This is an archived edition of our Field Report email newsletter. You can sign up at the bottom of the page!
Greetings from Fat Gold!
It’s been raining here in the San Francisco Bay Area, which we don’t mind at all. Years went by without wet winters; now, a touch of normalcy has returned, and we revel in it.
We have some fun international news to share, but first, it occurs to me that it’s been a while since we comprehensively re-introduced ourselves. Not everybody has been reading these Field Reports since the beginning—I often need to remind myself of that!
So, who are you following along with here, exactly?
Fat Gold started in 2017, right here—
—when Kathryn and I got the opportunity to lease a tiny olive grove about forty minutes from our front door. After three extremely educational years, we gave up the lease to focus on the part of the process we like best, the part we’re best at: the milling. Ever since, our aim has been to produce extra virgin olive oil at the absolutely highest level of quality, competitive with the best in the world, while remaining practical and welcoming.
Nowadays, we operate our own mill in the San Joaquin Valley, and we source olives from a trusted network of farmers. Fat Gold, the company, is three people: me, Kathryn, and Bryan, who packs every order with love. But of course, our work wouldn’t be possible without a broader web of friends and partners, starting with those farmers, and including the shopkeepers who stock Fat Gold, the mail carriers who deliver every tin… the list is long!
Extra virgin olive oil is a sort of preposterous substance: somehow decadently delicious AND super healthy. It feels exciting and motivating, every day, to make and distribute a product that contributes both to people’s enjoyment of life AND to their health. We are really grateful to be able to do this work.
Now, on to the international news:
For all the years we’ve been in business, Fat Gold has been resolutely domestic. Selling agricultural products across borders is complicated, and we have more than enough demand for our olive oil here in the U.S.—no need to mess around with customs forms.
Except that people keep asking for it!
Now, we’ve shipped our first pallet out of the U.S.: a big bundle of Fat Gold bound for Toronto’s Summerhill Market, a network of six beautiful shops dedicated to offering “high-quality food in a cheerful, welcoming environment.”
This only covers part of Canada, but it’s a significant part. If you live in the greater Toronto area, go find Fat Gold at Summerhill Market! We’re very pleased and proud to be on the shelves there.
Fat Gold’s year sometimes feel like a plane flight. After the excitement (or: mild terror) of harvest takeoff, followed by the pressure of acceleration through the holiday season, we arrive at cruising altitude, the part of the year where we are packing up oil and sending it out.
On the subscription side, we’re just putting together the materials for our March batch. There’s still time to start an annual subscription and receive one of these tins, or have it delivered to someone you love. Any subscription purchased before March 3 will commence with this upcoming batch.
Okay, that’s the news from cruising altitude! The online shop is open:
Thanks, as always, for following along.
—Robin, Kathryn, and Bryan