Olive farming in summer: the waiting game
Summer is a quiet period for olive farmers, particularly the organic sort. The trees have been pruned and the grass mown, the fruit has set, so since we are not […]
Tag Archives: organic farming
Mowing the olive grove
Although I loved the long-grassed meadow look that our olive grove sported in spring, there are solid reasons for mowing the grass which are impossible to argue with. The tall […]
Fifty shades of green: changing olive trees
One of the (many) reasons that I love olive trees is their evergreen nature. In winter, when the neighbouring grapevines are reduced to knobbly stumps, and the naked chestnut trees […]
Natural fertilisers for the olive grove: crimson peas and black medic
I have always had a soft spot for the winged flowers of the legume family, so I was delighted to discover that the tiny specks of pink dotting the olive […]
Curing Olives: Drying (the lazy way)
Due to bureaucratic delays, we started harvesting our olives very late last year and were unable to complete the harvest before the oil presses closed in January. So in contrast […]
Pruning the olive trees – before and after
Buds are just starting to appear on some of our olive trees, meaning it’s time to wrap up the pruning. After 5 years of neglect the trees are very overgrown, […]
Pruning our Tuscan olive trees
After a long, wet winter, springtime in Tuscany brings many delights – trellises draped in fragrant wisteria, crunchy broad beans eaten fresh from the pod, and the excitement of the […]
Welcome to our Olive Grove
In September 2012 we left behind our old life in London to start a new life in Michele’s native Tuscany. We took over an abandoned hill-side olive grove in the […]
Notes from a Tuscan Olive Grove 