Olives

 

Olives

 

 

Olea Europaea

 

Paddy came round on Sunday and we discussed bottles. We are now serious olive oil producers and need some bottles. This is the first year that we have produced enough oil to have our own pressing and it deserves to be bottled. We have decided to call it Finca Caicune after the area where the the trees are. We have about a hundred trees near the town of Casarabonela which is 12 miles from Álora. We picked 1027 kilos this year , about a ton, which is more than twice as much as last year. (Total Spanish production last year was 1.59 million tons. Olive Oil  Times. http://www.oliveoiltimes.com/olive-oil-business/spanish-olive-oil-harvest-sets-record/26303
From this amount we have 108 litres of oil. It takes about 5 to 6 kilos of olives to produce a litre of oil, depending on the variety of olive so that's a bit low.

                                                                      Olive Oyl

 

Mo and I picked 415kg. and Paddy and Laura picked 612kg. This has to be said because Paddy will read this. It also has to be said that they picked the best trees and we were working in very muddy conditions.



                                     Mo's Muddy Boots

Our trees are about 12 years old and so are babies. They should reach full production in another twenty or thirty years but we probably  won't be hanging around to see that. A mature tree in good condition should produce 20 to 60 kg. We got 40kg. from some of our trees this year: not bad.
Olive trees can carry on producing olives for hundreds of years and can be regenerated by cutting the trunk right down. New shoots will appear and will grow into good trees. There are olive trees around which are more than 2000 years old. Old olive trees are very valuable and can be moved without much harm. There is one in the centre of Álora which is at least 600 years old. It has been moved twice in the last ten years and is producing olives.

                                         
                                               600 year old olive tree with local talent
                                                           
If you have an olive tree more than 800 years old you could get 2100 €  for it. One more than 2000 years old would cost 9000€ plus postage and packing.

Interesting Olive  Fact (IOF)  All olives start off light green, then go dark green, then purple/black. Black olives are mature olives and contain more oil than green olives so it makes sense to pick the olives when they are black if you want oil. Eating olives are usually picked green as the flesh is firmer.

Finca Caicune is a fanega which is approximately 6500 square metres and we bought it from  Forbes and Mary who were hoping to build a house there. They fell foul of the planning laws, in particular the 'Ley del Suelo' of 2002 which prohibited house construction in the countryside; sadly a familiar story in this part of the world although thousands of houses were built round here and are  'illegal houses', many of which are threatened with demolition.
Our  trees had been neglected for  several years so needed heavy pruning, fertilisation and weed control. The weeds have been the biggest problem. Apart from robbing the ground of nutrients and water, they are a fire risk if left and the Guardia Civil can slap a fine on you. We have tried horses and sheep. The horses damaged the trees and the sheep ate the leaves (they can reach surprisingly high).
The views are fantastic and we  often see an eagle circling. We could see the sea if it wasn't for the mountains in between.

                                                            View from Finca Caicune

                             
                                                         The sheep with shepherdess

                          
                                                                   Finca Caicune


11/12/2012