Photo: Colin up a tree.
In February Colin received his ‘potatura’ (pruning) training by helping our neighbour Francesco prune some of his trees. On the job training.
During March and April Colin completed the potatura of all our trees. The idea is to remove the branches growing in the middle the tree and to thin out the remaining branches. This is to allow the free movement of air to both help pollination and to prevent mould.
Unfortunately this was all in vein as in May we experienced an extraordinary hail storm that destroyed all the flowers on the trees. Olive trees are air pollenators. No flowers, no olives, no olives, no oil. We were not alone, most of the producers in the area had the same problem.
As you can imagine this dominated the conversations at the annual Olive Oil Festival in the village 5th and 12th November. It was filled with cultural and dining events as there were only three producers present this year. Only one of them had any 2023 oil, and they weren’t from the village.
We are all hoping for a bumper harvest in 2024.
Colin and Jan Fisher 