Pat O’Brien, director of marketing for Fiore Artisan Olive Oils and Vinegars, will be the speaker at Skidompha’s Chats with Champions on Tuesday, Sept. 4, at 10 a.m. in the Porter Hall at Skidompha Library, Damariscotta. Please allow time for parking.

Presenting “Fiore, Not Just a Business but an Adventure,” O’Brien will discuss the sourcing of extra virgin olive oils from harvest to harvest as olives ripen around the world and the production of balsamic vinegars of Modena, Italy. He will share stories about the colorful individuals they have met who create these products and explain their inherent health benefits and culinary applications. This will be an interactive presentation accompanied by an educational tasting. A variety of oils and balsamics will be available for tasting during and after the program.

Fiore Artisan Olive Oils & Vinegars was founded by Nancy O’Brien in 2009. Pat joined the company soon after to manage key supplier relations as well as to direct the strategic marketing effort. Nancy and Pat relocated from Connecticut to Bass Harbor on Mount Desert Island in the spring of 2009 and opened Fiore in Bar Harbor that July. The Rockland tasting room and store opened a few months later, followed by locations in Lewiston, Freeport, Brunswick and Brewer.

Fiore, whose name means “the blossoming flower” in Italian, has truly blossomed in Maine. It has won several prestigious awards including Rising Star Business of the Year in 2010 in Bar Harbor, Best-Around the World Tasting Room in New England in 2012 by Yankee Magazine, the Small Business Association’s Woman-Owned Small Business of the year for the State of Maine in 2013, and the Small Business of the Year by Penobscot Bay Regional Chamber of Commerce in 2016 among others.

Chats with Champions is a free community offering from your national award-winning Skidompha Library and is sponsored by Sherman’s Maine Coast Book Shop. For more information call 563-5513 or online at www.skidompha.org