The ladybirds are back!

Its pruning season and the gentle weather made yesterday's work look more like a stroll in the fields rather than actual hard labour. Whilst I was warming up and still lacking the necessary zen state of mind to concentrate on the intended activities, I noticed the first ladybird hiding behind a leave.

On the next pair of trees (before I started concentrating on the actual work I planned to do) I saw this couple

and this other one sunbathing

Now this is an almost completely different insect, although looking ladybird-ish

Whilst the ladybirds were pretty motionless, the black one was running around like it was looking for the car keys or something - it was a real treat having it hold steady for the few seconds I needed to take the picture.

Why to mention ladybirds in a blog about growing olives and making olive oil? Those little creatures are one of the best friend of the organic producer - they devour an amazing number of larvae and other small pests that we really do not want to feed on the olive tree and its fruits. On the other hand, if generic pesticides are used, the ladybirds get the lower hand together with the insects the pesticides were meant to eliminate. So, it is quite a honour to see them visiting us in such number and doing their pest control.

I've been told that the ladybirds are likely to stick around if proper housing is provided to them - one of the things we'll do this year is put some "ladybird condominiums" around the fields to see if it really works. Will put some pics when my daughter and me will start with the construction business!

A good read

As strange as it may seem to a non-initiated, half-interested passerby in the olive oil and its nuances, reading a book about olive oil can be quite an experience (of course, not the ones about pruning or fertilizers-just leave them to the pros...). I just finished reading "Extra virginity", by Tom Mueller, and can't but suggest it as the next good read. A bit of history, a bit of mithology, a quite insightful look in the present day state of the small universe surrounding the olive juice, with all its Dr.Jekylls and Mr.Hydes, and a number of insights and informations about many of the small facets that make up this trade.

It may be due to my obvious bias towards this tree and its fruit, but it transpires, page after page, that the author has a sincere interest in the topic and manages to transmit his experiences to the reader, which range from investigative journalism of criminal activities in southern Italy to insights in small Palestinian communities dependant on the olive tree, from the big industrial producer/trader to the small enthusiast. If you wish so, it can be a fast read, thanks to the jumps form Roman times to modern day traders and back again to a hidden corner of Crete that the author manages to fit in few pages. It gives you also a good number of facts that may keep you thinking, should you wish so.

It may make you wonder next time you go to the supermarket and pick that really cheap extra vergine, and maybe even make you stop not only at that wine producer cantina for a chat with the owner, but at our place too. I always enjoy a chat with the half-interested passerby.

The old W cliche'

Well, I guess it would be fair, at the very beginnings of this blog, to give you a short introduction to the whos, whys, hows, and wheres (hope to have got them right...)

The who - we're a small family producer that is setting up an, again, small olive oil production. A lot of work, but still, a lot of fun.

The why - it does feel good. Bringing back to life old and neglected growths, planting new ones, caring for them. Avoiding "traditional" kill-em-all pesticides and seeing the nature enjoying such a different approach. Seeing ladybirds nonchalantly take a stroll on an olive branch. Having a swim in the sea to wash off the red layer of dust after a day in the fields. Seeing my daughter eating the oil with a bit of bread and knowing it's completely free of added chemicals, pesticides and their likes. I could go on...

The how - further to the several hundred trees whose production was almost completely depleted by family consumption, we undertook a significant enlargement of their ranks which will bring the figure up to an estimated 5000 trees by next year. Although it takes us a lot of additional time and efforts, all the olives are organically grown.

The where - the magic triangle in front of the Brioni islands. Although olive oil from Istria was sung by poets from the roman ages, the whole region got off the radar for a long period. Now we are coming back on it, slowly but steadily and with all the right reasons.

That's it from us. We'll develop the topics more in detail in parallel with the works en plen air...

What's going on

View Larger Map

Sadly, Google Maps does not update the images of the area pretty often (it looks like we're in a forest), but as you can see from the video below it quite changed its appearance:



So, what's the Cat doing? It's sticking into the ground the poles that are going to support the young trees in their first years, until they manage to stay in place by their own means (just like with little kids...)
The poles are being placed in holes previously dug by the very Cat you're seeing, filled with a mix of organic fertilizer and soil (a little present to the new inhabitants, until they root themselves properly!).

Work in progress!

Before I start with the whos, whys, wheres and hows I thought about showing you what is actually going on in the fields at the moment.

Basically, in addition to the existing plantation (about which I'll talk more later), we started salvaging fields which were out of use for at least 60 years (to make a long story short, a border region changed hands and the new rulers had a different idea on how to run the show, resulting in a fairly numerous part of the population leaving for better shores, whilst the ones remaining were disincentivated in cultivating the land left behind).

You can guess that 60 years took their toll on the looks of the countryside, with woods growing where once fields and olive growths dominated the landscape. Here's an aerial shot courtesy of Google:

Thanks to Mr. Caterpillar, Mr.Chainsaw, Mr.Deere and a number of working hours this very same piece now looks like this (shot taken from the macadam road in the picture above):

whilst similar fields now look like this:

As you can see, a number of old olive trees survived the abandonment, and are now getting a vigorous haircut which should bring them back to old glory in few years:

before

 and after

Obviously ther are not enough old trees to fill all the voids, so Santa took his truck and brought us some young siblings of the above trees to make them company in the coming decades:

Last year's effort resulted in this in one of the fields that we took back again from mother nature (you can see in the back the woods - the field looked like that one year ago):

By the summer, some 3,500 trees will be planted and the once neglected fields should get a drastically improved look. And, most important, will not be sprayed with chemicals that IMHO do more damage than good.

I have a bit of back pain whilst I write this, but judging from the upcoming activities I guess it will not improve that much :D

But it feels good in a strange way - much better than the open plan office I am sitting in right now!

Will keep you updated with the activities...