A day in an olive grove in Istria. Real work. Exceptional food. The oil you pressed, to take home.
Harvest 2026 โ bookings opening soon
A small number of places available during the October 2026 harvest. Register your interest now โ places are limited and we will contact you directly when bookings open.
This is not a tour. It is not a demonstration. It is not a carefully managed visitor experience designed to feel authentic while keeping you at a comfortable distance from anything real. It is the actual harvest โ the same day that Tatjana, Fabio and the team work every October โ and for a small number of guests each season, you are part of it.
You will pick olives. You will eat one of the finest lunches available in Istria, cooked by Tatjana in a field. You will end the day with cold beers and a litre of oil pressed from fruit you helped bring in. And you will leave understanding, in a way that no restaurant meal or hotel stay could teach you, what this part of the world actually is.
Tourism that gives something back โ to the place, the people and the land.
Over-tourism is one of the defining problems of our time. The places most worth visiting are often the ones most damaged by the volume of visitors they receive โ their character eroded, their local economies hollowed out, their communities priced out of their own homes. Istria is not immune to this. The coastal towns fill up every summer with visitors whose money flows largely to international hotel groups, international food and drink brands, and the global platforms that mediate their bookings. Very little of it stays.
A day picking olives at the Taronco is the opposite of that model. Every euro you spend goes directly to a family that has been tending this land for generations. The breakfast pastries are local. The lunch is cooked by Tatjana from local ingredients. The wine is Istrian. The oil is pressed five kilometres away. Fabio is paid for his work. The Chiavalon press โ where your olives become oil โ is a family business that has invested everything it has in producing the finest cold-pressed oil in the region. Nothing about this day extracts value from Istria. All of it returns it.
This is what responsible tourism actually looks like โ not a carbon offset checkbox or a sustainability report, but a direct, human transaction between a visitor and the place they are visiting, with a genuine connection at its centre.
100% local economy
Every element of the day โ food, drink, transport, oil โ is sourced from and pays directly into the local Galizana and Vodnjan area. No intermediaries. No international brands.
A real family, not a brand
Tatjana, Dino, Fabio, Pamela and Denny are not hospitality professionals. They are a family who farm a field. The welcome you receive is the welcome they give everyone.
Genuine connection to place
The Taronco has been in the Moscarda family for generations. The land, the trees and the dry stone walls predate modern tourism by centuries. Visiting it is not consuming Istria โ it is understanding it.
Small groups, always
Maximum ten guests per day, deliberately. The Taronco is an intimate place and the experience is better for it. This will never be scaled up.
Pastry breakfast at the Taronco shop
The day begins at the family home and tasting space in Galizana โ fresh pastries, good coffee, and a taste of last year's oil before you help make the next one. A chance to meet Tatjana, Fabio and whoever else is on the team that day, and to understand a little of what you are about to do and why it matters.
Included โ pastry breakfast and coffeeTransport to the Taronco
A short drive through the Istrian countryside to the Taronco โ the family's ancient enclosed olive grove, set within dry stone walls that have stood for centuries, in the area the Romans called the golden triangle. The landscape here is quietly extraordinary: low scrub, limestone, ancient trees, the Adriatic somewhere to the west. It is a good place to spend a day.
Included โ return transport from GalizanaPicking โ by hand and electric pole, tree by tree
Fabio will show you what to do. The harvest uses a combination of hand-picking and battery-powered electric harvesting poles โ a lightweight telescopic tool with counter-rotating flexible tines that gently vibrate the olives free from the branch without bruising the fruit or stressing the tree. The olives fall onto soft nets spread beneath each tree, and from there into crates. It is satisfying, physical work. Not difficult to learn. Impossible to do badly. And deeply gratifying when you see the crates begin to fill.
The pace is human. There is no production target. The trees are tended with care and so is the team โ which, today, includes you.
