Orchard Chronicles - 1/14/18

It’s cold outside! But I am in Tennessee with my daughter Clara and her family. What a wonderful part of our country!

Back at Villa Macala and our Orchards we are in the middle of annual pruning of Olive and Pomegranates trees. Opening up trees, so that a bird can fly thru the middle of them, is our goal. Allowing for sunshine and airflow is important. Also ease of hand harvesting and pruning since we are planted on sloping land is critical.

At the same time we are cultivating and composting and spreading “cover crop” seeds.

Guava, fig and grape plants are covered to protect them from frost.

Many “maintenance” and “development” projects under way. Building and improving steps and paths and roads and terraces. Fixing fences. Cleaning up and organizing.

We have embarked on a major project to build a “Frantoio” olive mill building in the middle of our orchards. We are hopeful we can have it ready for our early harvest and milling in September. This will reduce the time from orchard to oil and eliminate having to leave Villa Macala for this part of the process.

Our 2017 harvest and olive oil production has produced lab tests that again have excellent results and COOC EXTRA VIRGIN CERTIFICATION!!!

Ciao - Rich