There isn’t a single moment when Silver & Green began. It’s more a trail of memories, flavours, and journeys that quietly stitched themselves into a brand – one jar of olives at a time.
A Story That Starts
in the Sun
When I (Dan) was a child, my grandparents would disappear each winter from the Lake District to southern Spain. Come March, they’d return sun-kissed and laden with treasures: towering legs of ham, litres of olive oil, jars of glossy olives…and the Nocilla spread my cousins and I fought over.
Then, one year, my grandfather didn’t come home.
He passed away in Spain, having asked to be buried under the sun he loved. Today, he rests in a sun-warmed wall in Abanilla – just miles from where our extra virgin olive oil is produced.
The pull of the Mediterranean got lodged in my imagination that year. Because ever since, I’ve been following his footsteps south – through olive groves, coastal food markets, sun-scorched tomato fields, and inevitably, to tables full of unforgettable food.
Those wanderings became the beginning of Silver & Green.
From Picnic Baskets to a Business
In 2008, it was just me, a van, and a wicker picnic basket filled with samples. My dad headed north into Dumfries & Galloway. I went south into Lancashire. By sundown, we had 10 deli customers, greasy brows, and the beginnings of something real.
A few years later, Rachel, my partner, joined the journey. Today, we’re a team of 12 supplying retailers and food lovers across the UK with ingredients sourced the slow way: from growers and producers who care as much as we do about flavour, land, and legacy.
What Being ‘Grower-Close’ Really Means
We’ve always believed that the best ingredients don’t come from fast supply chains – they come from relationships.
Greek Olives
Our green Halkidiki olives are sourced from a family of farmers in Northern Greece who grow, harvest, and naturally ferment their olives over 6+ months. No shortcuts, no speed tricks. Just patience, salt, and time.
Our Kalamata olives follow the same slow, traditional process, and as we grow, we’re moving closer to a single community of farmers there too.
Spanish Olive Oils
Our award-winning organic infused extra-virgin olive oils come from Vicente Valdez, a bold, hands-on organic farmer in the mountains north of Alicante (and a man who doesn’t mind a brandy with his 11am coffee).
Our house extra virgin olive oil – a Great Taste 2020 winner – is crafted by Manuel Sala in one of Spain’s most fertile growing pockets, where olive trees grow tangled with figs, almonds, lemons, and mandarins.
Both producers work within a stone’s throw of my grandfather’s final resting place. The circle feels unplanned… and perfect.
Tomatoes, Pesto & Beyond
We source once-a-year tomatoes from Puglia, Italy, dried by hand under the same sun that ripens them.
Our pesto basil is grown in Veneto – discovered by chance when chasing the perfect balsamic onion.
And whether it’s Spanish almonds, Catalonian alioli, capers, or giant Gordal olives, most of our best ingredients come through conversations, handshakes, recommendations – and very late dinners.
The Silver & Green Difference
It comes down to three things:
- Flavour-first sourcing
Taste leads everything – always. - Human relationships
We know the hands that tend the trees, turn the soil, and cut the tomatoes. - Respect for process
Slow fermentation. Long harvests. Traditional drying. No cutting corners.
Built on Connection, Not Conveyor Belts
Our first customers were independent farm shops and delis. We designed everything with them in mind – right down to pouches sized to refill chiller bowls, and POS cards that double as shelf-life trackers.
In 2015, ‘I’ became ‘we’ and my partner Rachel joined and by then we were supplying retailers and foodservice teams around the UK with the best the Med has to offer.
As we expanded through national distribution, we lost some of the direct conversations that had shaped us in our early days.
Now, we’re opening that door wide again – for food lovers, retailers, and stockists alike.
Because great food deserves shared stories.
What We Stand For (Our Values)
We don’t have a 40-page brand manifesto, but we do have a compass that guides every decision we make – from choosing growers to labelling jars.
Simple – fewer ingredients, better relationships, cleaner flavour. No needless complexity, no guessing games. If it doesn’t earn its place, it doesn’t go in.
Honest – we’ll always tell it straight. When something’s brilliant, we’ll shout about it. If we’re working to make it better, we’ll let you know that too.
Responsible – protecting the places and people who make great food possible isn’t optional. It’s the whole point.
Ambitious – from paying the National Living Wage to improving supply chains and expanding our range the right way, we always want to raise the bar – for ourselves first.
These aren’t just values on a page. They’re the reason we know our growers by name, taste-test with borderline obsession, and chase better, every harvest, every year.
The Road Ahead
There’s so much more to come:
- Premium Galician seafood and anchovies
- Spanish drinking chocolate & heritage cacao
- Limited-batch olive varieties tracing the Mediterranean olive belt
- Mediterranean tableware, linens, and handcrafted olive wood boards
- Giving back via the Save The Olives Project in Puglia
- A deeper range that brings you closer to the places, people, and flavours we love
This journey started with sunshine, graft, and groceries in the back of a van. It continues today through growers who’ve become friends, customers who’ve become collaborators, and a community that loves honest Mediterranean food as much as we do.
