10746 Olives - worth the hassle?

Financially, commercially, any other ally, (other than emotion ally!) it's a non starter. But (speaking as someone who has nurtured 250 young olives from twigs, through a disastrous winter etc. etc) more as a landscape gesture than for any hope of 'a return', owning an olive grove does give you a sort of re ally warm feeling inside. Plus more oil than you will know what to do with!

I'm not sure I'd buy an olive grove which was distant from my house, (that would reduce the appeal) - but if it is in an important 'visual' situation for your village, and you can afford it as a plaything, then I don't think the poor 'return on investment' should put you off.

Thanks, Charles, v interesting. Anyone got any thoughts as to questions I should ask in relation to the trees. I anticipate a fight over the price (assuming we're interested) and want to show this old guy that I know at least something on the subject.
I can understand the idea of owning a plot of land away from your house sounding a bit strange, but living where I do it's perfectly normal. Next I'll need an Ape/Piaggio in which to head off to the fields every morning around dawn!

Hi Violetta

We only have a few trees but the almost unrestrained joy of collecting 'our' oil from the frantoio (olive mill), we can see from the house, is the highlight of my year. Our oil costs us more than it is worth commercially - the pruning, the fertiliser, containers, tools, etc. but its worth every drop.

Green Gold:smile::smile::smile:

See above.

Odd... I thought I posted a response to this last night. Never mind...

I think that an olive grove – like just about anything to do with gardening – can be a huge amount of work or not much at all, depending on what you want out of it and the width of your tidiness comfort zone.

You could, if you wanted, spend a lot of time carefully pruning the trees each winter and bundling the prunings up neatly for use on the fire. When spring comes, you could apply fertiliser and give the ground under the trees either it's first grass cutting or first harrowing. You could do that repeatedly as the grass grew or the weeds reappeared over the warm months when there's rain. Come summer, you could spend time in the grove every day pinching off watershoots before they got too big. All the time, you'd be checking for signs of olive fly and prepared to spray against the pest. Come the harvest, you'd do each tree by hand.

Alternatively, you could just let the trees grow as they will, cut the grass once before harvest so that the nets will lay flat, pick the olives and haul them off to the mill. If you don't bother with pruning, the trees will rapidly grow upward which will make harvesting more difficult and, because of reduced sunlight on the fruiting wood, reduce the quantity of your harvest. However, if all you want is to own an olive grove and a few litres of oil off it every year, this may be the most efficient approach.

Or you could do what seems to be the prevalent thing for non-commercial olive growers around our way: prune every winter (but not get too upset if you miss a year), burn the prunings in the olive grove (ideally, when they're damp so they make lots of lovely smoke), cut the grass under the trees before harvest and perhaps earlier in the year if it becomes a fire hazard, harvest the olives and enjoy the oil.

I think that, for us non-contadino types, the biggest potential problem with having an olive grove is sorting out the pruning. Olive trees are incredibly tough, so you could actually prune one down to the ground without killing it, but some people worry about how they'll be seen when their neighbours inspect their pruning work (as they inevitably will). My experience is that pruning is also the biggest time demand; it might change with practise, but it takes me much longer to prune a tree than it does to get the olives off it.

I think Charles is right about small olive groves not being a commercial proposition. I think this only works if you have a huge number of trees. You may have read the thread from last year about yields, but, if not, it might be helpful for you to know that we got 27 litres of oil off of 43 trees last year. That was, as I'm sure you remember, a bad year for olives. This year the trees are loaded and I'm sure we're going to get a lot more oil than that.

As for questions you might ask of the owner, I think one possibility is that you ask him if he'd be willing to continue to take care of the pruning in return for a portion of the oil – assuming this would be an acceptable deal for you.

