tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14584775775813142462024-02-07T20:53:03.724+13:00Aokautere OlivesAdventures in a paddock of about 300 lovely young olive trees in rural New Zealand. What more could a girl ask for :-). Wounahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00478073751521886601noreply@blogger.comBlogger46125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1458477577581314246.post-40934984873090643262015-03-23T20:30:00.000+13:002015-03-23T20:30:40.176+13:00We have moved ...Aokautere Olives has finally settled on the name, <a href="https://cloudycorner.wordpress.com/">Cloudy Corner</a>, and also moved to a new platform. Please visit us over <a href="https://cloudycorner.wordpress.com/">there</a>. Would love to hear your comments and feedback.Wounahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00478073751521886601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1458477577581314246.post-61122349516395103592013-09-22T13:29:00.000+12:002013-09-22T14:32:45.305+12:00Operation rabbit recovery<br />
Last year around this time, <a href="http://aokautere-olives.blogspot.co.nz/2012/08/hare-horror-or-is-it-rabbit-ranting-21.html" target="_blank">rabbits wreaked havoc in the grove</a> nibbling on the bark of the little trees. Some of them were nearly ring-barked, to the extent that what was left of the trunk/bark wasn't enough for the trees to recover from the damage.<br />
<br />
Apparently this is somewhat of a spring problem. The bark on the trunks turn sweet in springtime, making it a lovely snack for animals. This probably also explains why the possums are chewing the bark off our apple trees! Amongst others. So, if you've got sheep grazing your grove, now would be the time to move them out. They too love the sweet bark and will nibble on your trees this time of year.<br />
<br />
The little trees that were nibbled last year, made new growth lower down the trunk. In most cases this new growth were much more vigorous than the original tree. So, maxing out my own nerves, I decided to chop off the damaged trees to let the new growth become a new trees. Phew. That was one of my bolder moves in the grove.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQcS6QcWDiJ9y5mD9nLJLIg79pWn_EVHmnp3vXUYbtWH1phyphenhyphen9XHC4mhLm5hQXWJGMNsPcp3jDYOHNPdBv52_F8Vc9X6xPEvF80JGW4DH05ta0qpu5LQVJhx5IC9Gnoh5utroKJz23ocRNq/s1600/new_tree.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="283" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQcS6QcWDiJ9y5mD9nLJLIg79pWn_EVHmnp3vXUYbtWH1phyphenhyphen9XHC4mhLm5hQXWJGMNsPcp3jDYOHNPdBv52_F8Vc9X6xPEvF80JGW4DH05ta0qpu5LQVJhx5IC9Gnoh5utroKJz23ocRNq/s640/new_tree.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Downsizing our damaged trees in the hope of having more productive ones in a few years.</i></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Wounahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00478073751521886601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1458477577581314246.post-40061413792094305512013-09-21T17:00:00.000+12:002013-09-22T14:33:20.551+12:00The first cut<br />
After agonising over it for months, Gerry and I eventually took the plunge and pruned the little buggers. When I say agonising, I mean procrastinating - because that's what we do. Two people who battle to choose between a Monteiths Pacific Pale Ale and a Mike's Premium Organic Double India Pale Ale, are an unlikely pair to just get on with stuff without serious negotiation, a couple of glasses to discuss the situation and a sleep-over-it once more.<br />
<br />
In our defence, the trouble was (at least in my head) that the manzanillos grew long and spindly upright branches with no obvious way of pruning them into a wine-glass shape. "Opening up" the trees would mean cutting off just about everything. For weeks, I would wander around the grove trying to figure out how the trees should be pruned. I even briefly considered hosting a pruning event through ONZ at our place, whereby an expert could demonstrate on a couple of trees how to prune the babies, after which we could apply the learning on the rest. But I fear we might just be held up as an example of "how NOT to" do all things olive related, so gave up on that idea.<br />
<br />
After noticing that some of the trees seem to start flowering, we realized we just have to get on with it. So on a sunny day, out came the very basic (read cheap) pruners and secateurs as we made our way to the bottom of the manzanillo block. Gerry and I would negotiate every single tree before hesitantly making any cuts, constantly thinking about the consequences of doing the wrong thing. Sometime he would be brave and suggest big cuts and other times I would be the one to take down two-thirds of a tree. Every now and again, one or both of us would get cold feet, and would end up leaving branches that should probably have come off. There's always next year, we would argue.<br />
<br />
And so over the course of about two weeks, we managed to prune all the trees in-between other work commitments, and weather permitting. It still amazes me how long each little task takes. The trees are still so small, it's hard to imagine how long it will take to prune 300 big olive trees! Let alone thousands, as is the case with commercial growers.<br />
<br />
If I have to say so myself, I'm rather pleased with the end-result. Some of the little trees looks very smart! Already in shape, much less top-heavy (lolly-pop like) and much more "aerodynamic" in the wind. As was proved when just a couple of days after we finished the big prune, a severe wind-storm (blowing over trucks and campervans) hit the country. Luckily not as bad here, but we were still very relieved that none of the trees were blown over. One of the manzanillos right on the top of the hill was particularly prone to being blown over in the slightest wind, and even this one is now standing tall - manning up to whatever comes it's way. Some pics from the process:<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGT9L8vr_9oduDXlld6Dsq9Kyxb5fzy0x4xm3ToKXD6RMQjp9NXCiCNPt2wcWu20quVjYkxPjrEJqpdh1XHovLVbicL339Zlb-aEGMkVpiZRz-hqQ_Bi7CEw9WVHaLIiTPMnGwNK9s6b4N/s1600/prune5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGT9L8vr_9oduDXlld6Dsq9Kyxb5fzy0x4xm3ToKXD6RMQjp9NXCiCNPt2wcWu20quVjYkxPjrEJqpdh1XHovLVbicL339Zlb-aEGMkVpiZRz-hqQ_Bi7CEw9WVHaLIiTPMnGwNK9s6b4N/s640/prune5.jpg" width="358" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>A manzanillo before it was pruned.</i></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaS5aarSxFYBxgSerHH4WnrGHzXyQ9G_0uHKxb-AzNyQsvOpy8iw6HZxlRNbh9B8bYpA2G7ajxDUHYgXcfnZvdEXbRRawQfy_EkbUwAwq59Wcnpn3wJiJAApoS635-biDxP8D60rd6GAPE/s1600/prune6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaS5aarSxFYBxgSerHH4WnrGHzXyQ9G_0uHKxb-AzNyQsvOpy8iw6HZxlRNbh9B8bYpA2G7ajxDUHYgXcfnZvdEXbRRawQfy_EkbUwAwq59Wcnpn3wJiJAApoS635-biDxP8D60rd6GAPE/s640/prune6.jpg" width="358" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>This tree was bought as a manzanillo, but I have a sneaky<br />suspicion it might be a different variety. Leccino maybe?</i></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRCGj98cGQWGfLTX_nS1c24LTn8WyijW6eAWkOuYJBqsyObR15sttbqGk0UflluXZRE-cYKX7_tOrqDr0YlWZz33PREUtGpsG2R19Mu3iIDcn3t-yZaJPAYh2EZuTReMtbIp7NwcgcnSx7/s1600/prune4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRCGj98cGQWGfLTX_nS1c24LTn8WyijW6eAWkOuYJBqsyObR15sttbqGk0UflluXZRE-cYKX7_tOrqDr0YlWZz33PREUtGpsG2R19Mu3iIDcn3t-yZaJPAYh2EZuTReMtbIp7NwcgcnSx7/s640/prune4.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A trail of clippings scattered behind us on the hillside.</span></i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9NyVRfiZrubLnhc9qq_SZhJ-I170CtbZhZnlVGV-kk-_K1waPkfFG9tl5ltD6zAMPpZor7zvcfFpAU_ykAxVlfGybiTMqEsA4qRcUwAeeWzN38S9ivnk6m2brA9waRznHGkWrWij8UMz7/s1600/prune1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9NyVRfiZrubLnhc9qq_SZhJ-I170CtbZhZnlVGV-kk-_K1waPkfFG9tl5ltD6zAMPpZor7zvcfFpAU_ykAxVlfGybiTMqEsA4qRcUwAeeWzN38S9ivnk6m2brA9waRznHGkWrWij8UMz7/s640/prune1.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Our guinea fowl - Milly, Molly and May - loving the new seasons growth on the branches<br />that's just been cut off.</i></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNA8O90Jwk8a5_tGFPqOEeFfvr1yClJuJCy1cnNBI2OnZwKRoaCmSWIwwNjeA_HQOO_MkFxNYg9m-27kMZEBzmSEaClTqlZoAubxK2EuLSEr8DZGmrLIO9FEOjFqtHhkqp0zJxeaOFT3EV/s1600/pruine7.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNA8O90Jwk8a5_tGFPqOEeFfvr1yClJuJCy1cnNBI2OnZwKRoaCmSWIwwNjeA_HQOO_MkFxNYg9m-27kMZEBzmSEaClTqlZoAubxK2EuLSEr8DZGmrLIO9FEOjFqtHhkqp0zJxeaOFT3EV/s640/pruine7.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A pendolino tree before and after it was pruned. I'd estimate we removed at least half of each tree.</span></i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />Wounahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00478073751521886601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1458477577581314246.post-7147143023906721882013-06-21T16:34:00.000+12:002013-09-20T22:49:31.599+12:00Harvest or no Harvest - 21 June 2013<br />
<br />
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
It has been a while since my last blog entry and I thought the shortest day of the year, with less daylight and on top of that a dark cloudy cold day forcing one to spend the day indoors, might be good to do something about the lack in documenting the progress in the grove.</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0h54Rf7dhm-OLIwtHuWic1D6zC9pFq4u_hwTJaEmNQ2eP86Asm1yXY3no2gLor3sB0c3bJzRLaZVm0I49hMTmuWJK3eL4Un-HUM3JHVTQ1kMoid2aPMxhta7s7Itj5Xpl-UCjJVMfCD1e/s1600/olive2s.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0h54Rf7dhm-OLIwtHuWic1D6zC9pFq4u_hwTJaEmNQ2eP86Asm1yXY3no2gLor3sB0c3bJzRLaZVm0I49hMTmuWJK3eL4Un-HUM3JHVTQ1kMoid2aPMxhta7s7Itj5Xpl-UCjJVMfCD1e/s640/olive2s.jpg" width="426" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Look how tall the trees have grown in one season.</i></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
One of the driest summers in many years hit the country and it was hard to believe that the grass between the trees were actually turning brown. For nearly two months there were no grass to cut and while this was a lucky break from lugging the weed-eater around the hill, the result was that by March the grove looked very sad. We don't irrigate and I was worried that the trees might die, but luckily olives are tough as nails. And on the bright side of clay soil, it also retains water better. </div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
At long last the rains came in April and we have since had lots and lots of rain. The last 30 days alone saw some 61mm and it is still bucketing down. During this period the olives grew like crazy with the sudden increase in water supply coupled with still warmish weather through April and May. Some trees were absolutely laden with olives, that were growing quite nicely. The oldest original trees' branches were almost hanging on the ground with the weight of the fruit. I was happily wandering amongst the trees, admiring the fruit and the amount of growth on the trees without giving any thought to taking some photos as evidence of what was going on.</div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
Apart from problems with "wet feet" in the New Zealand clay soil, another challenge when farming olives (and fruit trees in general), is birds. And while we have such an abundance of beautiful birds, with Tui singing in our flaxes and indigenous bush, a Ruru in the pine trees in front of our house that we sometimes still hear while lying in bed, fantails that follows me all around the grove, starlings, pheasants, our own guinea fowl and black birds en masse, they are a pest to olive growers all over. David has warned me that birds are great thieves; they can literally sweep your harvest overnight, and what do you know. His words were almost still hanging when next all I saw was heaps of leaves on the ground and not a single olive in sight. Not only did they take every last olive, but they also ransacked the trees. </div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
With no harvest then this year, we have to start thinking about our biggest challenge in the future once we actually do have mature productive trees. What to do about the birds. For now the loss is probably only five or so kilograms, which might seem like nothing, but it was to be our second harvest. And we have nothing to show for it. </div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjf1crQGFi5EWvzHpJo1gXpEOMdSLsjRFkkWTNiodHhonIhQBKYB8Kf1OKjpS2OHOE1prwwrA46fl9eG7ZfNf6Wau7Egg2UQGxVG1llbiSqjLL7oj8x56MZ92lHxmYDZTTW8fGGLoTgpMGn/s1600/olive1s.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjf1crQGFi5EWvzHpJo1gXpEOMdSLsjRFkkWTNiodHhonIhQBKYB8Kf1OKjpS2OHOE1prwwrA46fl9eG7ZfNf6Wau7Egg2UQGxVG1llbiSqjLL7oj8x56MZ92lHxmYDZTTW8fGGLoTgpMGn/s640/olive1s.jpg" width="426" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Wondering about where and how to prune the Manzanillos.</span></i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
