I’m Don Costa, and my wife, Kim, and I would like to thank you for visiting CostaLivos Mountain Gold Olive Oil, where we blend generations of family traditions with lifetimes of hard work to create our line of artisan olive oils and balsamic vinegars.

We created the CostaLivos brand by combining our family name, “Costa,” with the Spanish word for olives to reflect the Spanish origin of our Arbequina and Manzanillo olive trees. The Costa family arrived in California from the Portuguese Azores shortly after the Gold Rush, but their intention was not to dig for gold, it was to create a life farming the rich soil. The family eventually settled in the San Joaquin valley, growing vegetables and raising vineyards and fruit orchards. My mother’s family hails from Bari, Italy, a city on the Adriatic Sea famous for a rich heritage of classic dishes. The region’s main agricultural products are wheat, olives, and fish, which provide the building blocks for some of the finest cuisine in all of Italy, including the famous orecchiette and cavatelli pastas. I was raised with a deep appreciation for my Italian heritage and learned to cook at my grandmother’s side, taking in as much as I could about the methods and flavors.

My wife and I had always dreamed of owning our own farm and were determined to someday carry on the family traditions of tilling the land. In 2012, we purchased a ranch in the western foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains and planted the CostaLivos olive grove. Our trees are warmed by the California sun and watered by fresh glacial underground mountain springs. We carefully tend our olive trees to produce the highest quality fruits, which are hand picked and cold pressed to yield the most flavorful extra virgin olive oils.

CostaLivos is a family business at its heart, supported by the love and labor of three generations of Costas. My father, sister, and children have all jumped at the opportunity to help our business grow, from trimming the trees to picking the olives, and even helping create our website. We hope that the pride of our family kitchens, CostaLivos Mountain Gold Olive Oil, will soon become a favorite element in your cooking, too!