Al

We use the same approach as Al (where did the other post go to sure I read it earlier this morning), do what time and energy allow, pruning is the most time consuming, and boring, and we try but not to our neighbours satisfaction!.Picking from 80 trees is hard work but if done with friends is good fun (in the sunshine) and the best bit is going to the press and seeing the lovely oil at the end of it. The trees are laiden this year and we hope to pick them all, probably judging from comments on a previous thread around the end of the first week in November...now if anyone cares to lend a hand?...
A

When my OH thought he'd plant some olive trees and produce his own oil...magari..he bought a great many books, the best of which was Discovering Oil. Tales from an Olive Grove in Umbria by Brian and Lynne Chatterton pub by Pulcini Press and ordered from Amazon. There's another book by them Growing Olives & Producing Oil but we never got that far!!!

questions to ask:
How old, what type are they, who did the pruning (whilst looking shocked at the state), when were they last fertilised, can you show me the lordo/tara (peso) from the mill for last years crop,can I taste the oil from the last production.
If you are not a farmer, and there are farmers next to the plot - have they been asked if they want the land - and will they sign to say they do not want it?

You should also have a quick word with your notaio to find out how much you'll have to pay in taxes for the land deal. These can be surprisingly high - maybe around the €6,000 mark.

Thanks everyone, you're all so helpful, I really can't thank you enough. The questions to ask (the bloke I'm going with is going to be very surprise when I come out with these for he thinks I know nothing about anything remotely agricultural (which I don't really)), what to read and the taxes, gosh, Charles, I stupidly never thought of that but you're right. Incidentally, hubby's away and I haven't mentioned anything to him about this. But even if it is what I want, I anticipate a big fight over price, so nothing will be decided today, I'm sure. Am just about to pull on my wellies and head off. Will report back later after the visit. Thanks again. V

Well that was interesting afternoon. Olive grove turned out to be a neighbour's directly below our house so location perfect. (I was approached by builder friend acting as middleman.) Small, only around 60 trees, mugello variety I was told. Owner rather vague as to what that produced last year saying only 30 litres but middleman argued surely more. Some of the trees extremely old, others younger. Several other cultivated areas vegetables, fig trees, apples, etc but on a very steep narrow terraced hillside directly below the village walls. Honestly, I was exhausted even just walking up and down before actually carrying out any work! And the ground crumbled away in places too so work required there. Plus no water, current owner brings up supplies in a barrel on his Ape, we've seen him doing that.
I'm not interested but have a sneaky suspicion other half may be as he's often commented on attractiveness of this plot of land when we've walked passed. Owner wants Euros 60,000 for it! In his dreams, surely, poor guy? Think I'll settle for my pretty little virtually-no-maintenance garden but thanks again everyone, certainly learnt something today. V

Did you find out the actual measurement of the land - after all, it is land you are actually (possibly) buying. Are there any buildings on it of any description - even just a pile of stones. How about road access? It's worth bearing in mind that the "middleman" will be looking for a bit more than a "drink" out of the deal as well, so it may not be as expensive as your gut (or is it oil) feeling first says. Remember that agricultural land - for that is what this is - can be used in many ways, especially in Tuscany!:)

I've had a similar plot offered to me in prime condition, excellent oil (tasted it), 2000 m2 with a shed for half that price. As far as water is concerned, mature olives are pretty drought resistant. So 60,000 does sound steep to me, offer him half.

Heiko is right: mature olives do not normally need watering. They definitely would not have needed it this year. If you've seen the current owner hauling water in his Ape, it would have been for the orto.

Unless there's some possibility of it being used for building – as Nardini hints – I think the €60,000 price tag (plus taxes and legal fees, of course) deserves to be scoffed at. More than a thousand Euros a tree? Please!

As has been said, you're not going to make money out of 60 olive trees; they're gong to cost you in time, money or both. I wonder if your middleman and the owner might think that all Brits are loaded and have a desperate desire to have their own olive grove?

Or maybe it's just an opening negotiation position.

