Mere kilometers outside Corleone, Sicily, La Furtuna Estate is a harmonious 300-hectare organic farm that celebrates premium, organic fare to enrich biodiversity, promote sustainable farming and preserve heritage food. Under the watchful eye of Master Botanist and Agronomist, Pasquale “Mimmo” Marino, an extensive knowledge of the Sicilian ecosystem is blended with advanced technology to help preserve heirloom fare and create flavors that are truly representative of the land.
Tucked into the rocky Monti Sicani mountains just outside of Corleone, Sicily, there lies an olive grove redolent with plump fruits fed by fresh mountain springs. The warm air caresses your senses with the scent of wild oregano, mint, and rosemary. As a child, Steve Luczo’s grandmother spoke so fondly and frequently of her home that it became embedded into Steve’s identity. He swore to himself that he would return to Sicily and reconnect with the land where his grandparents were born.
2009
Forty five years later, Steve embodied his childhood dream of finding his ancestral home. Connected by a mutual friend, master botanist and agronomist Pasquale “Mimmo” Marino helped Steve on his search. Together they were able to track down the much-coveted land.
2013
Four years after finding the very land on which his grandparents were born, Steve and his wife Agatha were able to bring it back into their family. With two PhDs in agronomy and botany, Mimmo was focused on understanding Sicilian cultural heritage through the lens of heritage agriculture and native species. Through his thorough research of the Monti Sicani mountain region, Mimmo had categorized dozens of native Sicilian varietals, including an endemic Sicilian olive tree that no one knew existed: a 1,600 year old olive tree they appropriately named Biancolilla Centinara or ancient white lilac.
2013
Steve and Agatha wanted to find a way to not only connect to the land, but also their community. With Mimmo’s expertise in Sicilian heritage agronomy, they laid a plan to revitalize the Biancolilla Centinara olive varietal. They began by laying irrigation on the farm, connecting the natural spring waters of Monti Sicani to the sloping hillsides of La Furtuna Estate.
September 2013
The brand Bona Furtuna was finally born through the planting of La Furtuna Estate's first olive trees.
2014
Committed to promoting the biodiversity of the farm, Mimmo began to document a collection of heritage plants and herbs on La Furtuna Estate to preserve and enhance the genetic diversity of the biome. This data has helped guide his decision making for cover crops, intercropping and crop rotation throughout the farm over the years.
2015
Shortly after the planting of the first olive trees, La Furtuna Estate began to blossom and harvest new fare. In addition to stunning organic olives, the farm’s wild and cultivated herbs began to be harvested and dried by the Mediterranean breeze.
2016
La Furtuna Estate carries out its first olive harvest, resulting in Bona Furtuna's organic extra virgin olive oil that is fresh, vibrant, and very well received.
2017
With a desire to ensure the utmost quality of their organic olive oil, La Furtuna Estate invests in a state-of-the-art extra virgin olive oil mill which allows them to run a fully closed-loop operation and cold-press the highest quality single-estate Sicilian olive oil on the market.
2018
Quickly after the first harvest, Bona Furtuna began to gain international recognition through various gold and silver awards in the Extra Virgin Olive Oil market.
With the endless love poured into La Furtuna Estate and the heirloom ingredients birthed from its soils, Bona Furtuna recognized the great potential that lies in the preservation of heritage food and the promotion of sustainable farming. Tied to an interest in improving the state of the local economy and increasing job opportunities, Bona Furtuna began to search for partners across Sicily with a like minded approach to heritage food. As partnerships have grown, so too has the company’s reach, and Bona Furtuna now partners with artisan producers from all over Italy.
2020
With charitable giving, community building, and environmental stewardship serving as core pillars of the company’s foundation, Bona Furtuna joined 1% for the Planet to formalize their commitment to these core values.
2022
B Corporations, or B Corps for short, are for-profit companies that balance purpose and profit. They are committed to the triple bottom line: environmental, social and economic. Driven by a desire to continuously be better, Bona Furtuna’s desire to join a global network of corporations using business as a force for good fueled us to apply for B Corp certification, which we proudly received at the beginning of 2022.
2023
The Change Climate Project is a nonprofit organization leading the fight against climate change by making the transition to a low-carbon world possible. The Change Climate Projects offers tangible options for companies like ours to actively implement climate solutions by adopting a standardized carbon fee and funding projects that reduce emissions.
We strive to be the leading organic Italian pantry food brand in the US. As we continue our efforts, we hope that Bona Furtuna will become a standard bearer of premium Italian fare.
