Olive Farm Updates

Here you'll find the most recent updates of your olive trees progress and any other information regarding the Casa del Sole organic olive groves & farm.

November 2008

Here it comes... the much awaited harvest is upon us bringing much excitement, aching backs and camaraderie. We started to pick our olives early this year. On the 25th we welcomed our holiday/worker Mark and set off immediately to make use of the good weather. The first 3 days were great. A bit warm for picking but at least we got plenty done. Then the heavens opened and they haven't closed since. More about the weather and it's consequences in a moment.

We made our first press on Friday the 31st October. The earliest ever press we have done at Casa del Sole. This is because the weather has been so mild that the olives are quite advanced and with the warmth there is a danger that the olive mosquito (which burrows in and eats the olive) will invade and cause a lot of olives to be lost, the fruit to be lower quality and produce oil with a higher acidity. All this means that we are keen to get the olives in asap. But you can't pick olives in the rain. Not only is it miserable, it's also not good to store wet olives in crates... they start to decompose quickly, especially in this mild weather, and the resulting oil is of a lower quality.

From this you can deduce that quality, rather than quantity is the watchword on our farm. We can guarantee that our oil is not only extra virgin (many oils are- the acidity regulation is actually quite easy to attain and even reprocessed oils* can be EV) but of the absolute highest quality possible for an olive oil to be. Not only is it organic but the fruit is unbruised, fresh, young (resulting again in a lower yield of much higher quality) and pretty darn gorgeous! As in everything else in life – why settle for the second best?

The press last Friday resulted in a high oil to kilo ratio of 13.9%. Normally on our first press we get about 11% so we were very happy. The reason that we received a good percentage early on in the harvest (the olive stores oil as it grows plumper thoughout November and December in these parts – the longer you leave the olive on the tree the more oil you can make – but the taste changes and becomes milder) was because there has been so little rain before we started. When it rains the trees store quite a bit of water in the fruit. In our last press there had been little rain so not much water storage in the olive so when they were weighed to start with we weren't weighing so much water (which is taken out by centrifuge in the milling process).

Anyway, now it has begun to rain, the river is bursting it's banks, there are mud slides all along our road, ducks are happy and horses are miserable and olive pickers are on hold. The forecast is bad for another week so probably we will carry on with the harvest next weekend.

The really bad news is that, despite it looking like a bumper crop a week ago, we have lost about 30% of our olives to high winds and being physically beaten out of the trees by the rain. Not to worry too much – as long as we don't have the torrential rainfall that happened last week then we should be OK and I estimate that from the 500 trees on our farm we should net about 400 litres. We are also renting another grove this year and should net a good yield from this one too.

So, anyone wishing to taste the sensational flavour of 100% fresh olive oil should have a look in our shop – the stuff pressed on the 31st is in there in 25cl cans for only £4.00. It really is wonderful – peppery with a kick that hits you in the back of the throat and the most intense and delightfully olive flavour. It will only be like this for the next month so if you are interested you'd better buy now!
Watch out for the update at the end on the picking (hopefully early December). Olive sponsors should, this year, receive their oil by the 15th December – please let me know if you haven't got yours.

*'Extra Virgin' is a regulation categorisation for olive oil which has Oleic acid content lower or equal to 1%. Our oil is always 0.6% or lower. 'Virgin' oil has a has Oleic acid content lower or equal to 2%. 'Olive Oil' or 'Refined Olive Oil' are oils that have been extracted via methods other than cold pressing. These are warm pressing – where the olive pulp is significantly heated and then repressed, giving a lower grade oil or the pulp is repressed with the addition of chemicals to extract any lingering oil... again, a much lower and non.-organic method.

So, when you look at Olive Oil in the supermarket or deli and wonder at the huge difference in price, think back to this snippet of information and decide whether you will pay more for the good stuff or pay less for the processed side product of it's high grade neighbour. It's a matter of taste.

The very best quality olive oil you can get is Extra Virgin, first press (for which read 'early in the season'), cold pressed & organic... good job you know where to buy it!

July 2008

We have been very busy around Casa del Sole filming this year. Fortunately, the olives featured too so the trees aren't feeling left out and all rose to the occasion by producing some wonderful blossom and fruit to display to the cameras.
The weather has continued to be kind to your olive trees and we have had a hot but not roasting summer. There has been slightly less rainfall than average but this has not significantly effected the olive growth so far.

So long as the weather holds it's course and there are not too many storms between now and November we are on track for a good harvest. The only thing that could cause problems now are the olive bugs (if the weather turns cool and wet) or high winds (which literally knock the immature fruit from the branches).

At the moment there is no work needed for the trees. The next thing that will be done is the nets will be laid (probably at the beginning of November – weather permitting) and picking will commence.
Fingers crossed for a bumper harvest.

January 2008

All of us at Casa del Sole are delighted to bid a very warm welcome to the 2008 olive adopters.
This year will, without doubt, be better than last (which was a disaster because of the weather being in-conducive to olive growing.).
My apologies for not writing this first update sooner but in all honesty, nothing happens with olive trees until early May when they start to blossom.

The trees are all up to date on pruning and have had healthy amounts of organic fertiliser (thanks to the horses).
The year so far has been exactly what any olive farmer would hope for - mild and particularly wet. In fact, it's been so mild that we are already seeing olive flowers on the more sheltered of our trees.
As long as there is no late frost in the next couple of weeks we are off to a flying start.

Richard has been busy clearing old terraces which have been overgrown since we arrived here 6 years ago - we have found a few olive trees underneath all the brambles and are busy nurturing them back to productive health.

Don't forget you can visit your olive tree whenever you like (just drop us an email to warn us to be in). Olive sponsors also get a preferential rate on any oil purchases so send me an email if you would like to sample some oil from last year - before it runs out!

I'd also like to share with you a couple of farming developments here on the farm. I (Sarah) have finally got my proper 'small farmer' status which means that I am now a registered and professional farmer. It also means that I can apply for grants from the EU to help my farm become as ecologically friendly as possible. We are already strictly organic here but I was unable to apply for the organic produce label until I was a registered small farmer – which I have now done.

Not only this but, more excitingly, there will be real changes in the way our farm is run. We are planning to eliminate our carbon footprint totally over the next few years, making all our products 100% environmentally sound. The first step is to introduce photo-electric panels which means that we will not be draining energy resources. In the long term we aim to run all our machinery and cars electrically. In the mean time, the horses are our main ecological form of transport! Everything here at the farm is recycled already and, apart from petrol, we now use renewable energy and recyclable materials at home and in our on-line shop