Quality control

Here are our quality supervisors (senior and junior, middle one taking the pic) in action checking the weldings on the new water tank...

Weekly update

I must admit - in between office hours, planting, Easter holidays and all, I got a bit lazy and left the blog on hold. Work is going on well, thank you, with close to 1000 plants enjoying themselves under a nice spring rain (finally!). Open air works are now on minimum due to the much awaited rain, but there is still a lot of paperwork and preparations for the remaining activities to take care of. We (more or less) defined the positions for the various cultivars (here's a general note about cultivars if you should wish to take a look), much of the irrigation system is ready to be mounted, pruning of the older olive trees is almost done. So, what's on the to-do wishlist? I'd like to take a closer look on deficit irrigation - a good friend from the local agricultural association is preparing me next month's reading program. I'd also like to start building some ladybird nests with my little daughter and have her paint them before putting them around the fields. Well, I could continue with the list...

On a sidenote - the wild asparagus has finally started to pop up! I hope the rain that's pouring right now will improve the vegetation, but so far due to the drought it was almost impossible to get hold of them in sufficient number even for a single portion. Anyway, the other day I noticed one in the middle of a field just reclaimed from its quasi-forestal state:

 So I went for some early spring harvesting. Usually picking wild asparagus is a tricky business, as they grow in the middle of the bushes, so scratched hands and fingers full of spines is the price one has to pay to get hold of those sprouts (and that's only after you manage to spot them, which is an art on its own). One of the upsides of having just brought back to use several square meteres of fields is that the asparagus now can be picked without the usual hassle, easily, whilst you stroll around...

Anyway, after having managed to find a sufficient number of them, the best way to hommage this plant is to cut into small pieces some young onions

add some good extra vergine

 and the wild asparagus (of course, after you washed it and got rid of the woody parts at the basis of the sprout)

After five to ten minutes on a medium fire, the asparagus is ready to be eaten, either with some pasta, in a frittata, with a steak... I swear on the frittata anyway. And some fresh white wine.

P.S. Some may have noticed that there are some intruders in the last picture: it's another asparagus-like sprout that I think is called black bryony - please correct me if wrong. A bit bitter (excuse the pun) than the asparagus, but de gustibus...

Planting started!

It was a quite demanding weekend, with the test planting taking place on Saturday (we still need to tweak a bit the operations to make them the most time-effective as possible). We had to basically

a) coordinate the Cat digging the right size holes (not too big, not too small) at the right place (downwind from the most stressful wind for the young olives, behind the supporting pole)

b) coordinate the people placing and tieing up the olive to the pole, covering the hole, placing the white textile on the trunk (it's a trap for non-winged bugs)

c) and water them

Since we worked the whole day I did not manage to take a lot of pictures, but basically here are the two rows we planted by noon (about 100 plants):

Of course, we still need to work a bit on the terrain, but there was no rain at all this winter so the ground is hard as rock!

Just FYI, the cultivar planted here is called Rossignola, tipical for this region (but I promise I'll develop on cultivars planted and on the different olive oil they produce later on!)

But it did not end there. We still have about two thousand plants waiting at home, and they have their needs too! So in the evening it was watering time -  I guess the olives were grateful

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!).