Under normal circumstances this would be the time of year to harvest. And with the golden oil trickling into aluminium containers ready to be bottled, the pruning needs to start in a couple of weeks. There's no time for hum-ing and ha-ing in the grove, as we've learned over the past couple of years. There's always something to be done: grass cutting, spraying, weeding, pruning, mulching and harvesting. Which brings me to my next question - what to do with the long slender upright branches of the Manzanillo trees that have grown tremendously the last season, drought not withstanding? Olive trees needs to be "opened up" to allow sunlight and wind to come in and the Manzanillo trees are such neat little trees with long branches all growing upright, that I have no idea how to prune them. How far should those slender branches be cut back, if at all? And which ones, or how many should be taken out altogether? These questions have been mulling in my head for some time now and I'm still nowhere closer to any answers.</div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
Unfortunately I can't see us affording professional services any time soon, so between Google, some books, the help of other growers and trial and error, we will have to forge our way forward. I can only hope that I don't destroy the trees once I get myself to start shaping them into what they need to become when they are mature. Luckily there's still a couple of weeks to do some more research.</div>
Wounahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00478073751521886601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1458477577581314246.post-78780493260077300812013-01-20T11:35:00.001+13:002013-09-09T10:15:49.249+12:00Flower Power!<br />
<br />
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
It's that time of year again when your start counting your chooks before they hatch. Looking at all the thousands of little flower buds, one can't help but imagine a bumper crop. But as we know, only about 1 to 2% of all the flowers gets pollinated. </div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
Our two and three year old immature trees are probably not a good benchmark, but the flowers are very sporadic - especially on the Manzanillas. One out of every 10 trees have some flowers, while the single Koroneiki for instance is completely covered in flowers. Truth be told, if that hip-height tiny little tree ends up with fruit from only 1% of all the flowers, it will still look like a sad Goofy dragging its ears.</div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQl1KDTtTDdA8sjDkoXAGB_gJodYRlGsYPew1H1K8SCRCggD7126RLpxWxyj1LKkl9jxrorDoH2tfckF97tVbPRDPLFqFjC4JirQ6rD8FkdWqefnT23gQK8fK2XEtwZm8hjI0EsOZG4EHr/s1600/DSC3709s.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQl1KDTtTDdA8sjDkoXAGB_gJodYRlGsYPew1H1K8SCRCggD7126RLpxWxyj1LKkl9jxrorDoH2tfckF97tVbPRDPLFqFjC4JirQ6rD8FkdWqefnT23gQK8fK2XEtwZm8hjI0EsOZG4EHr/s640/DSC3709s.jpg" width="424" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The mystery tree (the small one that was here when we arrived) was laden with flowers this year<br />after lots of its leaves blew off in spring. A fight for survival?</span></i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5zsPCXiGG7t1wJTY0beyQN3qpKAomisNJDoHRlsll_0A3lKlRz9TI4CokhL7ruomLwGhrkOuVvqA6QLXZKF_iNKGIXPhe7ISxcGLg1XrO53kM5p5eAxl8Ofy5olkGFluI2tCpoGsMm30J/s1600/DSC3717s.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5zsPCXiGG7t1wJTY0beyQN3qpKAomisNJDoHRlsll_0A3lKlRz9TI4CokhL7ruomLwGhrkOuVvqA6QLXZKF_iNKGIXPhe7ISxcGLg1XrO53kM5p5eAxl8Ofy5olkGFluI2tCpoGsMm30J/s640/DSC3717s.jpg" width="424" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Beautiful little flowers just waiting to be pollinated.</span></i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
Since I started this post about a month ago (the new veggie garden got in the way :)), tiny olives have started to form. And as expected, not nearly as many fruit as there were flowers. But that's okey. The trees are still babies and I don't expect anything at this stage. Besides, some terrible winds blew off many of the flowers as well as branches. I can only hope that the shelter belt will start doing it's thing in about 5 years or so.</div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
That's the trouble when you start fresh with bare land. No quick fixes in terms of productive trees and shelter for small trees. Everything takes time, but I'm just very glad that trees seems to grow fairly fast in NZ! </div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<br /></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLBSB8SgiWorz1jkleXU5EX-th1KpIgU_-dn_EszzVJ9H3i87giTgFLNA-1v5aCO3sNaCe04QoiqKatm9r4MB8SXXnix3DW1TDtCeYjwfhm8Vv5d4bptcqf0Qh3BXDz8Ct2sIqxBIhb0lg/s1600/DSC4557s.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="424" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLBSB8SgiWorz1jkleXU5EX-th1KpIgU_-dn_EszzVJ9H3i87giTgFLNA-1v5aCO3sNaCe04QoiqKatm9r4MB8SXXnix3DW1TDtCeYjwfhm8Vv5d4bptcqf0Qh3BXDz8Ct2sIqxBIhb0lg/s640/DSC4557s.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Small fruit developing. </span></i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<br /></div>
Wounahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00478073751521886601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1458477577581314246.post-77409494637626007842012-08-21T20:00:00.000+12:002013-09-09T10:16:49.365+12:00Hare horror or is it rabbit ranting? - 21 August 2012For the past two years, we've been spraying with fish emulsion (which is a known deterrent for rabbits), but with the rain, wind and other priorities like trying to earn our keep, we didn't get around to doing it for some time now. Big mistake. Yesterday Mr Rabbit decided this is nice dessert to finish off his copious amounts of other lovely takeouts (fortunately we covered the vege garden with bird netting, which seems to help thus far for birds and critters and the like) of which we don't have a shortage.<br />
<br />
I took my usual stroll amongst the trees looking out for anything that looks out of the ordinary, and behold, there I saw the first tree that was nibbled quite badly. After the initial shock and horror, missing a heartbeat or two, my strides lengthened as I tried to quickly ascertain the damage as well as coming to terms with what has happened. I was gobsmacked. About 15% of the trees have been nibbled.<br />
<br />
On my way back to share the news with Gerry, the only solution that I could think of was to quickly spray all the trees - rain and all - with the fishy stuff. And when checking today, I couldn't see any new damage, so hold thumbs. He will hopefully go find greener pastures elsewhere.<br />
<br />
Otherwise the man will have to go a-hunting! ;-)<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfTjvobzu9oVk0EfO5t5RMMu2lQNo4pVJdqQe_hUMXEZzKBwjXNSlYisQbq6rnbkQAn1Dfq5uII7cWUtwOQfUdMQ8yBMaOvC8cNp83Y25QWua_iE2z-aQ5vHYGMq0V52UG3MLXVOP0339w/s1600/DSC3842s.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfTjvobzu9oVk0EfO5t5RMMu2lQNo4pVJdqQe_hUMXEZzKBwjXNSlYisQbq6rnbkQAn1Dfq5uII7cWUtwOQfUdMQ8yBMaOvC8cNp83Y25QWua_iE2z-aQ5vHYGMq0V52UG3MLXVOP0339w/s640/DSC3842s.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>The culprit looking all nervous and deceivingly cute.</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiipsKncNguo41s7-UV8H7j022Gt4tqiN5fbxSCFhPtTSKymAvjBI7N8a4isb98d9UdB0g9v-fIKnyRlpeAOr_JzqFJto__8ChaWQK8yyEvmQ7Y3jxjcitD8kKeh0sAqjGzRGElGsEQPkuF/s1600/DSC03597.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiipsKncNguo41s7-UV8H7j022Gt4tqiN5fbxSCFhPtTSKymAvjBI7N8a4isb98d9UdB0g9v-fIKnyRlpeAOr_JzqFJto__8ChaWQK8yyEvmQ7Y3jxjcitD8kKeh0sAqjGzRGElGsEQPkuF/s640/DSC03597.JPG" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Eish.</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhR0-1r5iRyjaNdtRi5-129j2E1KeB7bn-RdrY2iopDL0Rh4Yh0y3CMtSFIzI-StRLBLobFfrdfItyleRPzd9HXFP0OMhc7q_dJSKFVZsP1XMhbuO6qoBh8fRwk9ltYPzAvFy3xnqIvpYXq/s1600/DSC03598.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhR0-1r5iRyjaNdtRi5-129j2E1KeB7bn-RdrY2iopDL0Rh4Yh0y3CMtSFIzI-StRLBLobFfrdfItyleRPzd9HXFP0OMhc7q_dJSKFVZsP1XMhbuO6qoBh8fRwk9ltYPzAvFy3xnqIvpYXq/s640/DSC03598.JPG" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>What can I say.</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgA9QNfOXNkZHAnaDb16758mWP-uuVXby2Vyf8gvnCnV11bQCO1CjTOXK4G2c62nFZoVizGzp6HP37ha0XjFrb6qv4PIiJpRsFSG2AiY5V1JYUT4G1OF-C76dXWRLRO9K9LlPn0WWUB9r1N/s1600/DSC03599.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgA9QNfOXNkZHAnaDb16758mWP-uuVXby2Vyf8gvnCnV11bQCO1CjTOXK4G2c62nFZoVizGzp6HP37ha0XjFrb6qv4PIiJpRsFSG2AiY5V1JYUT4G1OF-C76dXWRLRO9K9LlPn0WWUB9r1N/s640/DSC03599.JPG" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>My poor babies.</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEg_kV3gTlblfSGTkcSXYWdI-zCQn326tamNyOpWuCiGO6vmmYF4rhSx6Snzpap6S11prJE1IC_zZEzVH8DFQYkNi_C6lZqtmKlTs5zJjdp1tXI7hZagsvHYj-gIhBdUQH7Rzcy4ENwtmm/s1600/DSC03600.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEg_kV3gTlblfSGTkcSXYWdI-zCQn326tamNyOpWuCiGO6vmmYF4rhSx6Snzpap6S11prJE1IC_zZEzVH8DFQYkNi_C6lZqtmKlTs5zJjdp1tXI7hZagsvHYj-gIhBdUQH7Rzcy4ENwtmm/s640/DSC03600.JPG" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Fortunately none of them were chowed right around. Holding thumbs for a speedy recovery.</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Wounahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00478073751521886601noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1458477577581314246.post-34817944550183509402012-08-21T14:47:00.001+12:002013-09-09T10:17:07.227+12:00Getting pickled - 26 June 2012<br />
With our <a href="http://aokautere-olives.blogspot.co.nz/2012/08/picking-fruits-of-our-labour-22-june.html" target="_blank">first harvest</a> being very small and green, the only suitable pickling method was to use lye treatment. So off we went to Farmlands to buy sodium hydroxide (good old caustic soda for those who don't know). But beware - the caustic soda you buy in shops as a cleaner and to unblock drains, contains only a percentage sodium hydroxide. The rest is made up of other chemicals which might not be suitable for human consumption.<br />
<br />
The gist of the lye-cured process is basically as follows: prepare the lye solution (2 ounces of lye to every gallon of cold water), cover olives with mixture, stir every 2 hours, test penetration occasionally by cutting an olive towards to pip - the lye will colour the flesh yellowish, leave in the lye for about 10-12 hours or until the process is complete and the flesh is evenly colored to the pip. For the next few days (from 3, but up to 8 days), wash the olives in fresh water, by replacing it twice daily until the soapy taste is no longer present. Prepare a brine (4 ounces of pickling salt to 1 gallon of water) to cover the olives with. Let them stand for 2 days. They are now ready to eat. Pour a tipple and taste you first homegrown, homemade olives!<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFGmcU7C12XkKZAlENGcn98eDdGIx5zAXDZEuaevtKfNpwofPh6vmj5jltIWR8sRgBH7T8peYiiGsHMJeMB-wU3EjfhgvrkyWH0BPu69O40Ysagm-o3eGZtS7t09nNMxA3C0ck0rV93zX4/s1600/DSC03540s.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFGmcU7C12XkKZAlENGcn98eDdGIx5zAXDZEuaevtKfNpwofPh6vmj5jltIWR8sRgBH7T8peYiiGsHMJeMB-wU3EjfhgvrkyWH0BPu69O40Ysagm-o3eGZtS7t09nNMxA3C0ck0rV93zX4/s640/DSC03540s.jpg" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Gerry sorting the olives between decent, half decent and non-usable. :-)</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicBDN3mO5UewyV2VD2124ODOA8EDX78rroJvB9hcWUyRbrZuD5uk37qLRGpR5AJjb2eUp_WJKXCKLzh-Pr8hZrPniyAxv_zuBN4FF_hh2j32vuZNm5ncfW5YBitiZ6mlB_5hMBV-wgOpJo/s1600/DSC5245.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicBDN3mO5UewyV2VD2124ODOA8EDX78rroJvB9hcWUyRbrZuD5uk37qLRGpR5AJjb2eUp_WJKXCKLzh-Pr8hZrPniyAxv_zuBN4FF_hh2j32vuZNm5ncfW5YBitiZ6mlB_5hMBV-wgOpJo/s640/DSC5245.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Five bottle of our own cured green olives. A mixture of Manzanillo, Ascolano, J5, Frantoio and SA Verdale.<br />I added pickled chillies to the one bottle to jazz them up a bit.</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
Apart from our own harvest, we were also very fortunate to get some olives from David to experiment with. We drove through to Kapiti late one morning, each with a bucket in hand, and started picking Leccino olives. They were fairly ripe already with some starting to become wrinkly. The weather turned a bit nasty and before too long, I was one giant goosebump, not having brought enough warm clothes with. We wrapped it up after a couple of hours (with me feeling slightly hypothermic) and left happily with two buckets, three-quarters full. Thanks David for your kind offer! We now have enough to experiment a wee bit with the different processes. We decided to try out three options: 1) water-cured, Kalamata-style, 2) brine-cured, Greek-style olives and 3) dry-salt cured olives.<br />
