‘An Albanian’s house is the dwelling of God and the guest.’ Of God and the guest, you see. So before it is the house of its master, it is the house of one’s guest. The guest, in an Albanian’s life, represents the supreme ethical category, more important than blood relations. One may pardon the man who spills the blood of one’s father or of one’s son, but never the blood of a guest. ― Ismail Kadaré, prize-winning Albanian novelist, poet, essayist, screenwriter and playwright
In late February, I received an email from Bree Cameron. It arrived during a sad and troubled time for me, as well as the extended Food & Dining family. John Carlos White, our beloved founder and publisher, had died unexpectedly only days before.
But of all the emails I typically receive on a daily basis, the majority of which are formulaic PR boilerplate, this one stood out for its personalized voice and indie-cred earnestness.
Here’s what Bree wrote.
My name is Bree Cameron and along with my husband Adrian Michels have just launched Louisville’s first artisanal small batch olive oil company, MiraMira’s Wild Mediterranean. For the past five years, we have lived between Louisville and the Albanian Riviera, right on the coast. We are surrounded by ancient olive trees and have been blessed to indulge in the freshest olive oil we have ever come by. In our small village, most of the olive trees go unharvested as many of the owners are widows or elderly. Finally, we decided to get involved and start a family business bringing this olive oil back home.
We worked hard to make one of the best products possible in a world of amazing olive oils. We focused on making very small batches, similar to bourbon. One of our varieties is 100% traceable to the exact trees it is made from (between 3 and 45 trees) while our other is a blend made from a rare olive variant found only in the south of Albania. We harvested early in October to maximize health benefits and pressed our olives with natural spring water from the ground. We are now working on getting into Louisville restaurants and gourmet shops.
Honestly, she had me at “ancient olive trees” ― or maybe it was “Albanian Riviera.” Either way, I wanted to know more.