Al

My parents are in the process of buying a property between Sarzana and La Spezia but it only has a very small plot so they are now on the lookout for some land. As my father loves gardening and mother cooking they would love some olive trees but like Violetta (and others) I think 60,000 euros too much.
Has anyone any ideas on the best way to find a plot? Do they get advertised locally or is it just word of mouth?
Nic

[quote=AllanMason;100323] I wonder if your middleman and the owner might think that all Brits are loaded and have a desperate desire to have their own olive grove?[/quote]

Al, at the back of my mind, this is what I'm thinking, or trying not to think. But talking to OH on the phone last night, as feared, he's extremely interested and not discouraged at all by initial asking price. We've known middleman for years and, if anything, we've often had something for nothing out of him, he's a good bloke, and has a reputation locally as such. It may well be that he's trying to do us a favour but I'm still going to ask a real estate girlfriend to stroll by the plot when she can next week to see what she thinks about the price, which of course, we wouldn't dream of paying in full and regard only as a start for negotiations.
Interestingly though, talking to a neighbour, she said that a guy from Rome paid Euros 90,000 last year for just a tiny plot of land centro storico to turn in to a garden. I know the plot, it was just bare earth when he bought it, (come to think of it, it's STILL bare earth) and can't measure more than 50 m2 max.
I can't estimate the size of the plot I've seen, but intend to find out. As it's planted with olives and on a very steep incline in a village, where as I was saying last week, you can't even put a sat dish up without planning permission and then with strict limitations, it couldn't be used for development, no way.
I was only interested in the water aspect for general gardening purposes beyond the olives realising they didn't need it. (He's got some great looking salad and fennel, toms, melanzone.)
Nic, in my experience, word and mouth with local people, especially farmers, builders (as in my case). Often you see signs pinned to trees too so drive around.

I have to admit to wishing I'd never started this now. Builder admired my garden, said it was a shame it wasn't larger, referring to my one olive in a pot brought up the subject of a grove and so it snowballed. Now I have husband suddenly wanting to become a farmer (it'll vines next...) when for years we've been very content with what we have. Ho hum...

Violetta, I know all about husbands who suddenly want to become farmers later in life!

We live in an 'executive' house on an estate in surburban Surrey with a garden he has never really taken any interest in. Lived on the same estate for 25 years. Five years ago we wondered about buying a small, run down trullo in Puglia as we always went there for holidays, loved the area and were fascinated by trulli.

That small, run down trullo became quite a large one surrounded by 150 olive trees in 25,000 m2 of land. He has now lost himself in a world of chainsaws, tractors, harvests, etc, etc. He is still working in the UK but has bought a tractor on ebay to 'do up' and take down to Italy. This tractor sits on our drive where everyone else has their large 4x4s or BMWs. It acts as a magnet for all the farming frustrated neighbours who stand round it as he 'tinkers'. I have thought of opening a tractor playgroup for them.

I haven't lost him to the golf course - instead it is the olive trees and tractors! Still, there are worse interests!

Good luck - Charles' thoughts were spot on - even I love having the olives around us in Italy and it really does give you quite a buzz when you see your own oil come out at the mill - and you have picked those olives only the day before!

However, on a financial basis it really is a no no - but aren't most things in Italy? We certainly didn't buy our place as an investment but the pleasure it gives s far more wholesome that most other things money can buy.

tractor you say. Ohhhhhhh......
:-)

Perhaps we could link up Signor Flying Pig who restores tractors, with Nardini, who wanted to buy one and loves Puglia too?

It's a MAN thing, Noble. really ...

[quote=Nic68;100331]My parents are in the process of buying a property between Sarzana and La Spezia but it only has a very small plot so they are now on the lookout for some land. As my father loves gardening and mother cooking they would love some olive trees but like Violetta (and others) I think 60,000 euros too much.
Has anyone any ideas on the best way to find a plot? Do they get advertised locally or is it just word of mouth?
Nic[/quote]

We're in this area. Word of mouth is definitely the way. We know of a few plots in the area, including the olive grove mentioned earlier (we couldn't afford it). If your parents are interested or want a local contact send us a pm

Personal experience is that having your own olives will not bring in any money if you do the work yourself even, as to make any sense you should cost out your own time at a reasonable rate.
However looking after your own can be a very satisfying type of horticulture and you could enjoy it as much as many Italians seem to do and in addition you are maintaining the countryside in an attractive state.
Make sure you do all the legal stuff right with a lawyer acting for you - yes he will cost money!
If your neighbour adjacent to the plot gets 70% of his income from agriculture he will have an option to buy your land at the same price as you are paying and the seller must write to all such people and prove this to your lawyers satisfaction. Sounds complex but it must be done tho' I have not heard of anyone actually taking up this option.

