalmatian coast to visit my grandparents during the annual olive harvest.

I had been to Croatia many times but I had never worked in the family olive grove. There was something mythical about it all, spending time among those ancient trees, those little wooden shrines that had nourished the peoples of that place, my selo and others, for millennia. I did not know it then but I would soon find myself deeply entwined with their long and branching history.

After much work and more feasting, my trip had come to an end. It was time to return home. I left half my clothes in the village to make room in my suitcase for 20 liters of the finest extra virgin olive oil I'd ever tasted. When I got home, I wrote a blog post about my olive oil and shared it on Twitter. I sold out that luggage supply in a matter of hours, and the rest is history.

Place your order of Selo Olive Oil today. Get yourself a bottle of the finest Croatian extra virgin olive oil, sent straight to your doorstep.

Selo Olive Oil is my family’s ultra premium extra virgin olive oil. It hails from the selo, which is the word for village in Croatian. My selo is located in the sunny windswept plains of Zadar County in Dalmatia, Croatia, a short 15 minute in-land drive from the Adriatic Sea. I guess you could say we are old fashioned. Although my grandparents left Croatia long ago, and have spent most of their lives working in Canada, their hearts do lie in the selo. They still return to tend their lands for every fall harvest. In fact, they are proud to call themselves Seljaks.

Seljak just means villager, but to my family, it means so much more. The Seljaks are a proud, characteristically stubborn, especially hard-working group of country folk that have lived along the Adriatic Sea in Dalmatia for over 1000 years, all the way back to the classical period of the Croatian Kingdom under Kralj Tomislav (King Thomas) in the 10th century.

King Thomas was the first King of Croatia. He became Duke of Croatia in 910, was elevated to kingship by 925 and reigned until 928. At the time of his rule Croatia forged an alliance with the Byzantines during their struggle with the Bulgarian Empire, with whom Croatia eventually went to war and which culminated in a decisive victory at the Battle of the Bosnian Highlands in 926. Since that bygone era, however, Croatians have been without a state to call their own, at least until the mid-1990’s.

It surprises most to know that the Croatian people, despite endless cultural and military incursions, have remained an ethnically distinct population within Europe for over 1000 years. Though at the time of this writing, the modern Republic of Croatia is just a few decades old, the country people—the Seljaks—who have traditionally worked the land, have been around for far longer…

Selo Olive Oil celebrates this rich history and tradition of the Croatian country folk of the Dalmatian coastlands. Our olive oil represents our family’s attempt to embody at least a glimmer of their timeless memory.

Selo Olive Oil is derived from a pure, single varietal olive that has been indigenous to the Dalmatian coastal region since the time of Roman Dalmatia. This varietal is called Oblica.

At harvest time, the olives come in a range of colors from light green to dark black. We know that they are ready because of their large size, with each olive growing to the size of an extra large gumball.

When the olives are ready, my family and many of our friends get together to pull the olives from their branches. It is a fun and festive occasion that takes about a week in all to complete.

Of course, we press the olives at the regional mill each and every evening, as soon as they're picked, to ensure optimal flavor profile and quality of nutrients.

We finish each day by feasting late into the evening, eating prosciutto, drinking wine and telling stories until it is time to rest.

Our annual harvest takes place mid-November. The entire family, and many of our neighbours and friends, get together to hand pick olives from our orchards.

Although we sell most of our stock domestically, we always leave enough of our special liquid gold for our friends abroad. Our finest extra virgin olive oil is always first cold pressed and bottled fresh for your enjoyment.

Dobar Tek and Živili!

Place your order of Selo Olive Oil today. Get yourself a bottle of the finest Croatian extra virgin olive oil, sent straight to your doorstep.