We are thankful for so many things today. Against the backdrop of all the news of such ghastly things happening all over the world, our life seems pretty good indeed. Not everyone shares in this good fortune. Shortly after we launched this blog in March 2008, we wrote Our Adopted Olive Oil, a story about the olive tree in Le Marche, Italy that we adopted from Nudo Italia. (We have four children, so an olive tree was about all the more we could handle.) Our particular tree was number AR-13 in the Ardelio grove and was 66 years old at the time (now 72!). Perhaps, that keeps us feeling a little younger.

The title of this blog post isn’t a cheap trick to get your attention (but maybe it worked). Nudo is Italian for “naked”, a reference to food that is natural—nothing artificial added. Our adoption entitled us to shipments of delicious olive oil, some or most from our adopted tree (perhaps, mixed in with oil from the olives of its siblings in the immediate vicinity) and a certificate of adoption. In a twist on the “farm–to–table” oil delivery that we like to call “home–to–grove”, Nudo encourages you to come over to Italy to visit your adopted tree. While we haven’t yet visited our tree, we are thinking about it and may do just that in the coming years.

With support from many adoptive parents, Nudo has been able to add more olive groves throughout Italy to their program, a collaboration with small scale, artisanal producers, enabling these dedicated farmers to bring high–quality, specialty food to a wider audience. Nudo facilitates financial support for small, local olive oil producers, which helps them keep traditional farming practices alive and protects the countryside from intensive and destructive modern farming methods. For a reasonable price, you enjoy the goodies and help support a worthwhile endeavor.

Things, however, don’t always go well in farming. This year, a disastrous blight struck many of the olive trees in Italy, which Nudo reported in its blog and you can also read about in the LA Times Daily Dish (which elaborates on coming olive oil shortages due to the situation in Italy as well as Spain and California and warns its readers to beware of vendors passing off non–Italian oils as authentic—another reason to buy from people like Nudo). This situation means the supply of extra virgin olive oil from Italy (and elsewhere) will be adversely impacted this coming year and prices will go up and availability of authentic olive oils may plummet. Nudo, however, gets first call on the genuine olive oil from its collaborating producers, so Nudo adoptive parents and subscribers can still source the good stuff.

In keeping with the “Cyber Monday” discount concept, Nudo is offering our readers a 20% discount on all olive tree and tea garden adoption (yes, they also offer great teas) starting this coming Monday, December 1st (it runs throughout the week, but don’t be last in line) Use code NUDOCYBER20 at checkout. FYI, we don’t receive any promotional consideration for this discount offer—we’re just passing it along to you for being a loyal reader.

Now, that’s something to be thankful for. Happy Thanksgiving to all of you!