[quote=elliven;100808]If your neighbour adjacent to the plot gets 70% of his income from agriculture he will have an option to buy your land [B]at the same price [/B]as you are paying and the seller must write to all such people and prove this to your lawyers satisfaction. Sounds complex but it must be done tho' I have not heard of anyone actually taking up this option.[/quote]
The importand thing here is "same price" - meaning that which you declare as having paid. Now perish the thought that anyone might seek to avoid taxes by declaring less than the actual price - but if you did - the "declared" price is the price that any registered farmer could insnsis on buying the land for. So in all cases you (your lawyer etc.) should ensure they get a signed decleration that they do not wish to buy the land.
If you don't get such a decleration, a person falling into the farmer and neighbour category can decide to buy it up to 2 years after you have completed your purchase. Of course this does not apply if you yourself are a registered farmer.

We have 32 trees of varying size and just want to exchange the olives for the oil. Do we need to provide the bottles or are they provided and is it just a straight forward exchange (olives for oil) or do we need to pay? I think we have an oleficio near us in Pontano St Angelo, but is it worth looking around? I'd rather support the local one if i can. and... do you need 'proper' olive nets or can you use old blankets and the like? I'm also presuming that both green and black olives are acceptable - my neighbour has sort of told me but her marchigianni accent is really playing havoc with my translation skills...
Thanks
Simon

You probably will need a net, not expensive and you can also buy those nice little short rake things which make it easier, you just scrape down the branches ,no fussy picking, try to get rid of as much debris that you can and then load into boxes.You will need to book your slot at the press, so consider when you start picking how long it will take to fit in with that. Try to pick when its dry and you can store the picked olives for 5/7 days .You will pay a fee, about 30e for the service at the press.If you want to be posh you can buy the nice shiney vats with a tap at the bottom, keeps the oil better and needs to be stored somewhere cool but frost proof.We go to the press at Massa, I should go and investigate the one nearest you and get booked in. Happy picking.
A

We have been quoted 40 euro to press 250kg which is about 40-50 litres but obviously varies from year to year. We are complete novices as this will be our first year but have been told that to get the best oil we should wait for the majority to be ripe and then pick & press as quickly as possible. This may mean that we will not harvest until January. From what I have heard/read this seems late to me and would welcome opinions on this

[quote=Angie and Robert;101039]You probably will need a net, not expensive and you can also buy those nice little short rake things which make it easier, you just scrape down the branches ,no fussy picking, try to get rid of as much debris that you can and then load into boxes.You will need to book your slot at the press, so consider when you start picking how long it will take to fit in with that. Try to pick when its dry and you can store the picked olives for 5/7 days .You will pay a fee, about 30e for the service at the press.If you want to be posh you can buy the nice shiney vats with a tap at the bottom, keeps the oil better and needs to be stored somewhere cool but frost proof.We go to the press at Massa, I should go and investigate the one nearest you and get booked in. Happy picking.
A[/quote]

Thanks for this - can you buy the nets from the oleficio or can you get them from elsewhere- sorry about this its our first year and feeling our way around things...
Thanks
jo

[quote=Luce Dell'Amore;101043]We have been quoted 40 euro to press 250kg which is about 40-50 litres but obviously varies from year to year. We are complete novices as this will be our first year but have been told that to get the best oil we should wait for the majority to be ripe and then pick & press as quickly as possible. This may mean that we will not harvest until January. From what I have heard/read this seems late to me and would welcome opinions on this[/quote]

