K.L.Keller Imports

Description

K.L.Keller Imports/ The World According to K.L. Keller My grandparents were simple farmers and social products of the Depression. Living in this environment, I was raised to honor labor and the fruits of the land. In that same country tradition, everything seems to have a story to explain a point, so here is an article I wrote for the "Foods From Spain Magazine" in 2003 about my selection of the Antara Olive Oil. Although it could be taken as a single-event vignette, it indirectly explains an overriding personal philosophy whereby I hope we're saving farmers, artisan food producers and America one meal at a time! Here is the story: "I have been a gourmet food importer for almost 10 years with a specialty in artisan products from France and Spain. I wish I could always say that successfully-sourcing products came from stealth and cunning combined with hours of research, and a fantastic professional network. More often, serendipity is the kind angel watching my company. Serendipity intervened one cold and miserable January about 5 years ago. I was in Tarragona, Spain preparing to visit a vinegar bodega in the country the next day. After dinner, I was strolling the Rambla, a "deli" was open, and there sat a bottle of extra virgin olive oil from the region Antara. I was trying to source an olive oil from Spain that would fill out my product line. I didn't speak Catalan nor Spanish but I asked the question anyway (in French): "Is this any good?" I received the response I have now heard about almost everything probably 500+ times since: "It's the best." In this instance he was actually telling the truth! Antara Extra Virgin Olive Oil is a great value, and won the gold medal in Spain that year. Quality is the simple answer of why I sell Antara. The complex answer of "it's the farmers", has global implications that affect even our own families in the U.S. The COSELVA that produces the ANTARA, is located in the town of La Selva del Camp in northern Spain in the region of Catalonia, is a cooperative in the old fashioned sense. It has about 1000 members (most of the town). These members cultivate almonds, hazelnuts, and olives. The COSELVA operates one of the few banks in town, has a company store to buy both farming supplies and essential groceries (read: JAMON!!!) and markets the cooperatives' products all over the world: from almonds to Venezuela to olive oil to the U.S. Many of the fields the members cultivate have been in their family a thousand years. The soil is austere and rocky, the area hilly and quite parched. Because of inheritance, many of the plots are small or a patchwork joined together in a way that defies modern agricultural efficiency. While the products are finished in a modern and efficient manner, (who wants to fight about the benefits of a Pieralisi press for olive oil?), the COSELVA members still go out to work as farmers. This is a way of life that only 50 years ago was common in the U.S. Unfortunately big business farming has taken a toll on American life: in the U.S. our family farm tradition is almost dead.

Products & services

Similar companies nearby