<br />
Most of these are still in progress, so watch this space for updates.<br />
<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeiZbe0XzLSp_mKLxecZDqhRXKDn0090nxDIdJOXKl9PX2xqiKQgsei34VorMJFwY4J54RZ-km-47llf4Vjb7RK3Hp2c_A0S0nVxTyckxUARLkg9We-F_hvJhH7r43D9Y15OWTY9SKH3KF/s1600/DSC03541s.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeiZbe0XzLSp_mKLxecZDqhRXKDn0090nxDIdJOXKl9PX2xqiKQgsei34VorMJFwY4J54RZ-km-47llf4Vjb7RK3Hp2c_A0S0nVxTyckxUARLkg9We-F_hvJhH7r43D9Y15OWTY9SKH3KF/s640/DSC03541s.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Making a slit in the olives for the water-cured Kalamata-style method.</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Wounahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00478073751521886601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1458477577581314246.post-86060782186242280772012-08-21T14:23:00.000+12:002013-09-09T10:17:44.489+12:00Picking the fruits of our labour - 22 June 2012<br />
Palmy is not known to be one of the places with the highest amount of sunshine, which might explain why our olives were still greenish towards the end of June. Or (hopefully) the trees are just still way too young to support their fruit to full ripening - they are still only babies after all. But after some frosty nights, it was evident that some of the olives contracted frost damage, prompting us to count our losses and pick what is left. With the weather turning all wintery, it was clear that the olives would not ripen further. Maybe this will always be the case, but only time will tell.<br />
<br />
So with a container in hand, Gerry and I were outside, picking our total harvest in about 45 minutes flat. :-) It totaled just over 2kg. However, these included everything that remotely resembles an olive; frost, wind, and bird damaged olives in tow. We ended up using only about half of them in our first ever pickling attempt. More on this later.<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4eIFel1bI1SCTRV6XaN6jTlKXsIxvVm1ATQVAVYpOpye2tdiqsSqSJgmcPlscPdQrLgsBf3SGuGSzOAD1xxdHGVQH3Lnu2p_LdI3kc9Z2pTNYX5pjAw7a57QTUuSU3rEm55dkq8ZlkzZh/s1600/DSC03528s.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4eIFel1bI1SCTRV6XaN6jTlKXsIxvVm1ATQVAVYpOpye2tdiqsSqSJgmcPlscPdQrLgsBf3SGuGSzOAD1xxdHGVQH3Lnu2p_LdI3kc9Z2pTNYX5pjAw7a57QTUuSU3rEm55dkq8ZlkzZh/s640/DSC03528s.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>The frost damaged olives clearly visible.</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRyhslwS_lqyit_RYiqF8FoGm_wfg8spl4VeGIZf-GGuIjVevVVAHKPGrESTbxV3ER5qH5xlxIqbUrtfhzgwof4BjTaiL4FtEFrSy_gSizSLF5wtvzkCgrWDXF4yw9hAxSoBvbqSEEWyZ1/s1600/DSC03530s.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRyhslwS_lqyit_RYiqF8FoGm_wfg8spl4VeGIZf-GGuIjVevVVAHKPGrESTbxV3ER5qH5xlxIqbUrtfhzgwof4BjTaiL4FtEFrSy_gSizSLF5wtvzkCgrWDXF4yw9hAxSoBvbqSEEWyZ1/s640/DSC03530s.jpg" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Some of the trees have about equal numbers of olives and leaves.</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLurEhP4vkaTLSLLO_gfol7HScmBF-2WVUHN0tEbDhIFqBVgtPqGOgiYe3vjRvpjkwdAoIuKe1jmw6r5zbvKWmM-W9_KgNCvoPoUa1c7GJQmsn5SPw9wXVQp6cYMRueJaEY5o7PVufG2dp/s1600/DSC03532s.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLurEhP4vkaTLSLLO_gfol7HScmBF-2WVUHN0tEbDhIFqBVgtPqGOgiYe3vjRvpjkwdAoIuKe1jmw6r5zbvKWmM-W9_KgNCvoPoUa1c7GJQmsn5SPw9wXVQp6cYMRueJaEY5o7PVufG2dp/s640/DSC03532s.jpg" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Gerry at work on an Ascolano.</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgE-HN0_vV28BvuxLy_d6Wjea5wHzkbyzeq6ezCJr0jwAdkUgLjaXtyPOH1bYKOoHwsxJv1g8g9jk1Ov4LtOm9Rw9vA9mqhaz1s9KXyeXJ4lV8IIguSb5nbjdPMefIuqyX0NhI85GMAQ-Bb/s1600/DSC03538s.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgE-HN0_vV28BvuxLy_d6Wjea5wHzkbyzeq6ezCJr0jwAdkUgLjaXtyPOH1bYKOoHwsxJv1g8g9jk1Ov4LtOm9Rw9vA9mqhaz1s9KXyeXJ4lV8IIguSb5nbjdPMefIuqyX0NhI85GMAQ-Bb/s640/DSC03538s.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>The complete harvest of 2012 - 2.041kg.</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
Wounahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00478073751521886601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1458477577581314246.post-55759591213748505872012-05-30T16:22:00.001+12:002013-09-09T10:18:05.288+12:00Jack Frost came to town<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
In the middle of May, the first frosts started to grace our little trees until the suns' rays make it over the pine forest in the early mornings. They do need a cold snap for fruit set, they say, but there's still fruit on the trees! And the few olives that are there, are in no hurry to ripen, it seems. Maybe the trees really are just too small still to produce a worthwhile harvest? Or can things change considerably in the next couple of weeks?</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhht-dVEAw8KohBbpX-2_bXWiPfj_HLasIvJ_CUl8VVY_EQVLN74MRvGlsu4fXTwRIcxD544yPdVoE0Zej9kp6mO8kFgf9kyJrruu1ACnkwPvvbeQQrVcSiY1hEEY94-BpIOwdGEabJD3eD/s1600/DSC03441s.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhht-dVEAw8KohBbpX-2_bXWiPfj_HLasIvJ_CUl8VVY_EQVLN74MRvGlsu4fXTwRIcxD544yPdVoE0Zej9kp6mO8kFgf9kyJrruu1ACnkwPvvbeQQrVcSiY1hEEY94-BpIOwdGEabJD3eD/s640/DSC03441s.jpg" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>J5 - about 2 and a half years old.</i></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTWuEy8SOsro07fyteLV9G2K-IlGWR6MvDH-nq6TwfqSgbyy8Ab0P_9SONGnGOx06pDB8j3yrey6sQOytcyw3hte7bvR-MSVXwFB8gAlR-eDaF20kUFiOeMauZGR1q_c08dFvS5Psl5N9-/s1600/DSC03442s.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTWuEy8SOsro07fyteLV9G2K-IlGWR6MvDH-nq6TwfqSgbyy8Ab0P_9SONGnGOx06pDB8j3yrey6sQOytcyw3hte7bvR-MSVXwFB8gAlR-eDaF20kUFiOeMauZGR1q_c08dFvS5Psl5N9-/s640/DSC03442s.jpg" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Another chilly J5.</span></i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />Wounahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00478073751521886601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1458477577581314246.post-10348688338533779912012-04-28T12:14:00.002+12:002013-09-09T10:18:54.552+12:00RoundUpOr in our case Weed Out won the battle against grass and weed around the trees. I know I've previously swore high and low never to use glyphosates around the trees, but you know you've lost the battle when you physically can't keep up against monsterous grasses and weed. The kind that reaches heights that are way over your head (or rather my head, which is not that far from the ground, I might add).<br />
<br />
The result gives me tremendous pleasure - seeing all those bad prickly weeds slowly die!<br />
:-)Wounahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00478073751521886601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1458477577581314246.post-5667835389533994042012-04-28T12:10:00.000+12:002013-09-09T10:19:04.860+12:00Kapiti Olives field walk - 21 April 2012<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgs0NuLUS8wspoaJZ5K9qWE0Jn_KPtS7nWxkqpOkXsTDz-eQvQgKH4uANba6E7yAa0M_pZBkBVAuML-F4D_-pCtGVSO3q-6C7R8OWy89KPXhvaMuvVQfIl96g7LiGHu16MSShF0TED8I-PX/s1600/DSC03393.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgs0NuLUS8wspoaJZ5K9qWE0Jn_KPtS7nWxkqpOkXsTDz-eQvQgKH4uANba6E7yAa0M_pZBkBVAuML-F4D_-pCtGVSO3q-6C7R8OWy89KPXhvaMuvVQfIl96g7LiGHu16MSShF0TED8I-PX/s400/DSC03393.JPG" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Allan - chairman of the Kapiti branch.</span></i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
David and Helen kindly agreed to host yet another event at their grove. And what a lovely day for it too! Sunny with practically no wind, made the walk amongst the trees even more enjoyable.<br />
<br />
I still remember my first visit to David's grove about a year ago, when I reported about how healthy and well David's trees look. Well, since then, David discovered (with the help of the Spanish visitors later last year) that his trees had some diseases, which for one, explained the leaf drop. David immediately started treatment and this year his trees are really in good shape.<br />
<br />
After Allan gave some feedback on ONZ and the constitution, David shared some valuable information on grove management and also gave a rundown of what he did to fix the diseases on the trees. He spayed mainly with a mix of Dodine (a fungicide) and OliveMix (a spray fertiliser). Three applications (the maximum recommended frequency per year for Dodine) seem to have solved the biggest problems.<br />
<br />
As usual, a good outing, very informative and we are slowly starting to recognise and know more people in the olive industry.<br />
<br />
Some pics from the event:<br />
<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdFw36mJhyhQC9CKXEfrxUphlZ9B8Y3bwSXy-H5y1YL-Sg4_pQo2ab8zvqJktO6MBbKDfE-NL88T1BT4mzIrAI-PURVmXptTq9zk-FI6bEEseFMw8ErBC8T0sTBvSMNmhSOf5YgN5CvhLI/s1600/DSC03399.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdFw36mJhyhQC9CKXEfrxUphlZ9B8Y3bwSXy-H5y1YL-Sg4_pQo2ab8zvqJktO6MBbKDfE-NL88T1BT4mzIrAI-PURVmXptTq9zk-FI6bEEseFMw8ErBC8T0sTBvSMNmhSOf5YgN5CvhLI/s640/DSC03399.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Some members of the Kapiti branch at the Kapiti grove.</span></i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKtWl7i0RA51a-evKZ0AWMggeyd2CtCIlH2BjulB2kmnrcL9CsRXt4k1nM5mk_Kss16mxOjVVXchEB-YecauSpHBIsWpoSGUcpycRjPNTySU5VkCkHFnilUs93_yKFzu7coI-NMpXQ1C01/s1600/DSC03405.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKtWl7i0RA51a-evKZ0AWMggeyd2CtCIlH2BjulB2kmnrcL9CsRXt4k1nM5mk_Kss16mxOjVVXchEB-YecauSpHBIsWpoSGUcpycRjPNTySU5VkCkHFnilUs93_yKFzu7coI-NMpXQ1C01/s640/DSC03405.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">David showing what happens to a tree that was blown over. <br />He chopped off the top, pulled it upright, staked it, and it is already making new branches.</span></i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj17qqVndwlFF0Sg-eyAzjjGTeoqI-Fsihb1kuhV4ZRZMgYILdfqhvVI58NF0ONHoPFmGMSp7iHjU9YZ4WbNZ3vtRzQdeTBaLzekWWwYhNxkygs88G6CciwiJYowFV-wmqwhH3CU4JCAbkT/s1600/DSC03406.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj17qqVndwlFF0Sg-eyAzjjGTeoqI-Fsihb1kuhV4ZRZMgYILdfqhvVI58NF0ONHoPFmGMSp7iHjU9YZ4WbNZ3vtRzQdeTBaLzekWWwYhNxkygs88G6CciwiJYowFV-wmqwhH3CU4JCAbkT/s640/DSC03406.JPG" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Another blown-over tree - two years later.</span></i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRnvWmVV_K_frWxvNqdOZ4pPrk0l79jO-bvLb42qGjwYnzqLzLNn2lDwiMYfshh1EhIkRqsFeI4kPd6Y13WIstbhMH7gyVEujmv5sbnKEviV1advgenJpG_VNR6JWi5XpCD__qZpxLmuP0/s1600/DSC03409.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRnvWmVV_K_frWxvNqdOZ4pPrk0l79jO-bvLb42qGjwYnzqLzLNn2lDwiMYfshh1EhIkRqsFeI4kPd6Y13WIstbhMH7gyVEujmv5sbnKEviV1advgenJpG_VNR6JWi5XpCD__qZpxLmuP0/s640/DSC03409.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Kapiti Grove. David and Andreas in the front.</span></i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjy-EFkAvhxBneNVFdMJXeczYzNTvn-tRzvNWEvfIZGgaHJJUy3BoPO2BVzlMx1texvZSdH2GyqR3Vfx3qZN7NLGV2MZX2feggper-A3N5xiIFwDnTtsmbv4HUNIBYiMuF-mp6uM33EUqyT/s1600/DSC03412.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjy-EFkAvhxBneNVFdMJXeczYzNTvn-tRzvNWEvfIZGgaHJJUy3BoPO2BVzlMx1texvZSdH2GyqR3Vfx3qZN7NLGV2MZX2feggper-A3N5xiIFwDnTtsmbv4HUNIBYiMuF-mp6uM33EUqyT/s640/DSC03412.JPG" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The inside of a recently pruned tree. Branches and suckers that grows towards the<br />inside of the tree are all taken out to allow light and air into the tree,<br /> and the "wounds" are treated with a fungicide paint.</span></i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
<br />Wounahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00478073751521886601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1458477577581314246.post-83021892337118467872012-04-09T13:31:00.001+12:002013-09-09T10:19:18.980+12:00ONZ Conference 2012<div style="font: 16.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
Saturday 24th March 2012</div>
<div style="font: 16.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
Sudima Airport Hotel, Auckland Proudly supported by GEA-Westfalia</div>
<div style="font: 16.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 19.0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font: 16.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
'Let's Get it On!' is the theme for this years event and Gerry and I decided that we should attend the conference, especially since it included a workshop on table olives, our main focus.</div>
<div style="font: 16.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 19.0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font: 16.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