Since the idea of owning an olive grove was introduced to me last week(!), everytime I open a magazine or newspaper there seems to be an article on the subject. Reading hubby's Decanter magazine last night, in the food section a guy called Charles Carey of "London's best known oil importer, the Oil Merchant" is quoted as saying: "the harvest in the northern hemisphere used to take place around the end of October and beginning of November. Now it's much closer to the beginning of October. Some producers harvest olives when they're quite green and still have a peppery taste; others leave them on the tree longer so the flavour is softer. You get a greater yield if you harvest them later but if you leave them too long, as some more commercial producers do, they start tasting slightly fatty and greasy." Same article also references Judy Ridgeway, "industry expert" and author of Best Olive Oil Buys Round the World.
Up at Volpaia in the Chianti recently, an estate from which we buy what I regard to be our best olive oil and one I use exclusively for salads, they were telling me that they pick early as they're very high (500m) and afraid of frosts. But also if you leave the olives on the trees until they are very ripe, you risk them being bruised when harvested. And bruising can cause the greasy flavour mentioned above.

Hi Jo
Your local Ferramenta will have everything you need, you should manage with one net, just remember to place it with the gap folded uphill then you can roll it so that the olives arrive at the bottom (as was kindly pointed out to me by a friend when we first picked.) Depending on your trees and this is a good year for olives a rough estimate if you pick them all might be around 30-40 litres, they do 50 litre posh cans, which are not that cheap, forget what we paid, but everything lasts from year to year so an investment. Am happy to help, still a novice myself though.Oh and black and green together seems fine, we have both.
A

we pay around the euro 15 per quintale... we also pay an extra 1.5 euro for them to go through a leaf sifting machine so we do not have to bother sorting them.... so total euro 16.50 a quintale...(100 kg)

a balance is achieved by leaving olives on for a longer or shorter time ...as regards picking...too early and they are hard to release from the branches ...apart from the oil content etc... so physically its just easier when they are semi ripe...

this year the mills will be open until later... basically because of the quantity... there are a lot of olives on the tree... last year they were mainly closed by Christmas... low crop...

as with anything that grows there are no hard and fast rules... and one adapts to some method that they find easy for themselves... essential to follow the net advice as regards the gap... we use clothes pegs to secure the opening around the tree and along to the edge...also essential if on a hill to have a set of sturdy stakes to raise the end of the net on the downside of the tree... otherwise they escape...

it is essential to visit your mill now...if this is your first time... and check the price...if they have minimum quantities... some of the bigger ones will only process so many quintale at a time... see if they have a leaf removal machine...and get there phone number so you can book your day/hour....,, you can also pay extra to have new filters used in your pressing... ie once the olives are crushed the paste is spread between filters and built up into a stack... this stack is then rolled over to the press and each press is assigned to a different producer so your oil is from your olives... filters are reused and depending on the mill and the time you arrive you could be fortunate to have brand new filters or old greasy ones...

when picking without assistance it takes a fair while to get a decent amount of olives... so if only two of you... make sure the olives are stored in open boxes not sacks...or even spread on a cool floor...they need air... this effects flavor i would say more than anything.... if you do sack them up for the mill make sure its at the last minute... if you can avoid plastic sacks do so...they tend to raise the temp quicker....

make sure if using your car to put a sheet under the sack...the olives leek everywhere...and the stain is hard to remove....although the smell is pleasant....

i would in general start picking whenever the neighbours near to you start... they obviously have a nose for these things.... as for color if you leave them all to ripen... you will find that by the time the slowest ones are ready the rest of the fruit will have dropped off... so the mix of ripe and semi ripe fruit makes the taste soemething special to your grove... it will all come out green anyway...

agree about the stainless steel containers...might be better to buy two smaller ones rather than one big... it allows a good years harvest to remain for the next year in one can if you have not used it all whilst using the empty/emptier one... cleaned of all old oil to be used for the new production... oil has to be kept free of light and never in plastic containers apart from transporting back from the mill....

I was asked a question about the mechanical olive picker that our builder had bought to use this year, as his trees are "over loaded" with fruit. We had been told by friends that ordinary long poles with rake type attachments were useless as they were killers to use for any length of time, so this week my husband went out to pick and has written this.

