The First Tuscan olive trees planted on the Central Coast, the Pacificoliva grove in west Paso Robles sits on 3 volcanoes producing the most luscious, and mineral rich single-estate extra virgin olive oil found anywhere in the world. That happened to Gary Conway at four years old in Boston. Pneumonia was considered a near death sentence then and his beloved Sicilian grandmother Rosa, with her trea
sured olive oil from Sicily, smothered him with the remedial gold for days. Thanks to the curative magic of authentic olive oil he recovered. The Sicilians like most in the Western world always knew that olive oil (only “real” olive oil then) was a curative for most ailments, even profoundly serious ones. Many decades later In Marian and Gary’s ranch in Paso Robles Pacific, a friend visited their gallery. She had in her hands a bottle of olive oil just brought back from Tuscany. When she opened the bottle for Gary and Marian to sample, Gary almost swooned. The commanding aroma propelled him back to age four when he was swallowed up in pure olive oil which was sorely missing in all of the fake and compromised so called olive oil purchased in the supermarkets. At that moment, Gary knew he had to plant the Tuscan olive tree. Afterall, why own a farm in the ideal Mediterranean Climate and not grow olives?! Several decades before this Tuscan revelation, Gary not only crashed into the world favorite series Land of the Giants, but also crashed, with startling reality, into a 100-year ranch on 320 acres in the Central Coast of California. It was love of the land at first sight and Gary and Marian signed the sales contract within hours of the near-tragedy. For Gary and the family, Paso Robles was a necessary escape from smog-ridden Los Angeles.
