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Our Story

Monkey Business Extra Virgin Olive Oil is a product a community-focused farm located between the mountains and rolling hills of the Overberg at the southern tip of Africa. Our passion to create a great quality extra virgin olive oil drives our commitment to excellence and exceptional taste. The name Monkey Business is a nod to the playful and mischievous monkeys that live in the lush mountains surrounding the olive grove and farm. Always trying to outsmart the olive oil farmers and get their hands on some precious cold-pressed olive oil. The clever monkeys have no interest or appetite for the olive fruit itself, but their curiosity is piqued with the production of our cold-pressed olive oil. They keep a close watch on the pickers in the olive groves, following them as they make their way back to the mill, and even peek through mill windows to observe the milling process. The savvy monkeys know quality when they see it, and have been known to break into the mill and abscond with some of our extra virgin olive oil. Knowing their naughty nature, we’re always on the outlook for them, being super careful to foil their monkey business.

Our People

Monkey Business Extra Virgin Olive Oil was started by father and son duo George de la Harpe and Charl de la Harpe, on the family farm, Morning View. George ensures the quality of the olive oil by overseeing the cultivation of the olive trees, hand picking, milling, blending, and exporting the extra virgin olive oil, and Charl is responsible for sharing this great-tasting extra virgin olive oil with the world. We are committed to supporting the growth and prosperity of the local community, which we do by providing fresh produce and by creating numerous full-time and part-time seasonal jobs for the people of the surrounding area. The exceptional individuals who make up our team are undoubtedly our greatest resource.

Our Product

We are committed to bringing a pure and fresh product to market- We ensure this by overseeing the cultivation of the olive trees, hand picking and milling of the olives, blending, and distributing our extra virgin olive oil. Our olive oil is available for sale in Europe and North America within a couple of months of the olive harvest, and our unique packaging further preserves the oil's freshness by eliminating exposure to light and oxygen. We are committed to a great-tasting product- Our olive oil is an in-house blend of three Italian olive cultivars that include Corotina, Favolosa, and Frantoio olives which result in a robust olive oil with aromas of freshly cut grass followed by walnuts, artichoke, and green apples, and a pleasant bitterness and a peppery finish. Our olive oil is packed with rich in monounsaturated fatty acids, which can help reduce the risk of heart disease, and polyphenols the organic antioxidant compounds that protect the body's tissues against oxidative stress and associated pathologies such as cancers, heart disease, and inflammation.

Our Environment

As part of our commitment to sustainable farming practices, we avoid synthetic pesticides and chemical fertilizers, promoting soil health, beneficial insects and plants, and the production of high-quality olives. We are also dedicated to protecting the critically endangered local vegetation, called fynbos, found in the mountains surrounding the olive grove. Known for its exceptional biodiversity, with over 6500 species of plants occurring exclusively within the South-West corner of the African continent, fynbos is one of the rarest vegetation types found on earth. We manage the fynbos ecosystem by regularly removing non-native plant species and encouraging new growth through controlled fires that stimulate growth and through beekeeping. The Cape honeybee is an important pollinator of many flowering fynbos species.

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Contact Us

Charl de la Harpe

Cellphone: 403-680-2214

Email: charl@cdlh.ca

1410, 1111 6 Avenue SW

Calgary, Alberta

T2P5M5

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