Our builder has roughly 130 olive trees, and I usually help him with the harvest. This year, for the first time, we are using mechanical harvesters. I know that there are various types of machine available, but the kind we are using are pneumatic, powered by a compressor connected to the power take-off on a tractor. One largish compressor powers three harvesters.

The actual devices consist of a telescopic handle (available in different lengths) and two sets of plastic “fingers” which vibrate in a “clap hands” motion.

It’s significantly quicker than harvesting by hand, and it cuts out most of the ladder work, but you still need someone to follow behind and collect any olives that remain after the machines have finished. We’re using 3 people on the machines and one person tidying up behind. You get more leaves etc with the olives than when picking by hand, but it’s not as bad as I expected.

Although you’ve cut out most of the ladder work, it’s physically about the same amount of work, although the strain is now more on your arms than your legs.

So, the machines are definitely effective, and will save a significant amount of time. The downside is that they destroy the atmosphere of the harvest. If you have a romantic idea of olive harvest time as being beautiful tranquil autumn days in the countryside with just the sound of the harvesters chatting to each other, and church bells in the distance, think again! We now have the constant drone of the tractor and the compressor and the rattle of the machines - conversation is impossible.

We start on our 80 trees tomorrow, all by hand, with friends dropping in to help, we are booked for the press next Thursday, so hope to get as much as we can picked by then, the only thing to break the silence will be the sound of shotguns which seem to be blasting around down there today, so we may also be dodging bullets as well.Hope to excede the 50 litres we achieved in our virgin year of picking, will let you all know if I live to tell the tale.
A

Good Luck Angie

Hi Angie and Robert

We're starting ours tomorrow as well....god willing.... Had hoped they would last until next weekend but some are beginning to drop. The weather also looks a better bet for the next few days. Good Luck. We only have 35 or so trees but still takes the two of us a good couple of days. Steel cans washed, nets found, new rakes and goggles.... just the picking to do.

Thanks Aretina, lets hope we both do well, looks like the harvest will be bumper this year, we have spent the afternoon sorting and washing crates, have the rakes and nets but never thought about goggles!
Lets hope it doesnt rain!
Angie

Bu++er it's started to rain... here in Arezzo. Hope it's fine tomorrow.
Ditto with the boxes etc. but goggles I would strongly recommend, failing that a pair of glasses, anything infact. A few years ago, I got hit in the eye by a retreating olive branch and it was very very very painful. Necessitating a trip to our local hospital, antibiotic cream etc. etc. etc. Apparently I was the eye surgeons 6th 'olive branch in eye' that day.

Saying that, the hospital was fantastic. Seen in 20 mins. by consultant, given a prescription and when I said 'where do I get this' (we had only been here a short time), she tore it up, went to her cupboard and gave me the said cream.

Good Luck

I suppose someone will start an "2008 Olive Harvest" thread soon enough. I would have already done so if we'd managed to clear all our trees, but so far we've managed to do only about a third. Partly sheer idleness, partly due to the weather not being great and partly due to not wanting to start unless we have at least three days clear of other appointments so that we get a big batch of olives to take to the mill without them sitting around for more than a couple of days. Mainly it's because it's a bit difficult to pick olives when you have a seven month-old daughter who prefers your active attention to just watching you playing peek-a-boo with her in the trees.

In spite of all this, we did manage to do 15 of our 43 trees last weekend. None of our trees are very large, but the ones we did were all around the house instead of in the olive grove and even smaller on average than the ones in the grove. Some of the trees had a lot of fruit (one almost filled a olive crate on its own), but our impression is that the trees in the olive grove mostly have even more olives.

Last year, our 43 trees gave us 190 kg of olives and 28 litres of oil. This year, 15 trees gave us 230 kg of olives and 26 litres of oil. For those who have no idea what 230 kg of olives looks like, they filled 10 of the standard olive crates you see in agricultural supply shops just about as full as they could get with it still being possible to stack another box on top.

