About Us
About Safadi Farm
Some people inherit a farm. I went looking for one.
I (Jamal) grew up in Oregon, on the edge where the city fades into farmland. Every year my parents took me u-picking berries, peaches, apples and in our backyard we had a fig tree, grape vines, an apple tree, a cherry tree, and a vegetable garden that my family tended like it mattered. Because it did.
When I was around eighteen, I spent a month on my uncle's farm. He raises horses, camels, cattle, goats, ducks, chickens, and date palms, essentially anything that catches his interest. Something about that month changed me. I came home and got chickens. I started paying attention to what grew where, and why.
The Olive Idea
As I traveled, I noticed something curious. Wherever grapes thrived, figs did too. And wherever figs grew, olives were never far behind. That observation sparked a question I couldn't shake: Why doesn't Oregon have its own olive oil industry?
For the next ten years, I saved and searched for land in Oregon. I'm still searching. But four years ago, something unexpected happened.
Capolona, Tuscany — 2023
Then, while I was still searching in Oregon, an opportunity appeared that I never expected. An established olive farm in Tuscany came up for sale. The farmhouse was built in the 1400s. The family that farmed it had owned the land since 1882.
We bought it.
Not to abandon the Oregon dream but to learn. To train alongside people who have been doing this for generations, in a place where olive oil isn't a trend, it's a way of life. The plan is to take everything I learn here back to Oregon one day and give Oregon olive oil the name it deserves.
The farm sits in Capolona, a small farming town in the Arezzo province of Tuscany, the kind of place where almost everyone either grows grapes or olives, and the sign at the town entrance reads City of Truffles. The locals will tell you that the rolling hills in the background of the Mona Lisa are the hills of Capolona. We've never verified it, but we love the story.
The Right Way to Do It
We didn't want to come in as outsiders and change everything. So we didn't. The former owner's family is still fully involved in the farm. Our neighbor, their cousin, is a full-time farmer who has guided us from the start. The former owner himself, who bought additional trees down the road, now has us helping with his harvest too. This is how it works in Capolona. You become part of the community, or you don't last.
Every olive is harvested by hand. Harvesting and maintaining the grove is all by hand. We've brought friends over to help with harvest over the years, and every single one of them has loved it so much they ask to come back. There's something about working with your hands in a place like that.
Why This Matters
Every time I go to the mill to get our olives pressed, people look at me sideways. The question I always get is: "Why are you here? You're very young to be farming."
The average farmer in Italy like in the US is over 65. Small producers are selling their farms. The industry is being absorbed by mega-operations that optimize for volume, not quality. I think that's a problem.
I believe there needs to be a shift back toward smaller farms, higher quality, and a new generation of people willing to work with their hands and their land. Not every meaningful career happens behind a desk. Blue collar work real work, skilled work is becoming more valuable, not less. Farming is part of that.
What We're Building
One day, Safadi Farm will come home to Oregon. We'll bring everything we've learned the techniques, the relationships, the respect for the land and try to do for Oregon olive oil what a generation of winemakers did for Oregon wine.
Until then, every bottle we send carries more than olive oil. It carries the knowledge of the family who cared for this land before us, the work of our family today, and the community that welcomed us into theirs.
No blending. No middlemen. Just the oil.
— Safadi Farm, Capolona, Arezzo, Tuscany