So, off to Auckland we were on the Friday. It was a rainy morning as we left the swamp city for the seven-hour-plus drive to Auckland. It turned out to be a pleasant drive with no serious weather issues and we arrived around five at the Kiwi International Airport Hotel, about 2km from the venue.</div>
<div style="font: 16.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 19.0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font: 16.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
The Sudima Airport Hotel played host to the conference and the Friday evening kicked-off with cocktails and mingling in the bar area, sponsored by GEA Westfalia. Andrew, the President of Olives NZ, quickly welcomed everybody, before the mingling started with drinks in hand. The Blues/Hurricanes Super 15 Rugby game was on in the background and we were very pleased that our team came through for a narrow one point victory! But a win is a win. :)</div>
<div style="font: 16.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 19.0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font: 16.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
Saturday morning's proceedings started at nine with a welcome and opening talk by Andrew. The conference was well attended with around 95 attendees. Some of the talks included:</div>
<div style="font: 16.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 19.0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font: 16.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
- Effects of Harvest Maturity on Extra Virgin Olive Oil Year 3</div>
<div style="font: 16.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
- Strategic Options for your Olive Grove (Own brand / Co-operative / Supplier of oil)</div>
<div style="font: 16.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
- Table Olives workshop (Table olive tasting and markets, pre-harvest, harvest, processing) </div>
<div style="font: 16.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
- Marketing workshop</div>
<div style="font: 16.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
- Tasting & Blending workshop</div>
<div style="font: 16.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 19.0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font: 16.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
Overall some very useful and informative talks and the afternoon's workshop on table olives was of particular interest to me. Simon Fields (from Salsi Pty Ltd, Australia) took us through a quick olive tasting course, before explaining the ins and outs of pickling olives. It almost frightened me to realise how little I know and what a long learning path still lies ahead of us. Not to mention the capital output that will be required.</div>
<div style="font: 16.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 19.0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font: 16.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
After a full day of listening to some very knowledgable people, I am a little concerned that we might not altogether have planted the right varieties of olives. The J5 which I were to believe is a pickling olive, was mentioned to possibly be the "NZ Frantoio", which has a small fruit and is more suitable for oil. But yet another source says it is excellent for pickling. There are still some question marks around the J5, so I'm still hopeful that it will be okey for our purpose.</div>
<div style="font: 16.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 19.0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font: 16.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
The SA Verdale also has a wee bit of a question mark over it's head, because the pips are fairly big and the fruit don't separate easily from the pip. On the positive side, the expert Simon, is very positive about the fact that the fruit is big, tastes great and is easy to process. That makes the rather large pips seem like a minor issue. Or not?</div>
<div style="font: 16.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 19.0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font: 16.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
At the conference dinner later that evening, Andrew welcomed everyone, after which lovely food were served. Great to meet more growers and mingle before everybody retreated to their separate hotels.</div>
<div style="font: 16.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 19.0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font: 16.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
On Sunday, an additional workshop was presented by various experts in the field - Processing to Oil - which were well attended by about 50 people. Gerry took some pictures, so we stayed for a bit before heading back to the hotel.</div>
<div style="font: 16.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 19.0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font: 16.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
Congratulations and thanks to Gayle who must have put in a lot of effort to organise this event. I'm sure many sleepless nights forego the conference, but judging by all the positive comments and feedback from attendants, it was a very successful gathering.</div>
<div style="font: 16.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidd_db5neV1G-SFjD5Ob63C6DCJmphNGaeOwzPh05Zh6lg78bGlanQRxO09ecvrFj9Awcnyhd2K3Etu4K9fHS9ZqD-nVebq7yeHVJW3njI7fBqkskU2Ab69n_KmZnc1Uqsja0VFNLxbq2t/s1600/DSC1366.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidd_db5neV1G-SFjD5Ob63C6DCJmphNGaeOwzPh05Zh6lg78bGlanQRxO09ecvrFj9Awcnyhd2K3Etu4K9fHS9ZqD-nVebq7yeHVJW3njI7fBqkskU2Ab69n_KmZnc1Uqsja0VFNLxbq2t/s640/DSC1366.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Me, Kay & Charles Chinnaiyah (from Olea Estate).</i></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZlBz5Y1SVZMme3vuHy7IhjCbdb9BXUzG96aVuoUBVA9Q9goAeH0Ze0NHjsSaxuj3qZ9AwykjWSheEh88_vrDBAMqXXeBSW99f55NyL8arFxqBixY6guMS0zXNtqSfUo5FiNvyK2WHpyDa/s1600/DSC1389.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZlBz5Y1SVZMme3vuHy7IhjCbdb9BXUzG96aVuoUBVA9Q9goAeH0Ze0NHjsSaxuj3qZ9AwykjWSheEh88_vrDBAMqXXeBSW99f55NyL8arFxqBixY6guMS0zXNtqSfUo5FiNvyK2WHpyDa/s640/DSC1389.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Andrew Taylor with the ONZ Executive.</span></i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgasMd3RWKUHBvb9XK2cwjfnTSrwlHLLfZrV0Tam0YWkLrSLxvkoMeTW_Q032cWwoUAh9pgbTtP_CozVnulU_Pq4_lNcog3ZriomtpeIhdEItfBsBFMqDKmebaFcr56JT_zReHO8h1PjstR/s1600/DSC1427.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgasMd3RWKUHBvb9XK2cwjfnTSrwlHLLfZrV0Tam0YWkLrSLxvkoMeTW_Q032cWwoUAh9pgbTtP_CozVnulU_Pq4_lNcog3ZriomtpeIhdEItfBsBFMqDKmebaFcr56JT_zReHO8h1PjstR/s640/DSC1427.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Simon Field testing our knowledge on table olives.</span></i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRJzOATuwAh1Bslv81XtHOTg8Xyong-YIDohWAYqpsBdfYGN_mwOJ-sgu_LOAHPNYoOaxPqSWwaZ-4YXWwx6E3blJUHWmD-fvMbtCBNYaSvH1zesvnqg9b8buTc2AuZGfWfGwdE06oWZB9/s1600/DSC1428.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRJzOATuwAh1Bslv81XtHOTg8Xyong-YIDohWAYqpsBdfYGN_mwOJ-sgu_LOAHPNYoOaxPqSWwaZ-4YXWwx6E3blJUHWmD-fvMbtCBNYaSvH1zesvnqg9b8buTc2AuZGfWfGwdE06oWZB9/s640/DSC1428.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>A wide variety of olives for the tasting.</i></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTNieOFHoFR24htUssCkQbFtFgKoeE4hB5_YgNC-sy8KsXdld4RpnQo_5t-8dCJlB1737juXik2M4kyMSxtOk47w4TmimC9eRq5Kc4UHft4ct9m42Y0ec_ESPjIpUzlvGRerUDnfmtxC_U/s1600/DSC1429.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTNieOFHoFR24htUssCkQbFtFgKoeE4hB5_YgNC-sy8KsXdld4RpnQo_5t-8dCJlB1737juXik2M4kyMSxtOk47w4TmimC9eRq5Kc4UHft4ct9m42Y0ec_ESPjIpUzlvGRerUDnfmtxC_U/s640/DSC1429.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Making notes, learning more about the tasting process.</span></i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgs5Pg7kd5A_vbD7s-qJMX5PIWFFbopVV8E6u09bI-M2v-ZEChR6lN4YL44xfXonjNR08omyfwEiK_MyAl8FB4Hu89Uog28MkY0a6s3JSwrO_dKmgU7PVZ7DXgy2yaMWgOe2CEN-PqsPnRt/s1600/DSC1433.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgs5Pg7kd5A_vbD7s-qJMX5PIWFFbopVV8E6u09bI-M2v-ZEChR6lN4YL44xfXonjNR08omyfwEiK_MyAl8FB4Hu89Uog28MkY0a6s3JSwrO_dKmgU7PVZ7DXgy2yaMWgOe2CEN-PqsPnRt/s640/DSC1433.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Participants in the blending workshop.</span></i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbb-gi-snE2OSVKAihzP8WJxt6QBj2NusPEBwSVPArdz0ph8pWGBwCyO7s_I5d6GPQHAKwEOoHmLO6bu7ljzttakuWOpUFI6ki4TxF4dIoYaSRlGudJVKu5TyO-L-41p6g2OILYGpmMRwl/s640/DSC1469.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="640" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The beautiful grove of Parkhill Olives.</span></i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbb-gi-snE2OSVKAihzP8WJxt6QBj2NusPEBwSVPArdz0ph8pWGBwCyO7s_I5d6GPQHAKwEOoHmLO6bu7ljzttakuWOpUFI6ki4TxF4dIoYaSRlGudJVKu5TyO-L-41p6g2OILYGpmMRwl/s1600/DSC1469.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span></i></a></div>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhD4MpLCQ1vlCjkag1xpvRIduopTQDcM5pZNHGDrdl-RcTaSpMBgwQlW-OE8A2kfn_wOudXM_Gge90MLOTcCSNiTFf9T70GuThGNUCrpyZ7JIMukS6aq3iINvhJoMsQvIeRNXTym43Qa2xG/s1600/DSC1490.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhD4MpLCQ1vlCjkag1xpvRIduopTQDcM5pZNHGDrdl-RcTaSpMBgwQlW-OE8A2kfn_wOudXM_Gge90MLOTcCSNiTFf9T70GuThGNUCrpyZ7JIMukS6aq3iINvhJoMsQvIeRNXTym43Qa2xG/s640/DSC1490.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>A demonstration of shakers and pruners.</i></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="font: 16.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font: 16.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font: 16.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font: 16.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<br /></div>
Wounahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00478073751521886601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1458477577581314246.post-73100243958987253332012-04-08T19:04:00.000+12:002013-09-09T10:19:35.580+12:00We pain "stake"ingly made the wrong decision - 18 March 2012<div style="font: 16.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
After only nine months, our organic stakes (which we were promised would last 10 - 15 years in the ground) proved not to have made the grade. They are rotting off at a rate and the slightest wind blows them over.</div>
<div style="font: 16.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 19.0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font: 16.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
So the search for new, thicker, taller, treated stakes started again. I contacted David and he immediately came to the rescue (thanks David!). He offered his secondhand stakes at a very reasonable price, se we opted to buy some from him and fetched the first batch in middle March. The car can unfortunately only take that much, so we will have to make a couple of trips to the Kapiti Olive grove.</div>
<div style="font: 16.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 19.0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font: 16.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
The stakes are about a meter long and without sharp ends. After Gerry sharpened most of the first batch, we started hammering them in. Again quite a tedious task and hard on the body. But we are very happy to now also be able to tie the trees up a bit higher, since a lot of them bent over with the shorter stakes, looking like question marks and growing into weird shapes. In my infinite wisdom I thought the only reason for staking trees, is to prevent root-shake. But it turned out that the trees grew so fast that they quickly reached three times the height of the old stakes! And with all that growth, the main stems are fairly thin still, and not able to hold the canopy of the tree upright, hence strong winds and last year's snow snapped some of them in half.</div>
<div style="font: 16.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 19.0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font: 16.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
An 83km wind also blew over some 20 odd trees recently. The tiniest ones that were still staked with bamboo, suffered the most. A lot of the bamboo stakes also started rotting in the soil and snapped off.</div>
<div style="font: 16.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 19.0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font: 16.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
We started fixing the worst-off trees first, using our first batch of new stakes, but we definitely need to make another trip for more stakes soon.</div>