While there is a lot more fruit, the amount of oil in a kilogram of fruit is down on last year, indicating that the olives have a lot more water in them than they did last year. Hardly surprising, given the drought of last year and the soggy Spring we had and damp Autumn we're having.

We only managed to use and gave away about 20 litres of oil in the last year, so we still have about 8 litres of last year's oil. Since it seems we'll soon have another 75 litres of the stuff in the cantina, I'm wondering if it might be possible to run our car on olive oil.

Not serious. :winki:

Al

[QUOTE=Aretina;102065]Bu++er it's started to rain... here in Arezzo. Hope it's fine tomorrow.
I do so hope that the rain forecast to fall all day here, just over the border, doesn't spread to your area Aretina. My OH didn't pick today...too damp and misty and tomorrow rain!

Purely a point of interest................

[B][U]IF [/U][/B]my neighbour said to me..... you can have these 50 Olive trees (free!).......

Should I take them ????

They do seem like a lot of work, apart from the aesthetics and keeping things 'as they used to be'...I do put a value on that side...............

We tend to spend circa 100E per annum on more than acceptable oil from our local Supermarket, so we COULD save that.................but the hassle of our own ????????:eerr:

[quote=Sprostoni;102074]
[B][U]IF [/U][/B]my neighbour said to me..... you can have these 50 Olive trees (free!).......

Should I take them ????

They do seem like a lot of work, apart from the aesthetics and keeping things 'as they used to be'...I do put a value on that side...............

We tend to spend circa 100E per annum on more than acceptable oil from our local Supermarket, so we COULD save that.................but the hassle of our own ????????:eerr:[/quote]
It really depends on what [I]you[/I] consider to be a hassle.

When I lived in Scotland, my next door neighbour had a vast expanse of lawn which he was constantly mowing, watering, feeding, de-thatching, aerating, etc. To my way of thinking, [I]that[/I] was a hassle, but he seemed to get a lot of enjoyment out of all the pointless (as it seemed to me) work.

I think that looking after 50 olive trees is nowhere near as strenuous or time-consuming as all the effort that guy went to in order to grow an enormous pile of smelly, rotting grass clippings.

If you live in Italy, if your time is largely your own to use as you like, if you're reasonably fit physically and if the 50 olive trees are not grotesquely over-grown, then I really don't think the grove would prove a huge challenge. If you don't live here, if you have a full-time job or if you have any physical infirmities, then they would probably be more of a guilt-producing burden than a joy to own.

As I said in my post on the first page of this thread, the scope exists to spend loads of time and effort on a small olive grove. Perhaps you think your neighbour's olive grove requires loads of work because you've seen him there constantly messing around with this or that but, if so, I suspect this mainly reflects the sort of chap he is, not the sort of olive grove he has. I can assure you that the labour-intensive approach is really not necessary. Since harvesting last year, our investment of time and effort in our olive grove has consisted of cutting the grass once. For various reasons, the trees didn't get pruned last year, so they'll require a bit more effort this time, but getting a bit overgrown wasn't the end of the world: they still produced very well, but harvesting is more difficult than it need be. Similarly, the grass under the trees did get a bit shaggy, but it really didn't matter.

Al

Well we had a great time picking olives, even though it is hard work and we were exhausted at the end of the day. The sunshine we had (luckily) helped of course but we were so interested in the whole process and really grateful to Angie and Robert for letting us in on the experience.

It certainly is 'worth it' to us and just the atmosphere at the press was fantastic, so much so that we have made a short video clip if anyone is interested in seeing it (sorry in advance for the music!!!).

Sarah and Mark

Here is the link:

[ame=http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=B6aBACV1uK0]YouTube - Olive Oil Production at La Mimosa, Monte Vidon[/ame]

Having watched it for the second time, the music is fine!!!

Nature can be cruel - our friends a mile or two down the road had hail when the olives were flowering resulting in a v poor crop but we have done very well with no hail and a good oil yield. Must remember next year to ask the lads to leave the two eating olive trees to me next year as I want to have a go at preparation myself