Olive oil ceramic bottle colorful cactus

White ceramic bottle with prickly pear in rainbow stripes

Extra virgin olive oil from 100% Peranzana olives in a white ceramic jug printed with a prickly pear. Medium-fruity and mild – the oil from Frantoio Muraglia for vegetables, cheese, and good bread.

The ceramic bottle with the colorful cactus is the pastoral motif among the vibrant jugs from Frantoio Muraglia, where fish and octopuses usually dominate the imagery. 500 ml of extra virgin olive oil from the Peranzana olive, topped with a cork and string, and featuring a prickly pear on the front with paddles striped in rainbow colors.

A prickly pear, just as it stands by the field

The *Fico d'India* grows in Apulia wherever little else thrives: on walls, embankments, and the edges of olive groves. Prickly, hardy, and full of sweet fruits in late summer.

The drawing is executed with a black pen and applied as a print to the glaze, paddle by paddle, each one bearing the house's signature rainbow bands across its surface – orange and green at the top, yellow and rust-red in the middle, blue and violet at the base. Even the thorns are placed individually, tiny black hooks within the field of color.

Only the striped and polka-dotted bottles in the collection are hand-painted; the other motifs are applied as prints onto the hand-thrown jug. The result here is a friendly cactus, which is quite an achievement for a plant with thorns. On the white ceramic, it looks like a botanical illustration that someone painted over in high spirits.

In late summer, the plant bears its fruits, the *fichi d'India*, ranging from orange to purple and covered in fine prickles. They are harvested with gloves and a long spoon, and eaten ice-cold, scooped out with a spoon. Anyone who has tasted them understands why the Apulians leave the cactus standing instead of clearing it away.

Peranzana, mild enough for vegetables and cheese

The jug contains 100% Peranzana, golden yellow with green reflections, reminiscent of ripe tomato, arugula, and radish, with a hint of artichoke in the background.

The motif fits the contents better than one might initially think. Peranzana is the mild Apulian variety, without the scratchy edge, making it suitable for anything that comes from the land rather than the sea.

Drizzle it over grilled zucchini and eggplant, young beans, or a warm chickpea salad with lemon. Pour it over fresh goat cheese or ricotta, with a sprinkling of coarse pepper. It belongs on good bread with artichoke cream anyway. The only place it doesn't go is into a hot pan.

A mild oil proves its worth most honestly with *pinzimonio*: raw vegetables dipped in nothing but oil, salt, and pepper. Fennel, celery, young carrots, radishes – there is nowhere for the oil to hide here, and the Peranzana stands up to it well.

The Murgia, where cactus and olive withstand the same conditions

Andria lies on the edge of the Murgia, a limestone plateau with thin soil and little rain. Anything that grows here must cope with drought, and that is exactly what the olive tree and the prickly pear can do.

The Muraglia family has been farming 40 hectares there without synthetic fertilizers or pesticides for five generations, currently under Savino Muraglia. The oldest tree on the estate is about 450 years old and has seen more droughts than any human who has ever harvested it.

It is harvested by hand, ground between granite stones, pressed cold and airtight, with no more than 24 hours between tree and mill. The clay of the bottle keeps out light, which makes olive oil age faster than anything else. Other designs are available in the Frantoio Muraglia collection, including the classic striped ceramic bottle.