A specific tree. A specific grove. Oil pressed from its fruit and sent to you each harvest. Your adoption funds the hands-on cultivation — pruning, feeding, propagating from cuttings — that is the only thing standing between these rare, century-old trees and permanent loss. No carbon-credit mechanism. Just real trees, real oil and work that genuinely needs doing.
Adopting an olive tree with Castruriali means sponsoring a specific, named tree growing in the ancient groves of Castroreale, Messina, Sicily. Your tree is QR-tagged and traceable; you receive extra virgin olive oil pressed from its fruit each harvest; and your sponsorship funds the hands-on restoration work that is the only thing standing between these rare, century-old trees and permanent loss. There is no carbon-credit mechanism here — just real trees, real oil, and work that genuinely needs doing.
The story of Sicily's olive groves is one of the quiet environmental emergencies of our time — unfolding too slowly for headlines, but too fast for the trees to wait.
"An olive variety found in one village, on one hillside, shaped by one soil over centuries — that is not something you can recreate. Once it is gone, it is gone."
Without active hands to prune, harvest and propagate them, ancient groves fall silent. The rare native cultivars they carry — selected slowly, over generations, for this exact soil and climate — are lost forever when the last tree stops producing and is never replanted. Commercial olive farming does not save them: the market rewards a handful of high-yield varieties planted everywhere, while the slow, small-fruited natives are left to disappear.
Castruriali's mission is to reverse this in one place — the hills above Castroreale — with enough depth and permanence that the trees, and the rarest of them, have a future beyond us.
This is not a certificate. It is a specific tree, in a specific grove, producing real oil that comes to you each year.
We assign you a specific olive tree in the Castroreale hills — one that your sponsorship will actively sustain. It receives a personal QR tag bearing your name, which you can scan to see its coordinates, its condition and its progress from anywhere in the world.
Your adoption funds the pruning, feeding and propagation your tree needs to stay in production. Where a tree is in poor condition, that work extends to restoring it — cutting back deadwood, propagating from cuttings, recording everything. Without it, the tree stops bearing fruit and is eventually lost. This is not symbolic stewardship.
Each October and November, the Mandanici mill runs its ancient stone presses. Your olive oil — cold-pressed from your grove's fruit within hours of picking — is bottled and sent to you with a full harvest report: how your tree fared, what the yield was, and what the oil tastes like this year.
Every adopter is welcome to visit their tree in person. Heritage and Guardian adopters receive priority invitations when the grove opens to Friends of Castruriali — stand beside your tree, see the grove and meet the people doing the work.
Each tier sponsors a different tree and comes with its own set of benefits. All include oil from the harvest and a lifelong connection to this place.
A named olive tree in a Sicilian grove — growing, producing, sending its oil to their door each year. No shelf life. No occasion required.
Every adoption covers a full season of harvest oil, grove updates and a living connection to the estate. It can be renewed at any time — and your name on the Wall of the Grove remains, however many years pass between.
The tree is tagged with the recipient's name. Their certificate carries their name. Their place on the Wall of the Grove is theirs alone.
At harvest, a bottle of Castruriali extra virgin olive oil — pressed from the fruit of their grove — is sent to them directly. A taste of somewhere specific.
We post a beautifully printed adoption certificate on premium stock — the kind that gets framed rather than filed. Suitable for the home or the office.
Every adopter is welcome to visit their tree once the grove opens. Heritage and Guardian recipients are invited first. A gift that comes with a destination.
Not a voucher, not a subscription box. A stake in one of the oldest food-producing landscapes in Europe — land that their adoption actively helps to restore.
Why people adopt a tree as a gift: for a birthday with meaning, a thank-you that lasts, a retirement present worth remembering, a wedding gift unlike any other.
We will confirm your tree, send you its tag details and get your first year started.
Tree AvailabilityWe are actively acquiring new land and trees in the hills above Castroreale. If an exclusively available tree is not ready at the time of your adoption, you will be placed in the next allocation run — your 12-month stewardship period begins from the date your tree is formally assigned to you, not from the date of payment.
Companies adopting olive trees with Castruriali get something most ESG programmes cannot offer: a verifiable, physical commitment in a specific place, producing a real product, with a story your team and clients will actually want to tell.
Whether you are fulfilling a sustainability reporting requirement, creating a meaningful employee benefit, or finding a client gift that stands apart from anything else they will receive this year — adopting a named grove in the hills above Castroreale does all three at once.
"An ancient Sicilian olive grove bearing your company's name — that is a sustainability story your stakeholders will read and remember."
We are actively acquiring new land and planting new trees in the groves above Castroreale. If an exclusively dedicated tree is not immediately available at the time of your adoption, you will be placed in the next allocation run — the first available tree matching your tier will be assigned to you. Your 12-month stewardship period, and all associated benefits, begins from the date your specific tree is formally assigned — not from the date of payment. You will receive a confirmation the moment your tree is ready.