<div style="font: 16.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxDS4Ro9HKpC81h5RQ0jbY0LxowlneekmO8bnWaNVqOEJqB41-9UogKGpdaERKky6pFgOIIRo6l2Aa1UM2FltM8BzvCxmAu4X1n5db4kJhI7FzaVqFPmtnleuwpdKg3_-fYHq-nswIxxO8/s1600/DSC03327.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxDS4Ro9HKpC81h5RQ0jbY0LxowlneekmO8bnWaNVqOEJqB41-9UogKGpdaERKky6pFgOIIRo6l2Aa1UM2FltM8BzvCxmAu4X1n5db4kJhI7FzaVqFPmtnleuwpdKg3_-fYHq-nswIxxO8/s640/DSC03327.JPG" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The original short stakes and the new solid taller stake. Much better.</span></i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="font: 16.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font: 16.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<br /></div>
Wounahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00478073751521886601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1458477577581314246.post-33793969559154480802012-04-08T17:24:00.000+12:002013-09-22T15:35:27.507+12:00A grass coup d'etat - 15 March 2012Only two months of no attention to the grove and this is what we came home to after our overseas trip. Some of the grass blades were up to 1.09m tall! I kid you not.<br />
<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjk6Nbfua45tvjMe3M5ey2mtsYeR4rqAVHTqOwGEzD0pEV17E9PTjVsx1k-g3ScUY8Tk2xkWi0x1YUj5h7jJ5-L7PLuvWgV02h5DkerhXO5IsiJYL6ms6kfhIUmZqVqQkpCXWdwF2EGSk8F/s1600/DSC03321.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjk6Nbfua45tvjMe3M5ey2mtsYeR4rqAVHTqOwGEzD0pEV17E9PTjVsx1k-g3ScUY8Tk2xkWi0x1YUj5h7jJ5-L7PLuvWgV02h5DkerhXO5IsiJYL6ms6kfhIUmZqVqQkpCXWdwF2EGSk8F/s640/DSC03321.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Is there an olive tree in there somewhere?</span></i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhd8Wrp714yCHYWQHk6tJn2cjX29d6xXCM24f-8Qn6_NwLRxV2JvLzct9sf0vq0G0dIq-0Cyar6OM6MJyCZhjGREwMRGCVgUJ7k2BEgkjHX4gmJY2C3GqE24mwLa6EN5hS9StCni8ABx6tS/s1600/DSC03322.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhd8Wrp714yCHYWQHk6tJn2cjX29d6xXCM24f-8Qn6_NwLRxV2JvLzct9sf0vq0G0dIq-0Cyar6OM6MJyCZhjGREwMRGCVgUJ7k2BEgkjHX4gmJY2C3GqE24mwLa6EN5hS9StCni8ABx6tS/s640/DSC03322.JPG" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Oh, there it is!</span></i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbYbHcO0EIPnX6aWqbHfs2f9dGtYTzJGskoQ7XPmDYFJC_Ez6bo7ele8Bp6n3tZh9PLedvFlTieC5aixi3g3_tyEZA8yNo77ApN5eBHymLQ29D7Rdc1EIstXsZBThBzFyqVYzPLWkKl7oh/s1600/DSC03323.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbYbHcO0EIPnX6aWqbHfs2f9dGtYTzJGskoQ7XPmDYFJC_Ez6bo7ele8Bp6n3tZh9PLedvFlTieC5aixi3g3_tyEZA8yNo77ApN5eBHymLQ29D7Rdc1EIstXsZBThBzFyqVYzPLWkKl7oh/s640/DSC03323.JPG" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Poor thing - completely overgrown, fighting for survival.</span></i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSuKZKTyVlTvdXn7gMHeNQ2dVefDRONhU1j8d2mwwF6JMwKQRnpTnWYowwczYS68kByzfXs9gK-CzVakTtj_Zw4GNblbG4Y_00tVjtSqa1fYBH-s8ehzZcO8vVTx5nyJ0bhdTCMXXZkZ8t/s1600/DSC03324.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSuKZKTyVlTvdXn7gMHeNQ2dVefDRONhU1j8d2mwwF6JMwKQRnpTnWYowwczYS68kByzfXs9gK-CzVakTtj_Zw4GNblbG4Y_00tVjtSqa1fYBH-s8ehzZcO8vVTx5nyJ0bhdTCMXXZkZ8t/s640/DSC03324.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhL9NvZvc4oTKJJt0n8Xcfj5l14ItoRdFoqDEkJNnWlCJV49mvUt8bhNXHe-nYdU8SA1Z8eJLCeNhsa7gZ3TuA0BN1wS96PSUDLIFJ4Q-metNORhlrILf7fy36CsElxAf4hBKGbXaRkHPmb/s1600/_DSC1353.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhL9NvZvc4oTKJJt0n8Xcfj5l14ItoRdFoqDEkJNnWlCJV49mvUt8bhNXHe-nYdU8SA1Z8eJLCeNhsa7gZ3TuA0BN1wS96PSUDLIFJ4Q-metNORhlrILf7fy36CsElxAf4hBKGbXaRkHPmb/s640/_DSC1353.JPG" width="424" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1.09m tall grass blades.</span></i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Wounahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00478073751521886601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1458477577581314246.post-17692744469170016392012-04-08T12:30:00.001+12:002013-09-09T10:20:20.155+12:00Compost mulch - two flies with one slap :) - 12 January 2012<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Yes, I know, 'two birds with one stone' is the correct English for the saying, but that sounds so mean, cruel, really just conjures up terrible thoughts of dead birdies. Wait, maybe when the birds start stealing our olives, I might change my mind about them. As is currently the situation with the possums. They look so cute and cuddly, but they really are a pest. Fortunately then don't like olives, but they eat just about everything else including rose buds! One friend suggested that I start a little possum grave yard, which might not be such a bad idea after all. If I spread them nicely, marking the spots for the next batch of olives trees, they can serve as compost. And as another friend then said - that's what she'd call compossum! </span></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">With our imminent SA visit and being out of the country for 50 days, we thought that mulching with compost around the trees should at least keep the weeds sort off at bay. Boy was I wrong - it grew like crazy! But that aside, we ordered six cubes from The Landscape Yard and started hauling buckets full of shit up the hill. What a mission. Fortunately our friends, Brian and Trish, came to the rescue, helping us one morning to make a huge dent in the mountain of compost.</span></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Within 5 days the job was done and dusted. And what a pretty sight - a freshly mowed, clean of weeds and cared for grove.</span></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3QP68uXHf4Mae7lqLUOxF9_annLnzfus6MRR-AlvlPt7ldMhG3jx7H_HfUfx1LtVGHQLw_nAAHowbIvKCyoHWDxlUamBpN_Jcc9ea884UEUU2yW8Gk111WALtb1VvrKdzrmVTyCNMTniq/s1600/DSC03249.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3QP68uXHf4Mae7lqLUOxF9_annLnzfus6MRR-AlvlPt7ldMhG3jx7H_HfUfx1LtVGHQLw_nAAHowbIvKCyoHWDxlUamBpN_Jcc9ea884UEUU2yW8Gk111WALtb1VvrKdzrmVTyCNMTniq/s640/DSC03249.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>The dung beetle at work! Not as effective as the real McCoy though ...</i></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlNsTt41dsjXomu5ff9SQddjTMNhxfE-qHqscqiUFNkdzqxNvIUlt39HWaPVftIk8ZAZUAiPScjstbyBEmnDLJpXByth6g_tTX5x50LyLkyIApkxvMU8YpnliZUnheowLrw8vyBizqlDZN/s1600/DSC03250.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlNsTt41dsjXomu5ff9SQddjTMNhxfE-qHqscqiUFNkdzqxNvIUlt39HWaPVftIk8ZAZUAiPScjstbyBEmnDLJpXByth6g_tTX5x50LyLkyIApkxvMU8YpnliZUnheowLrw8vyBizqlDZN/s640/DSC03250.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">6 cubes - a fairly significant heap of compost.</span></i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZGUCXl4BDMegb5NyvhGx6Jc4RHj5AVspdXXzuN6fa8HbC0OPCu4yiJ41uA3b0lorLcLEZHllELhCvz1rz_uu0f8-A5HjTk1jfJ6H9Jfmdaata-3WO0xTGXKy6mjgsX3vH5OTtUNhJF3X1/s1600/DSC03251.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZGUCXl4BDMegb5NyvhGx6Jc4RHj5AVspdXXzuN6fa8HbC0OPCu4yiJ41uA3b0lorLcLEZHllELhCvz1rz_uu0f8-A5HjTk1jfJ6H9Jfmdaata-3WO0xTGXKy6mjgsX3vH5OTtUNhJF3X1/s640/DSC03251.JPG" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Ready for action.</span></i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHPkHTtbRFx5pM_L6cqqXmkgM7RLk1tznYnuwyNSp6DGuTgyprUEaymdHbIq8fE-nctHI28qrqx-K9MahilXsR7Q1il3Y8KNWWFO2TzvzQkZP83E2jJv550T7RJi_pbLoMrx__BwTueAci/s1600/DSC03256.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHPkHTtbRFx5pM_L6cqqXmkgM7RLk1tznYnuwyNSp6DGuTgyprUEaymdHbIq8fE-nctHI28qrqx-K9MahilXsR7Q1il3Y8KNWWFO2TzvzQkZP83E2jJv550T7RJi_pbLoMrx__BwTueAci/s640/DSC03256.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>About one cube to go.</i></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgX4lNWvjF4oGQp4CRh7-r6zR30DU_hmYpcYdGEWDz6ZR_Zrw7nTtOuCGP70MiHOJhJf8dJ5PA4YI-6FoDLt6_xy15KciiFhhg0y4M4DzEOBF-nI2DvFaaQjHjYeUt8YyfB7FRr_2oecftx/s1600/DSC03257.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgX4lNWvjF4oGQp4CRh7-r6zR30DU_hmYpcYdGEWDz6ZR_Zrw7nTtOuCGP70MiHOJhJf8dJ5PA4YI-6FoDLt6_xy15KciiFhhg0y4M4DzEOBF-nI2DvFaaQjHjYeUt8YyfB7FRr_2oecftx/s640/DSC03257.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Should do something about the pavement ...</span></i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjauPd0nwIWqqQ2lasTlI21H7dvplUyL0tRccwrt6MkLFlKVFhmd7J9_7l5rrBaX_cG82WQlJtbi1TPHExiA3Y1RzuPc4hlpzHZao48RV_QPSEe0T2fmk3n_EsWLQ4yKqLlgpOSXm49XDoy/s1600/DSC03259.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjauPd0nwIWqqQ2lasTlI21H7dvplUyL0tRccwrt6MkLFlKVFhmd7J9_7l5rrBaX_cG82WQlJtbi1TPHExiA3Y1RzuPc4hlpzHZao48RV_QPSEe0T2fmk3n_EsWLQ4yKqLlgpOSXm49XDoy/s640/DSC03259.JPG" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Isn't that a pretty sight?</span></i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnitdCsCYRapNUGYys7QMGUx5JsCijqqT9pw-20Haf9DZSKcvF95O8_WkncWmrreQzZ7NWqYBFoYFKmSgIB1xjIq1lyZVq84RTLuXLZcH648ZJEBtvWD3mygdogbkfe-Km6hHv4EeP4WRL/s1600/DSC03261.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnitdCsCYRapNUGYys7QMGUx5JsCijqqT9pw-20Haf9DZSKcvF95O8_WkncWmrreQzZ7NWqYBFoYFKmSgIB1xjIq1lyZVq84RTLuXLZcH648ZJEBtvWD3mygdogbkfe-Km6hHv4EeP4WRL/s640/DSC03261.JPG" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<br /></div>
Wounahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00478073751521886601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1458477577581314246.post-57409929012813266692012-01-03T14:41:00.005+13:002013-09-09T10:20:34.007+12:00Flowers & fruit - 3 January 2012<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Although the flowering phase has almost passed, there are still a couple of late bloomers, as can be seen in the images below. Factors like "on" years and "off" years, and the fact that the trees are really way too young to make any meaningful observations yet, etc. aside, I thought it would still be interesting to document their progress. </div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
In essence, the Barnea were the first to bloom. Very eager trees it seems. However, it doesn't seem to bear lots of fruit. The Frantoio had the most flowers and the SA Verdale seems to be very prolific bearers. The tiny wee bit of a little tree of no more that 30cm high, already has fruit almost the size of peas. For most of the other trees you still almost need a magnifying glass to spot the baby olives! The Manzanilla probably had an "off" year this season, since they had quite a lot of flowers last year (with no fruit), and only a very small number had flowers this year. Given, they were only about a year old at the time. :) The Ascolano and J5 currently appear to be performing quite similar, bearing comparable volumes of flowers and fruit. </div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
</div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVSQ-9Tgwy6_lH3mEUsxDgE52h7mNOcmlsdzdqqGoKZcSWuXQ7W6ZXsFmAWmQuGW-J7wcOlJh5D6rPuNc4CX8nM-3LzZ7GSRwmqKanzNWoeAejMWzBSdoSmDBy0nn3UHpFvsZ__8dh9SbR/s1600/ascolano.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVSQ-9Tgwy6_lH3mEUsxDgE52h7mNOcmlsdzdqqGoKZcSWuXQ7W6ZXsFmAWmQuGW-J7wcOlJh5D6rPuNc4CX8nM-3LzZ7GSRwmqKanzNWoeAejMWzBSdoSmDBy0nn3UHpFvsZ__8dh9SbR/s640/ascolano.jpg" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Ascolano - they are all full of blooms and tiny fruit are developing.</i></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_8rTFDahyphenhyphenDKa9nNDoJuTjnTEAhZvhSafIhSUA2VGsQ9vQx7a2NjXCG6O7OsIS-sP31ZSAnk3REAOUOrxZ5bKDJqRFVmutxGUKIhrSFjrYOEdarWfpRujp1v7aGKZGKykC74vndawG_otd/s1600/ascolano2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_8rTFDahyphenhyphenDKa9nNDoJuTjnTEAhZvhSafIhSUA2VGsQ9vQx7a2NjXCG6O7OsIS-sP31ZSAnk3REAOUOrxZ5bKDJqRFVmutxGUKIhrSFjrYOEdarWfpRujp1v7aGKZGKykC74vndawG_otd/s640/ascolano2.jpg" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Ascolano - tiny little olives.</span></i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7BzyjPvz6Lwu5zyGyTu6aGOGc5AdhNnPqIIsHll2TKzQO6ZxcPPXoyY5VEdl7ATSEZuEbZ_O57DsJru-9jjGyXvr2nQRNwqnX7fzJQsDrUhQ6vGaubDw1Wd46NfO6mDCHhEZW1rL_Ot7N/s1600/elgreco.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7BzyjPvz6Lwu5zyGyTu6aGOGc5AdhNnPqIIsHll2TKzQO6ZxcPPXoyY5VEdl7ATSEZuEbZ_O57DsJru-9jjGyXvr2nQRNwqnX7fzJQsDrUhQ6vGaubDw1Wd46NfO6mDCHhEZW1rL_Ot7N/s640/elgreco.jpg" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">El Greco - one of the 'one of each' lot, was full of flowers. <br />
