Lori Hackman - Olive and Herb

In the mad rush we almost always seem to be in, we often neglect one of the most important of our five senses.  We love looking at beautiful things, appreciate a good handshake and listen to music almost daily.  But when was the last time you took the time to appreciate the taste of the food that you eat?

Lori Hackman owns Olive and Herb, a local retail store offering Olive Oil and Vinegar in a medley of flavors in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin.  What may surprise you is that to visit a store like this is to open up your flavor palette to new and delicious worlds.

Listen as Lori explains how she got started in the olive oil business and how she has gained a loyal following of people that appreciate all that her store has to offer.

Enjoy!

Visit Lori at: https://oliveherbco.com/

James Kademan [00:00:00]:

You. You have found Authentic Business Adventures, the business program that brings you the struggle, stories and triumphant successes of business owners across the land. We're locally underwritten by the bank of sun prairie. Downloadable podcast episodes can be found at the podcast link found at drawincustomers.com. And today we're welcoming slash preparing to learn from Lori over at Olive and Herb in Sun Prairie. We're actually in her store, which is super cool. So, Lori, how's it going today?

Lori [00:00:27]:

Great. We have a beautiful day.

James Kademan [00:00:29]:

Oh, my gosh. I'm glad because we've got some sun on us here as we're doing this. So we're surrounded by I know there's probably a special name to this. I want to say Joe, but that's not that exactly.

Lori [00:00:40]:

They are called Fusis.

James Kademan [00:00:42]:

Fusis. Fusis.

Lori [00:00:43]:

So they're made in Italy, and they hold olive oils and balsamic vinegars.

James Kademan [00:00:50]:

All right.

Lori [00:00:51]:

So right now we specialize in olive oils and balsamic vinegars, all direct from Italy.

James Kademan [00:00:58]:

Oh, wow. Okay. Excellent.

Lori [00:01:01]:

And the olive oils are all from one producer in Italy.

James Kademan [00:01:06]:

Wow. Yeah. All right.

Lori [00:01:07]:

It's crazy. Well, I have to taste them later.

James Kademan [00:01:10]:

Yeah.

Lori [00:01:11]:

A man named Adriano and his family live about an hour south of Rome.

James Kademan [00:01:15]:

Okay.

Lori [00:01:15]:

And they actually grow the olives, make the olive oil and send it directly to us. There's no middleman.

James Kademan [00:01:20]:

Holy cow.

Lori [00:01:21]:

Yeah.

James Kademan [00:01:22]:

So do you mind giving me a little history lesson on olive oil?

Lori [00:01:25]:

Oh, go ahead.

James Kademan [00:01:26]:

Because I look at oil from, like, vegetable oil and coconut oil and all the oils of the world and I always wonder who was the first person to squeeze that.

Lori [00:01:37]:

Exactly.

James Kademan [00:01:39]:

An olive. A little tiny thing.

Lori [00:01:41]:

And you'll find artifacts popping up all the time, like 2000 years ago and earlier. And even that, they found a piece of a carafe, a pottery that had remnants of olive oil in it.