Your year begins from the date your tree is formally assigned to you and confirmed by our team. If your tree is ready at the time of adoption, it starts immediately. If you are placed in a pending allocation, it starts when your tree is assigned. This ensures you receive a full 12 months of benefits — oil, letters, visit invitations and grove updates — regardless of when you first made your payment.
When you adopt a tree with Castruriali, you sponsor a specific tree growing in the ancient groves above Castroreale, Messina. That tree is tagged with a personal QR code so you can locate it, track its progress and find it when you visit Sicily. Each year we send you oil pressed from that harvest and a full report from the grove. Your sponsorship funds the hands-on restoration work — pruning, cultivation, propagation — that keeps these ancient trees alive and producing.
More than three million olive trees across Sicily have been abandoned as rural communities age and younger generations move to the cities. Without active cultivation, trees stop producing and are eventually lost. The rare native cultivars — like the Castricianella (Castriciana Rapparina), found almost exclusively above Castroreale — face outright extinction within a generation. These are not replaceable. Once a variety is gone, the genetic lineage accumulated over centuries is gone with it.
Active olive groves are powerful carbon sinks. Mature olive trees — some of ours are over a century old — sequester carbon over their entire life, stabilise the steep volcanic terraces against erosion and support local biodiversity. Each adoption funds the restoration of neglected groves back into productive, cultivated land. We do not plant new trees as a carbon credit mechanism; we restore ancient trees that already exist and would otherwise be lost.
Yes — our corporate programme is built specifically for this. Corporate adopters receive a named grove, an ESG-ready certificate with tree locations and grove data, annual photography and harvest reports for sustainability reporting, and options for employee and client gifting at scale. We can accommodate programmes from a handful of trees to a full named grove. Contact us for a tailored proposal.
Yes. At harvest, the oil from your grove is cold-pressed at the Mandanici mill and a bottle (or case, depending on your tier) is sent to you. Guardian adopters receive a bottle of single-cultivar Castricianella oil pressed from their specific tree's fruit — one of the rarest olive oils produced in Sicily.
Every adopter is welcome to visit their tree once the grove opens to Friends of Castruriali. Heritage and Guardian adopters will be invited first — your adoption secures your place on that list. We will write to you directly when visits open.
Your discount on Castruriali oils is active for the full duration of your adoption — it applies from the moment your tree is assigned and remains valid as long as your adoption is current. If you renew your adoption each year, your discount continues uninterrupted. The discount code is issued to you personally with your adoption confirmation.
Yes. If your adoption has lapsed you are welcome to return at any time and a tree will be assigned to you again — either your original tree if it is unallocated, or the next available tree matching your tier. There is no penalty or requirement to adopt continuously. Your place on the Wall of the Grove and your personal tree record are held on file indefinitely. Simply adopt again through this page and note your previous name or tree reference in the message field and we will do our best to reunite you with your original tree.
Your stewardship of the tree ends when the 12-month period closes and no renewal is made. The tree continues to be cared for by the grove — it is never neglected — and it becomes available for a new adopter. Your name remains on the Wall of the Grove under your years of stewardship. If you renew at a later date, we will allocate you a new tree or, where possible, your original one.
Yes. If you would like to transfer your remaining stewardship period to another person — for example as a gift mid-year — simply contact us at hello@castruriali.com with your adoption token (found on your certificate page) and the recipient's name and email address. We will reissue the certificate and grove access to them and notify both parties. Transfers are complimentary and take effect within two working days.
Yes. You may upgrade from Sapling to Heritage at any time by contacting us at hello@castruriali.com. We will calculate a pro-rated top-up based on the time remaining in your stewardship year, reassign you to a mature heritage tree and reissue your certificate. Upgrades to Guardian are by allocation only — join the waitlist on this page and we will contact you when a tree becomes available.
In the unlikely event that your specific tree is seriously damaged or lost — whether through storm, disease or any other cause — we will contact you immediately and assign you a replacement tree of equivalent or greater age. Your stewardship period is extended by the remaining time on the original tree at no additional cost. We carry full grove insurance and this outcome, while rare, is fully covered.
No minimum commitment. Each adoption is a single 12-month stewardship. At the end of your year, you can choose to renew, upgrade, gift it to someone else or simply let it lapse — entirely your decision. There are no rolling contracts and no automatic renewals. If you would like a reminder near renewal time, simply note that in the message field when you adopt.
Your digital certificate is available immediately after checkout — you will receive a link by email the moment your payment is confirmed. The printed version on premium stock is posted once your tree has been formally assigned and your certificate finalised by the estate team. We will let you know by email when it is on its way.
Absolutely. If you have difficulty using this website — whether due to a visual impairment, a disability, or simply preferring to do things by phone or post — please get in touch and we will take care of everything for you. We can process your adoption over the phone, handle postal arrangements, provide your certificate and correspondence in alternative formats and make any reasonable adjustments to ensure you receive the full experience. No request is too much. Email us at hello@castruriali.com or write to us and we will respond personally.
The trees are there. The work is being done. All that is missing is your name on one of them.
Letters from Castroreale — the harvest, the mill and the trees we are bringing back to life.