This tree had even more flowers than the Frantoio.</span></i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEic0775KW19UVKN-qN_wOPTuNGk_eVLCdrXikw_N8ts2ZEibHS6Bk2LrtpRQn2HhTtpkl1HPOADzBOoBMezB1SLyY0SxrXEVAqDMgBa0a9EDaLD9fwG3HbjkwPVj-S2YK6uSNJmIhDsRI_i/s1600/frantoio.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEic0775KW19UVKN-qN_wOPTuNGk_eVLCdrXikw_N8ts2ZEibHS6Bk2LrtpRQn2HhTtpkl1HPOADzBOoBMezB1SLyY0SxrXEVAqDMgBa0a9EDaLD9fwG3HbjkwPVj-S2YK6uSNJmIhDsRI_i/s640/frantoio.jpg" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Frantoio - most of the flowers are gone by now.</i></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8lBPXPP4Ufj_bXn3F1YdSi9Q_9TOcZNlh0OGy1i3xAwKM5ZS-pVFF8N1nCZB_F_S7gR-r-T87WSEuySRys92r3VdxPloubqLlSUqioje5ltk_4_YhIRsGswpvgs7RVs-1GzyxkkVtdjZt/s1600/frantoio2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8lBPXPP4Ufj_bXn3F1YdSi9Q_9TOcZNlh0OGy1i3xAwKM5ZS-pVFF8N1nCZB_F_S7gR-r-T87WSEuySRys92r3VdxPloubqLlSUqioje5ltk_4_YhIRsGswpvgs7RVs-1GzyxkkVtdjZt/s640/frantoio2.jpg" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Frantoio - close-up. Tiny fruit visible.</span></i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4x1zSOCQzl2du4M-KMCJXXxu6W1yUgBUzqboMAACZGO-9lasdwu29NHMniRXF_bb7LdSATu7I890DTic17jtg7tQVfdoUHTLxPCPBT2QAeVOrv-VEIXhIwOYuhwBe3Ijj8mSwJCSYk__C/s1600/j5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4x1zSOCQzl2du4M-KMCJXXxu6W1yUgBUzqboMAACZGO-9lasdwu29NHMniRXF_bb7LdSATu7I890DTic17jtg7tQVfdoUHTLxPCPBT2QAeVOrv-VEIXhIwOYuhwBe3Ijj8mSwJCSYk__C/s640/j5.jpg" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>J5 - a lot of flowers still on the trees.</i></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbsOyjf-kNWqtkq29vGTNcpw48iTZqRuECYRBWtA0X8HhZ6ePGwFCZlVXMVAf4TKeprbpy-fra8gb8JPuCz_3RS8Ry2hijFCUkObBaGRnsuk-5kvshHluqtFvaFt7wz3m31H67EN_WyQ1Q/s1600/koroneiki.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbsOyjf-kNWqtkq29vGTNcpw48iTZqRuECYRBWtA0X8HhZ6ePGwFCZlVXMVAf4TKeprbpy-fra8gb8JPuCz_3RS8Ry2hijFCUkObBaGRnsuk-5kvshHluqtFvaFt7wz3m31H67EN_WyQ1Q/s640/koroneiki.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Koroneiki - the last blooms only opening now. The first ones started opening some time ago already.<br />
These trees seem to have a long blooming period?</span></i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1WaNNjXeYMIbuy7p249Yrv083OYV3bu7h-P1TRLUH2se9TQc3r8u8OWqGjQMBoGJVNxhyGc9mpWgzRKqEDVx2WAN3FKxtBo_371d3UZ2IbDhNCbgN_cpA8ypJrycMbA1tLo3_uw5bF-K7/s1600/manz1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1WaNNjXeYMIbuy7p249Yrv083OYV3bu7h-P1TRLUH2se9TQc3r8u8OWqGjQMBoGJVNxhyGc9mpWgzRKqEDVx2WAN3FKxtBo_371d3UZ2IbDhNCbgN_cpA8ypJrycMbA1tLo3_uw5bF-K7/s640/manz1.jpg" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Manzanilla - no flowers for most of the trees.</span></i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHK5jEQwKRCoXmC8VRLCoDkksSZu97_7AShGRAKjCjE6MZ7QpJakYed40DQfY2z6kO7h5J3R3gsDWjDdrzvE4N0z_0hQb_IF1hS88vbOekkdyhkG1O4WCUWi4TzhvuGDF3ysTbPq1S6-Wv/s1600/manz2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHK5jEQwKRCoXmC8VRLCoDkksSZu97_7AShGRAKjCjE6MZ7QpJakYed40DQfY2z6kO7h5J3R3gsDWjDdrzvE4N0z_0hQb_IF1hS88vbOekkdyhkG1O4WCUWi4TzhvuGDF3ysTbPq1S6-Wv/s640/manz2.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>There are a few Manzanillas with flowers and they are also slower to develop than the other trees.</i></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXA9Za5XaSUdsihUHpOkTqxU0zXqJh4WYotf0xkGy40DRLuCVG7FqYCiML3bOkJsaGiL4Yvq-dA7nsvXEs1QTV8s2SD55YfTM1Dvgpo8l1Jmi_nymLcNRr-a8w7oqADWM5ix6s_4JDejRy/s1600/verdale1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXA9Za5XaSUdsihUHpOkTqxU0zXqJh4WYotf0xkGy40DRLuCVG7FqYCiML3bOkJsaGiL4Yvq-dA7nsvXEs1QTV8s2SD55YfTM1Dvgpo8l1Jmi_nymLcNRr-a8w7oqADWM5ix6s_4JDejRy/s640/verdale1.jpg" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">SA Verdale - little over eager prolific producers :). The "trees" are about 30cm tall and they <br />
already have the largest fruit of all the trees. Almost pea size.</span></i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOcLjyehqnrLW78mYL1xICRB7z-1-wstd4srwuDxUnACWZrcUW85_DM06IUnSRi8fqPdmOhE7VJXqCQksfxKyoftSFAWL_nidXnTwXEKU892Tj_iY-21_KszW0ZqKnU9PQT0Id_bK1_vTQ/s1600/verdale2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOcLjyehqnrLW78mYL1xICRB7z-1-wstd4srwuDxUnACWZrcUW85_DM06IUnSRi8fqPdmOhE7VJXqCQksfxKyoftSFAWL_nidXnTwXEKU892Tj_iY-21_KszW0ZqKnU9PQT0Id_bK1_vTQ/s640/verdale2.jpg" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">SA Verdale. They seem to be fairly happy? Or is it just the opposite? <br />
A case of "make fruit while you can for survival?" ... I hope not.</span></i><br />
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></i><br />
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></i><br />
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Wounahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00478073751521886601noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1458477577581314246.post-81226092050809821352012-01-03T11:31:00.000+13:002013-09-09T10:20:47.925+12:00One of each - 2 January 2012I've decided, just for fun, to buy one of each type of olive tree that I can lay my hands on. It should make for a nice experiment to see how the different trees are doing in our area. We allocated an area amongst the other fruit trees where all the odds and ends are planted.<br />
<br />
So far our 'one of each' collection includes:<br />
<br />
- Pendolino<br />
- Leccino<br />
- Rakinos<br />
- J2<br />
- Chemlali<br />
- Signore<br />
- El Greco<br />
- Koroneiki<br />
- A mystery tree - one that was here when we bought the land.<br />
<br />
Then there's my other curse which forces me buy nearly dead trees in an attempt to "save" them from fatality. As part of that we also have 4 Barnea, 2 Verdale and one each of Frantoio, Ascolano and a J5. The latter 4 also make up the bulk varieties of our grove.<br />
<br />
The search continues.Wounahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00478073751521886601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1458477577581314246.post-82788177655968092042011-12-08T13:39:00.000+13:002013-09-09T10:21:03.233+12:00Olive oil tasting at Peka Peka - 13 November 2011<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9vXE4tZVhS6Di4DkcriM_25Mf0RbGeGVBkOAFztE9ZhVbYjcLGsIYyAPyYUtajVpqd_y1JqoxMOoQO1qS3X6Unr8Axu6kQ3syXFpgQmP3B4d_I58Wj5pFJ5nVzmP13S6vDobCPUOvvl80/s1600/DSC03132.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9vXE4tZVhS6Di4DkcriM_25Mf0RbGeGVBkOAFztE9ZhVbYjcLGsIYyAPyYUtajVpqd_y1JqoxMOoQO1qS3X6Unr8Axu6kQ3syXFpgQmP3B4d_I58Wj5pFJ5nVzmP13S6vDobCPUOvvl80/s640/DSC03132.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Noble-Beasley's lovely home, with a view on Kapiti island.</span></i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
This might come as a surprise, but I've never attended an olive oil tasting before. So I was very delighted when Allan (the new chairperson of the Kapiti branch) announced that Tricia and Rob of Noble Estate would host the event. Helen Walshaw led the tasting while Allan and David gave short talks on the ONZ developments and subs, as well as diseases and their control.</div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
After a week of fairly miserable weather leading up to the event, were lucky enough to have a wonderful sunny day for the tasting, so the whole event took place outside in the beautiful surroundings of Noble Estate.</div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
The tasting turned out a very informal affair and Helen kindly agreed to give Gerry and myself the rundown on how it is normally done. Everybody who presses oil (which is just about all the members, except for us :-}) brought a bottle of their oil for the tasting.</div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
Dunking bits of bread (ciabatta?) in good quality oil and tasting it (which is different from how it is traditionally done), is a very pleasant experience. I thought it might be too oily, but not at all. It tasted absolutely divine!</div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
We had a lovely lunch afterwards, courtesy of the branch and everybody who contributed salads.</div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAsek278diJL7wS45iV2CoecoLNMcbnIxiUG89G2w-IkDgUFgFGt8pON4x-Juu8y8_2gXHv-BBqhlO6djqjZYSD61HGfhi3coeAmP1jONgWIPK9dM5v39-Tb7ScqqF2dvUlaWc3fkrCyds/s1600/DSC03135.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAsek278diJL7wS45iV2CoecoLNMcbnIxiUG89G2w-IkDgUFgFGt8pON4x-Juu8y8_2gXHv-BBqhlO6djqjZYSD61HGfhi3coeAmP1jONgWIPK9dM5v39-Tb7ScqqF2dvUlaWc3fkrCyds/s640/DSC03135.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Getting the formalities out of the way before the tasting. (l-r) Allan, Anne, Helen, David, Paul and Tricia.</span></i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFrBhU_v90beDiSALIMOkKOO2U-YMO_SfD7Kaqtl72oU4tnOqfwhEQ61e8AR2n5YsKDv0VwRVsHUUy4sg-PyNdWMNQJ0jxdi-Vu2CCroemD-qtGsTSIM4_S_rQH1pTeBgROrMocUVeGRyl/s1600/DSC03136.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFrBhU_v90beDiSALIMOkKOO2U-YMO_SfD7Kaqtl72oU4tnOqfwhEQ61e8AR2n5YsKDv0VwRVsHUUy4sg-PyNdWMNQJ0jxdi-Vu2CCroemD-qtGsTSIM4_S_rQH1pTeBgROrMocUVeGRyl/s640/DSC03136.JPG" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>The tasting table - interesting how the oils differ in taste and colour.</i></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjucTmM-RVg92V4oKoOrmaXKo68TtPZNuCkBu-YEsJ8pFObcHNeIeEKBz_FlKxAPZWDuxcliCXZJLCTc6tu0WBqdGS7vAejmg0G9tkFhrdz1KG1EylAxxwVMYeF45F4Zqh4QTcQMdw0HU3E/s1600/DSC03138.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjucTmM-RVg92V4oKoOrmaXKo68TtPZNuCkBu-YEsJ8pFObcHNeIeEKBz_FlKxAPZWDuxcliCXZJLCTc6tu0WBqdGS7vAejmg0G9tkFhrdz1KG1EylAxxwVMYeF45F4Zqh4QTcQMdw0HU3E/s640/DSC03138.JPG" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Gerry putting his newly acquired tasting skills to the test.<br />
Is that a peppery aftertaste?</span></i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<br /></div>
Wounahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00478073751521886601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1458477577581314246.post-78971459730066219302011-10-27T10:45:00.001+13:002013-09-22T15:35:08.303+12:00Feed me ! - chomp chomp chompThe past two weeks or so have mainly kept us busy clearing grass and weed around the trees and mowing the lawn, which has grown with leaps and bounds since spring eventually stuck its head out. It only took a couple of good rain sessions, coupled with warmer temperatures, to blow life into everything. The fruit trees are either full of tiny little plums, peaches and figs, or still in bloom. The almonds are already sizable fruit. Our olives seems to be "slower" than some of the others I've seen thus far, with ours only now starting to make tiny new branches and leaves. And only here and there the flower buds are starting to show. Could it be that Palmy's temperature stays lower for longer and that trees therefore takes longer to bud after winter?<br />
<br />
Chomping down knee-length grass with a weed-eater against a slope is no easy task. And that was all it took - two weeks of occasional rain, warmer weather and <i>voila</i> - grass out of control!<br />
<br />
We've been thinking of alternative ways to control the grass and no real solutions have transpired yet. Except for one hopeful, maybe - a Billy Goat. Nope, not the four-legged version, but rather an industrial chomper made in America. It is self propelled, a push model and can handle slopes of up to 20 degrees. I'm sure there's many similar machines out there, but we're looking ... and reading ... and talking ... Who knows, maybe one day we could afford something that will make life a hundred times easier.<br />
<br />
And like David who refuse to use copper sprays, so do I refuse to use glyphosates ... But who knows how long we will keep clearing around the trees by hand, before we get fed-up with the tedious job and succumb to RoundUp.<br />
<br />
While Gerry were mowing bits by bits, I decided that a good dose of a variety of sprays for the olives is just what the doctor ordered. We've been postponing the spraying since MetService has been predicting rain and/or showers for the past week. And not a drop has fallen. So, this time I decided, bugger this, they don't know what they're talking about, and started spraying the fruit trees.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivZ9J1UCYSFdARlA3wm7n5suIwuPgkHx6nsSdSPtpqHe1eXu6m4GaQYi-4Wm0XBeZqxuw6A-H2i8pxSSvY2elekZr9FaPk2rNMKmlcFBWPVfFwvFNE2STpYnIRx5iUHA4_AQ7a7E6Xi0Yv/s1600/DSC03069s.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivZ9J1UCYSFdARlA3wm7n5suIwuPgkHx6nsSdSPtpqHe1eXu6m4GaQYi-4Wm0XBeZqxuw6A-H2i8pxSSvY2elekZr9FaPk2rNMKmlcFBWPVfFwvFNE2STpYnIRx5iUHA4_AQ7a7E6Xi0Yv/s640/DSC03069s.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A mix of these will hopefully give the trees super-duper energy!</span></i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
I only have a 5 litre sprayer and after the second batch figured that I can cover about 50 of the trees with 5 litre. This give them a fairly good coverage. The mix consisted of fish emulsion - to deter rabbits (I hope - so far so good), liquid copper (for fungus related diseases and to deter slugs and snails), Bio-Gold which seems like the best "all-in-one" fertiliser around, and Raingard (to prevent the fertiliser from raining off). It took the biggest part of the afternoon to spray all the trees and Gerry also finished the last section of the grass. Unfortunately the patches that were first cut, some days ago, already needs their next cutting. And so it goes in summer ...<br />
<br />
And here's the best part! Exactly 10 minutes after we wrapped up, cleaned everything and put it away, it started to rain ... How's that for luck - just after the trees have been sprayed! The first hour or so was just a drizzle, but then it really came pouring down for the rest of the evening. We measured 25mm in the rain meter. I'm not convinced that the raingard would have coped with the amounts of water coming down... Time will tell.<br />