Lunch in the grove โ cooked by Tatjana
Every day of the harvest, Tatjana cooks. Not sandwiches โ proper Istrian food, made from scratch, eaten together on the grass among the olive trees, with Istrian wine and fresh bread and oil. The same lunch the whole team sits down to. There is almost certainly a peka โ the slow-cooked Istrian speciality, prepared under an iron bell in the embers, that emerges at exactly the right moment and tastes unlike anything you have had before. This lunch alone is worth the day. Everything else is a bonus.
Included โ full home-cooked Istrian lunch with local wineTo the Chiavalon press โ optional but unmissable
For those who want the full story: join us for the drive to the Chiavalon press in Vodnjan, where the day's harvest โ including the crates you filled โ becomes oil. The Chiavalon facility is one of the most technically advanced cold-press operations in Istria. Pressing night, when small producers from across the region arrive with their harvests, the music is loud, and Tedi has the bar open, is an experience entirely of its own. Cold beers. Local wine. The hum of serious machinery doing serious work. The moment when everything you did today becomes something you can take home.
Optional โ included for those who want itCold beers, snacks and your oil
The day ends the way every harvest day ends โ cold beers and snacks, the particular satisfaction of having done something physical and real with your hands in one of the most quietly beautiful corners of Europe. And before you leave: a litre bottle of Taroncino extra virgin olive oil, pressed from this season's harvest. The oil you helped make. There is nothing else quite like opening that bottle in your kitchen a week later.
Included โ beers, snacks and 1 litre of Taroncino to take homeThe reach of a human hand, extended.
Fabio maintains and charges the electric harvesting poles โ the tool that lets the team work tree by tree with the same care as hand-picking, without bruising the fruit or stressing the branch.
Your oil to take home.
Every guest leaves with a full litre bottle of Taroncino extra virgin olive oil โ the current season's harvest, cold-pressed at Chiavalon to the same standard as every bottle we produce. It carries its full laboratory analysis on the label: acidity, peroxide, polyphenols โ the numbers that tell you exactly what is in the bottle. The oil you spent the day helping to make, from a field you now know, pressed from fruit you helped bring in. That is not something available in any shop.
We offer three formats โ and if none of these quite fits what you are looking for, ask. We are a small operation and we are happy to talk about bespoke arrangements for the right group.
The morning harvest
Join the team for the morning's picking โ from breakfast through to lunch. The full harvest experience without the full day commitment. Perfect for those with onward plans, younger guests, or anyone who wants to understand the process without spending an entire day in a field.
Dawn to press
The complete day โ breakfast, picking, lunch, and the optional trip to the Chiavalon press for pressing night. The full arc of how olive oil is made, from tree to bottle, experienced from the inside. This is the one to choose if you want to understand what you are holding when you open a bottle of Taroncino.
Just ask
Private groups, corporate away days, food writers, chefs, family gatherings โ if you have something specific in mind, we are happy to talk. The Taronco is an extraordinary setting and the harvest is a natural anchor for any number of different experiences. Tell us what you are looking for.
โThe places most worth visiting are the ones that let you in โ not to observe, but to participate. The Taronco is one of those places.โ
Practical details.
During the active harvest. Exact dates confirmed closer to the season โ dependent on when the olives are ready, which varies year to year.
Meeting point at the Taronco shop in Galizana. A short drive from Pula, Rovinj, Poreฤ and the main Istrian coastal resorts.
Deliberately small. The Taronco is an intimate place and the experience is better for it. This will not be scaled up.
Comfortable shoes with grip. Layers for the morning chill. Olive oil may end up on you. This is entirely appropriate.
Physical and rewarding, not gruelling. The pace is set by the trees, not a stopwatch. There is a very good lunch in the middle and cold beers at the end.
Pricing for the 2026 season announced when bookings open. Register your interest to be notified first.
Register your interest for harvest 2026.
Bookings are not yet open. Register now and we will contact you directly when dates and pricing are confirmed โ before any public announcement. Places are limited to ten per day and we expect them to fill quickly. Tell us a little about your group in your email and we will make sure we have the right option for you.
Register interest โWe will contact you only about experience day bookings. Nothing else.