<br />
And like Andrew suggested: "Every saturday that looks good in terms of the weather, should be a spray day". Maybe we should just follow this strategy. :)Wounahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00478073751521886601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1458477577581314246.post-77283305913115446832011-10-23T17:12:00.000+13:002013-09-09T10:21:34.109+12:00Olives New Zealand AGM and awards - 15 October 2011A whole day of fun and events was planned, starting off with the AGM and lunch at Tatum Park. Thereafter we all went over to David and Helen's for presentations by two Spanish gentleman (organised by Goran Erdevicki from GEA): Juan Vilar and Javier Hidalgo - experts by all accounts on all things olive - followed by the fieldwalk in the Kapiti Olives grove (last year’s Olives New Zealand EVOO ‘Best in Show’ Award). The awards dinner was planned for the evening back at Tatum Park, followed by the semi-final WCR game between France and Wales.<br />
<br />
Gerry and I decided to go for the morning and afternoon events only, as the dinner was another expense that we couldn't afford currently. We got to meet the chairperson of ONZ, Andrew Taylor, and a lot of other growers from various other areas. It is great to see so many enthusiastic people, passionate about the industry and trying to make things better for all. The presentations by the Spanish (both from GEA Westfalia) were quite informative, albeit focussed on Spain, which is much drier that NZ. Just to comprehend the scale at which they operate, is mind blowing. They also presented everybody with wonderful handouts (books on olives, victorinox knives, flash drives, notebooks, pens, etc.).<br />
<br />
Afterwards we all headed outside for a walk amongst the olive trees of David and Helen. The good thing about having experts looking at your grove, is that they can immediately detect if anything could be wrong with the trees. Unfortunately (and fortunately) for David, they discovered that his trees have some mineral deficiencies as well as diseases. Apparently if the tips of the leaves turn brown, you need to up your nutrients in the form of potassium (if the soil is alcaline) or boron (if the soil is acidic). His trees also seemed to be pestered by peacock spot amongst others, and are losing their leaves at a rate. This will obviously effect flowering and fruit set. So, although David swore by his conviction never to use copper spray, it now turns out that he might just have to do that.<br />
<br />
All in all a great outing, very informative and insightful. Pity we couldn't make the awards function as well. Some pics from the day:<br />
<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcjCkrsFDSP5ZY6rf90uFUBkg6YEBW03Uqg0WmVZBo6gB5vXQWg8Iixl_ir2CtKw8q3RVLJz4iz8z-fQmvqX0FmTV-hmVsYj-serTu0z1mUf103GvbxdOf8DdIvFhOPK0PloVAHt-IgaCU/s1600/DSC03043.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcjCkrsFDSP5ZY6rf90uFUBkg6YEBW03Uqg0WmVZBo6gB5vXQWg8Iixl_ir2CtKw8q3RVLJz4iz8z-fQmvqX0FmTV-hmVsYj-serTu0z1mUf103GvbxdOf8DdIvFhOPK0PloVAHt-IgaCU/s640/DSC03043.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">AGM at Tatum Park, with David discussing some changes to the ONZ constitution.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiI-X5vJh7y9OZuuLsIj5VQ94acbSY8ddOVcqAkIKigkrqa9-UNsiAbtoP8GqwWES-IySGX4sjdCxeUkaQhFrhFEr_1Du2kFfuuBiG-VVJ9Rdn8V1J06J0mCAOJ42BqM-s0hW4AUVOQph1J/s1600/DSC03046.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiI-X5vJh7y9OZuuLsIj5VQ94acbSY8ddOVcqAkIKigkrqa9-UNsiAbtoP8GqwWES-IySGX4sjdCxeUkaQhFrhFEr_1Du2kFfuuBiG-VVJ9Rdn8V1J06J0mCAOJ42BqM-s0hW4AUVOQph1J/s640/DSC03046.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Goran left and Javier from Spain.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEin0ot6DPoGnDPk3sKn-LCwm-EK8FKq7mBqvM4r4ZsIhQ73NmC7jY09a9GqLDr38GtSzxNAfIcV92mBuPFhfWybKZUIG4olZI6MitlXxJWZSSe7h4MkYnZJgxq5_6tHaIsfc9TRcdblK42z/s1600/DSC03047.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEin0ot6DPoGnDPk3sKn-LCwm-EK8FKq7mBqvM4r4ZsIhQ73NmC7jY09a9GqLDr38GtSzxNAfIcV92mBuPFhfWybKZUIG4olZI6MitlXxJWZSSe7h4MkYnZJgxq5_6tHaIsfc9TRcdblK42z/s640/DSC03047.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Juan also from Spain.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1a63tPHw-CcMft_YxyP_23opRy32eau3a-rPp1Qu9m4oFi6yieJF61lRk7AmRq4-bnEs3NZrlp8wf_hSLXoc_T-yDhj5MssDjg_SuZoupXjJGUsKv0OQvWuUUByBPHCn4notJ7PImU1YE/s1600/DSC03048.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1a63tPHw-CcMft_YxyP_23opRy32eau3a-rPp1Qu9m4oFi6yieJF61lRk7AmRq4-bnEs3NZrlp8wf_hSLXoc_T-yDhj5MssDjg_SuZoupXjJGUsKv0OQvWuUUByBPHCn4notJ7PImU1YE/s640/DSC03048.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Listening and learning at the Kapiti Olives grove field walk.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmLI40NBYq9iPe3vIUgUoIIN0u2dbnCeoWf2QIOlR7u9W8lV0_wS2pw0OhVgczeXVGhIYOHzXtNPVP5eAdUC8tZHO9gBIxI3cEFcj5C0mPVu3DubijrDdcH1Ir-NH-MB50HsAyIrfP2UJm/s1600/DSC03049.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmLI40NBYq9iPe3vIUgUoIIN0u2dbnCeoWf2QIOlR7u9W8lV0_wS2pw0OhVgczeXVGhIYOHzXtNPVP5eAdUC8tZHO9gBIxI3cEFcj5C0mPVu3DubijrDdcH1Ir-NH-MB50HsAyIrfP2UJm/s640/DSC03049.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Attending these events provide excellent opportunities to learn more about olives.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjY40V2GPx9dkJ2bb00Osr5GP0RDHhgKxHMWc2rH2dqoM-BqefVsQNTPvJbEWS9ZevhoQcZpKL4BNo2tX62Av79Toqzpc7DxYSc9LmrA94CDfCsPIzoRCPrjasmbGrUP8IcGWC8IZhrjmV8/s1600/DSC03051.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjY40V2GPx9dkJ2bb00Osr5GP0RDHhgKxHMWc2rH2dqoM-BqefVsQNTPvJbEWS9ZevhoQcZpKL4BNo2tX62Av79Toqzpc7DxYSc9LmrA94CDfCsPIzoRCPrjasmbGrUP8IcGWC8IZhrjmV8/s640/DSC03051.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">David, Juan, Javier and another grower.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsuntfkau-z08grhI4yhUMRq_CxnaYwjrPcQHICy6LQqYbfp-okdeW42V8DNNhJZ6mrhSV8pypfn8CNRs21Xw0vowkHE-TgCBBFYZ5n551HkfHHecjXeOAokpFZQ9r5nEJLlJ_mPE0XDgk/s1600/DSC03052.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsuntfkau-z08grhI4yhUMRq_CxnaYwjrPcQHICy6LQqYbfp-okdeW42V8DNNhJZ6mrhSV8pypfn8CNRs21Xw0vowkHE-TgCBBFYZ5n551HkfHHecjXeOAokpFZQ9r5nEJLlJ_mPE0XDgk/s640/DSC03052.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Can't remember what disease this is, but it looks like cigarette ash on the back of the leaves, <br />
and it's a main cause for leaves to drop from the trees at an alarming rate.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Wounahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00478073751521886601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1458477577581314246.post-46298796704014207122011-10-22T16:44:00.000+13:002013-09-09T10:22:16.753+12:00Ascolano obituary :-(This little piggy decided to go to heaven. Poor little thing. I'm not sure exactly why, but of all the trees, this seems to be the only one who died, presumably from the snow? It was planted in a very soggy spot and I suspect that the wetness in combination with the snow and freezing temperatures, caused its feet to get frostbite! The stem is still soft and green though. Any ideas on what to do with this one to save it from a sure death?<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5gZ3GRmJEE8O1yt4IFGd9P8VbdGweFaldky9M1Dqz93R6POtcg-VEDOT-rFvkDobZNmUIYH-AFt4mglcORKJsePNUSAswmow3OwsmVYpmxFQrgBnlJDKqXyZXwyb9UwPBR1ysLZeJVV6Y/s1600/DSC03035.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5gZ3GRmJEE8O1yt4IFGd9P8VbdGweFaldky9M1Dqz93R6POtcg-VEDOT-rFvkDobZNmUIYH-AFt4mglcORKJsePNUSAswmow3OwsmVYpmxFQrgBnlJDKqXyZXwyb9UwPBR1ysLZeJVV6Y/s640/DSC03035.JPG" width="480" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGv5HdfaJpPdGA-DoFfyxs7CI9NZIYdIjLXW22xHBEP1ZXh6Po7-ssL1NgZEcKZxmAKIVhXH6plBvdwlcgthtecNuOeRSa9CN6gilSZU19Qiovjsz_HjVCyvg7TZG3CCNwwinCDmzfRYSm/s1600/DSC03038.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGv5HdfaJpPdGA-DoFfyxs7CI9NZIYdIjLXW22xHBEP1ZXh6Po7-ssL1NgZEcKZxmAKIVhXH6plBvdwlcgthtecNuOeRSa9CN6gilSZU19Qiovjsz_HjVCyvg7TZG3CCNwwinCDmzfRYSm/s640/DSC03038.JPG" width="480" /></a></div>
Wounahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00478073751521886601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1458477577581314246.post-82555746965846077982011-09-28T23:51:00.001+13:002013-09-09T10:22:26.521+12:00Kapiti branch AGM 2011David and Helen invited all the Kapiti branch members for drinks, eats and the Kapiti branch AGM at their place in Te Horo Beach. And what a beautiful place they have right on the beach.<br />
<br />
We made the one hour drive on Sunday afternoon to arrive for the meeting at 16:00. Some 20 people were present and it was very nice to meet and chat with some other growers in our region.<br />
<br />
The meeting got underway and things that were covered include the financial statements, subscriptions fees for Olives NZ as well as Kapiti branch memberships, the constitution, upcoming ONZ AGM and awards dinner for Olives NZ. Committee members for the Kapiti branch were elected for the new year, and I am happy to report that I now find myself on the committee, together with Allan Frazer (chairperson), Anne Barnett (secretary/treasurer), Lance Wiggins and David Walshaw.<br />
<br />
I am looking forward to see what the next year will bring.Wounahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00478073751521886601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1458477577581314246.post-87809196368085730512011-08-16T10:50:00.000+12:002013-09-09T10:22:39.773+12:00Assessing the snow damageLovely snow fell in the Tararua ranges on Sunday night. Everybody was driving up the mountain to take photo's, build snowmen and let their kids play in the snow. But on Monday afternoon snow started falling in the lower parts of the country, where we were at the foot of the Tararua's and also in town (Palmy is only about 15 metres above sea level). A rare occasion.<br />
<br />
It was really nice to experience this and seeing our little house covered in snow, looked so cozy. But all this time I was very worried about the trees. At that point there wasn't really anything we could do (except maybe light up fires in containers between the trees and spreading the warmth, as suggested by a worried friend - not a bad idea!).<br />
<br />
But alas, I went out this morning to access the damage and found that a number of the trees snapped in half. :-( This is really very sad, but what can you do. Gerry and I spent a good deal of time carefully relieving the little trees from the worst of the icy weight. Fortunately it's a lovely sunny day and most of the ice on the trees should be gone pretty soon. The snow layer on the ground will probably take a bit longer. If you stand quietly, you constantly hear the ice falling from the trees, letting little streams form. Everything seems to be coming alive in the sun!<br />
<br />
A report in the local newspaper confirmed the freak snowfall in Palmy:<br />
<br />
<i>"For the first time in almost 80 years snow fell in The Square in Palmerston North. The temperature plummeted to -2 degrees Celsius overnight, and the MetService said the bone chilling conditions were here to stay for a few more days.</i><br />
<br />
<i>NIWA was unable to confirm when snow had last fallen in Palmerston North. The last recorded snowfall in the city the Manawatu Standard could find was in an Evening Post article of July 4, 1934, that recorded "a very light fall''.</i><br />
<i>Standard Memory Lane author Tina White said the only snowfall on a par with yesterday's she knew about in Palmerston North came in 1904. On August 4 that year a large snowman was made in The Square."</i><br />
<br />
<i>[http://www.stuff.co.nz/manawatu-standard/5450810/Bone-chilling-conditions-to-stay/]</i><br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjv3BB68vXyAuDOiYOVTIRX9TqwR3U93V9dQkN7cBbkObUyd2uqOoPYqUw31LIdtcmGyf-jVxN0I3YrNfmaEGKP4zsHDMiflvvJAK3ODZ5mXd_5kvbhARsPLJiT0ZYGW6-hjC4kzx-XeB4L/s1600/DSC02861.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjv3BB68vXyAuDOiYOVTIRX9TqwR3U93V9dQkN7cBbkObUyd2uqOoPYqUw31LIdtcmGyf-jVxN0I3YrNfmaEGKP4zsHDMiflvvJAK3ODZ5mXd_5kvbhARsPLJiT0ZYGW6-hjC4kzx-XeB4L/s640/DSC02861.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">One of the broken Manzanilla's.</span></i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBp-4XMHCabEGSoBaPzC2JGh_7Zch6zvCjD5ocp90a_0Od1I-IcKuvzICCW_68itAXS-5raJw9v9_yHhPzx3Hl9kWN4PmgnA3muHYcqT11KUB0kDaB5T-nNZILTEErpdUwh3bkXthUpR0r/s1600/DSC02863.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBp-4XMHCabEGSoBaPzC2JGh_7Zch6zvCjD5ocp90a_0Od1I-IcKuvzICCW_68itAXS-5raJw9v9_yHhPzx3Hl9kWN4PmgnA3muHYcqT11KUB0kDaB5T-nNZILTEErpdUwh3bkXthUpR0r/s640/DSC02863.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The sorry site that greeted us this morning.</span></i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirExsK-SvuUVQ6AYbbMMGuzIGSq0_N1LjipaYpZi0A5_G-qfXkASbRrXis-Bx7N0mN1Vfh257Ckc40BVEPKAzqSAenvViir15Mbc21TszE6NwdCyoF1c0KQ1PQQPexLlw_hyphenhyphen_niJ-uvkEz/s1600/DSC02871.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirExsK-SvuUVQ6AYbbMMGuzIGSq0_N1LjipaYpZi0A5_G-qfXkASbRrXis-Bx7N0mN1Vfh257Ckc40BVEPKAzqSAenvViir15Mbc21TszE6NwdCyoF1c0KQ1PQQPexLlw_hyphenhyphen_niJ-uvkEz/s400/DSC02871.JPG" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">:-( :-( :-((((((. !!!</span></i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3u1JoxswBDH8KScV0YDor9iBO0yqc-rBrTm8lIilBCWyqMnrma_j7ad-dTjVllYJNnSqZzt8_Nth6D_o9NjoTRlsBDybX0SoyhcrPBfgonYrr1cWqRNTZQLsLGwTTl_QIpT1LZbeDS4j2/s1600/DSC02876.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3u1JoxswBDH8KScV0YDor9iBO0yqc-rBrTm8lIilBCWyqMnrma_j7ad-dTjVllYJNnSqZzt8_Nth6D_o9NjoTRlsBDybX0SoyhcrPBfgonYrr1cWqRNTZQLsLGwTTl_QIpT1LZbeDS4j2/s320/DSC02876.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Carefully removing the worst lumps of ice/snow.</span></i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjpwwygkqj0LuJZ1TfWPRzfEZTH2Jz0xr1sWXFy7pqUGWZSIlk4t6TCe5eEIy4EIcjgIMr3vCJRD3JHi3VYagPZmqmyrenjYcetAbAOZwB1ZV430PdJKEfmS-DqUEFuEknaqIFzuIy1Zmw/s1600/DSC02879.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjpwwygkqj0LuJZ1TfWPRzfEZTH2Jz0xr1sWXFy7pqUGWZSIlk4t6TCe5eEIy4EIcjgIMr3vCJRD3JHi3VYagPZmqmyrenjYcetAbAOZwB1ZV430PdJKEfmS-DqUEFuEknaqIFzuIy1Zmw/s640/DSC02879.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A lovely sun against the slope will hopefully quickly clear away most of the snow.</span></i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />Wounahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00478073751521886601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1458477577581314246.post-16740895418842388812011-08-15T22:13:00.001+12:002013-09-09T10:23:03.950+12:00Snow in PalmyThe latest weather update on stuff.co.nz says it all:<br />
<br />
<b>[<i>Major weather disruption around NZ</i></b><br />
<i>New Zealanders are being urged to stock-up on emergency food and water tonight as the worst winter storm in decades is set to continue.</i><br />
<i>The Antarctic blast, described by MetService as close to a one in 50 year event, has seen roads, schools and airports closed, cut power to thousands of homes and stopped mail deliveries in parts of the country.</i><br />
<i>The storm had also brought snow in places that don't usually see it, including Wellington and Auckland where snow hasn't fallen in more than 30 years.</i><br />
<i>MetService spokesman Bob McDavitt said today was likely to be the coldest day and warned New Zealanders to prepare for more snow over the next few days. </i><br />
<i>Etc.</i>]<br />
<br />
Some pics of our poor trees.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggZSRoG8KbNe9VEXI331yWG7cdTXIoTZrAqNDV64l0flYK5KRoBaGeC6nt9GjcM7LZO4jomPgwOV_coS_hGWk4fskJI7jKlo1b9jOyY_Ht14-M2FdD-3zId9umWpW5N8_Mm6lz7ADxKmr8/s1600/DSC02840.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggZSRoG8KbNe9VEXI331yWG7cdTXIoTZrAqNDV64l0flYK5KRoBaGeC6nt9GjcM7LZO4jomPgwOV_coS_hGWk4fskJI7jKlo1b9jOyY_Ht14-M2FdD-3zId9umWpW5N8_Mm6lz7ADxKmr8/s640/DSC02840.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">15 August 2011.</span></i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDmZbgt-pD51VLDAiWgHmB2GeuPzB4-OGNcRKrWQgnSZqrwxYMK4PqU1HzBGAi2kCybaq4q-I6CEKS1y-UhgqlUMHuyju4wzRwANVn2NwehGYXahnE-hh-2RXUXYIlOQ1_6IqizdsmRAYh/s1600/DSC02831.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDmZbgt-pD51VLDAiWgHmB2GeuPzB4-OGNcRKrWQgnSZqrwxYMK4PqU1HzBGAi2kCybaq4q-I6CEKS1y-UhgqlUMHuyju4wzRwANVn2NwehGYXahnE-hh-2RXUXYIlOQ1_6IqizdsmRAYh/s640/DSC02831.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A rare sight in Palmy. Our snow covered grove.</span></i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxK40lBMFCFAuHkc68jnHhqhFvXpM7c5A9ECcaCRu2jdsQqX82KR33fOTARtIAygMaDlSiiObdz6TUVVt1AA0MK7hYvlnXwAmfWC7vhMdco0ylEYaoOSfc32zVSN9XeFi7OdLaOqB48dQ1/s1600/DSC02833.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxK40lBMFCFAuHkc68jnHhqhFvXpM7c5A9ECcaCRu2jdsQqX82KR33fOTARtIAygMaDlSiiObdz6TUVVt1AA0MK7hYvlnXwAmfWC7vhMdco0ylEYaoOSfc32zVSN9XeFi7OdLaOqB48dQ1/s320/DSC02833.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Snow starting to weigh heavily on some<br />
of the young branches.</span></i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJ1FxVguyzFs3ZT4kUkMEkmJwrqYt1RcpCjfcIW1zLkQ5uzFC-IFT3kdJ3i2ido451FgAecHN84gXAwDuH00ciONa505RGgQ_C5vOHMahpbWSmr97vDahLk22iKNVcsFRxDuxphe1CCr6C/s1600/DSC02834.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJ1FxVguyzFs3ZT4kUkMEkmJwrqYt1RcpCjfcIW1zLkQ5uzFC-IFT3kdJ3i2ido451FgAecHN84gXAwDuH00ciONa505RGgQ_C5vOHMahpbWSmr97vDahLk22iKNVcsFRxDuxphe1CCr6C/s400/DSC02834.jpg" width="300" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSK1r8XnQwBYwN3to7eyg-XLRyHEj68FmQAR9zKi_i5A-PMM9_UyaGGB0YkaoUfxDDibZ4TDsW6mva8rMuP8LAOIkOSjm7ZQHXrXaLZmHOmeAauAB-NqMIpz-RyZS2qgWVKsGqsqbkRZiT/s1600/DSC02838.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSK1r8XnQwBYwN3to7eyg-XLRyHEj68FmQAR9zKi_i5A-PMM9_UyaGGB0YkaoUfxDDibZ4TDsW6mva8rMuP8LAOIkOSjm7ZQHXrXaLZmHOmeAauAB-NqMIpz-RyZS2qgWVKsGqsqbkRZiT/s640/DSC02838.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The snow has turned the countryside into a fairytale scene - if only I wasn't so worried about my trees!</span></i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_bBoSolYMki1kDlN3LkcJC-uyOPgsKYbtwa9U_R_QEcUE5igr0VDuPX7LBKAX8pPk4qRyj9DAKc1h8uq98nvNDYg1ihSBz_IrOoWTiBtimgLY5wZ7HKLU9bOpT9Q_Y6WxLnCqHww-UpOp/s1600/DSC02852.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_bBoSolYMki1kDlN3LkcJC-uyOPgsKYbtwa9U_R_QEcUE5igr0VDuPX7LBKAX8pPk4qRyj9DAKc1h8uq98nvNDYg1ihSBz_IrOoWTiBtimgLY5wZ7HKLU9bOpT9Q_Y6WxLnCqHww-UpOp/s640/DSC02852.jpg" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Snow meter?</span></i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Wounahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00478073751521886601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1458477577581314246.post-60061007931299928672011-07-20T17:39:00.000+12:002013-09-09T10:23:21.802+12:00One month later<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwCbI4HNRGZhVnNiYBFJ2ZVcIqIEemRDS9MlCeg9RNLk1UQGxfGZka369ZPOb8-voHbWIoNUYSksWPROR57A_O7UnULnDwSqJbTKrf8-haTxdYhRebCAuQjDWItt79gTveI_13RgAJIXGr/s1600/DSC02708.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwCbI4HNRGZhVnNiYBFJ2ZVcIqIEemRDS9MlCeg9RNLk1UQGxfGZka369ZPOb8-voHbWIoNUYSksWPROR57A_O7UnULnDwSqJbTKrf8-haTxdYhRebCAuQjDWItt79gTveI_13RgAJIXGr/s320/DSC02708.JPG" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Wet feet in it's extreme form. Shortly</span></i><br />
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">after 104mm of rain over a weeks time.</span></i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
With Arbor Day something of the past and winter in full swing, our little babies are taking a bit of strain. I'm not sure which is worst; the rain rendering our clayish soil very soggy in parts of the grove, or the wind blowing the trees sideways, breaking some branches and even snapping one in half!<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzRooCrVoWI4QMeyMIy_79ElbaamoachK1CsgWcmOBq9KiwKWPluLA3bvYct1eYJVc4S3UUgxKw1e_aP6epEx9k2cozPP5n2ay7BPNnW4Ipzxzi2EdQsejN17ht3IGvQmFBIf9VLXLJuin/s1600/DSC02710.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzRooCrVoWI4QMeyMIy_79ElbaamoachK1CsgWcmOBq9KiwKWPluLA3bvYct1eYJVc4S3UUgxKw1e_aP6epEx9k2cozPP5n2ay7BPNnW4Ipzxzi2EdQsejN17ht3IGvQmFBIf9VLXLJuin/s400/DSC02710.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">What can I say ... the wind is not playing nicely.</span></i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
We have now officially joined Olives New Zealand and I can't wait to get my nose into their growers manual. Although we might be doing things a bit unorthodox, unconventional and probably not 'traditionally correct', we are trying to make the best of the resources and knowledge we have, with a bit of luck and gut feel thrown into the equation. It will be a slightly different story if you approach olive growing purely as a business opportunity (and having the money to do so!); searching for property/land that are suitable in all aspects, from soil to wind and frost, to north facing slopes, the correct gradient, big enough to plant the trees 6x6m apart for mechanical operations, with shelter belts, etc. <br />
<br />
Unfortunately we are not in the position to buy "ready-made" land in a traditionally correct area (we will be the trail blazers for this area since we are the first growers around here that I'm aware off :-)), but instead are just making-do with the tiny patch of land we have.<br />
<br />
We also did not "rip" the land and we did not lay irrigation systems, neither did we invest in more water tanks, at least not for now. This will all come with time, as will the knowledge of pickling olives, health&safety issues, as well as the extension of the house to become a workplace for the processing of the olives. Having fruit bearing trees is not something that happens overnight, which is why we wanted to get the trees in the ground as quickly as possible. We tried to make the best of the situation by enhancing the soil as far as possible and we will continue to do the best we can with the resources and knowledge we have. As mentioned before, this is more a process of the heart than a process of the mind, but we are trying not to make blatantly dumb mistakes.<br />
<br />
The days are slowly starting to become a tiny bit longer again, being past the shortest day and longest night, but it seems as if the coldest temperatures are still to come. We've had a couple of nights where the temperatures dropped below zero, but the days are mostly fine. The trees seems to be growing? I spotted new growth that must have happened over the past two months or so. Is this normal?<br />
<br />
The past week has seen 104mm rain, which is great for our water tank, but bad for the olives where we haven't had the time yet to do something about the drainage. This we need to address quickly as 20 or so trees may suffer from wet feet. The past summer has been very dry and we might well have water problems come summer, but hopefully we can make a plan with additional water tanks before then.<br />
<br />
Taking things little by little and tackling the problems as they come. Eating the elephant, one bite at a time. :)<br />
<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuMa1QRMO1wmA6SJKu_flLuakFvIB58WoVe5Ahbw6p2v5pES2sTjAxwWkw342wSyMWJ0x7OokgSj645Mtn-Gzarv4YnwU3bWYdnkwblR9ZbtuQZJoO_1gD3ypKDjcEKrFjSwQQgqtuctRb/s1600/DSC02711.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuMa1QRMO1wmA6SJKu_flLuakFvIB58WoVe5Ahbw6p2v5pES2sTjAxwWkw342wSyMWJ0x7OokgSj645Mtn-Gzarv4YnwU3bWYdnkwblR9ZbtuQZJoO_1gD3ypKDjcEKrFjSwQQgqtuctRb/s400/DSC02711.JPG" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Making use of a break in the constant rain to</span></i><br />
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">quickly straighten up one of the very tall trees.</span></i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiB5wqpCvxs_9zksL-flC42bcpuPPus6uepWlcbWeajwQFoS4xuV46_nqRKsnXlh-YnOT84MQuLrEqZ0tk8TUQNcPNASCMKBpFebGjZnKybZwrLQHrXmhePZsUEu6R2MMgGGzs2PWMAGaF-/s1600/DSC02713.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiB5wqpCvxs_9zksL-flC42bcpuPPus6uepWlcbWeajwQFoS4xuV46_nqRKsnXlh-YnOT84MQuLrEqZ0tk8TUQNcPNASCMKBpFebGjZnKybZwrLQHrXmhePZsUEu6R2MMgGGzs2PWMAGaF-/s400/DSC02713.JPG" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Horrible, horrible norwesterly. Snapped one right off.</span></i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg82PVPUe_wJP9c4DY1wTGKysHPlSQZCpSqB5L2CN8R3iEjWTVaP5Wq6RK2H_2PQdaydjz4hLoGK4U0fSFGD8cLOz1DNF_tLk0X4Hq92toIddvKX8Z_ACwrjAD6tM2TjTad_Ec6WFBAkZPY/s1600/DSC02716.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg82PVPUe_wJP9c4DY1wTGKysHPlSQZCpSqB5L2CN8R3iEjWTVaP5Wq6RK2H_2PQdaydjz4hLoGK4U0fSFGD8cLOz1DNF_tLk0X4Hq92toIddvKX8Z_ACwrjAD6tM2TjTad_Ec6WFBAkZPY/s400/DSC02716.JPG" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I decided to try and mend the snapped stem.</span></i><br />
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Probably not going to work, </span></i><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">but it's worth a try.</span></i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5PLqcg2CebLKNziVCI9PBVcnQHA8yq_nsKAHqXDRu1rW5R9__8H1AZ3NGMuc3F6byF8GCpjEDPrIbOD1DUTDvXIJXz6zE7Q2kxpbua6ItVekRkUvvZcgjUsvKWm8DtAWiy9cITvOLR4Hx/s1600/DSC02717.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5PLqcg2CebLKNziVCI9PBVcnQHA8yq_nsKAHqXDRu1rW5R9__8H1AZ3NGMuc3F6byF8GCpjEDPrIbOD1DUTDvXIJXz6zE7Q2kxpbua6ItVekRkUvvZcgjUsvKWm8DtAWiy9cITvOLR4Hx/s400/DSC02717.JPG" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Trying to save the poor thing.</span></i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Wounahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00478073751521886601noreply@blogger.com0