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Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Arbor Day (times eleven) - 5-16 June

“The whole Mediterranean, the sculpture, the palm, the gold beads, the bearded heroes, the wine, the ideas, the ships, the moonlight, the winged gorgons, the bronze men, the philosophers - all of it seems to rise in the sour, pungent taste of these black olives between the teeth. A taste older than meat, older than wine. A taste as old as cold water.”

- Lawrence Durrell (1912-1990) ‘Prospero's Cell’ (1945)


Two hundred fifty-five trees to plant. Two people. One garden fork. One acre of hill. And the winter and rainy season on its way.

The last couple of weeks have been a marathon session, turning paddocks into "workable" land for an olive grove: mowing lawn, clearing out patches of grass, carrying loads of 25kg bags of compost, limestone and gypsum up the hill, digging holes, planting trees, hammering in stakes and tying trees to stakes for some sort of protection against the wind (of which we have our share, being 2kms from the windfarm!).

From dusk to dawn, we were slaving in the orchard taking it row by row and tree for tree. Isn't that how enormous, seemingly impossible tasks are handled? Little by little. One by one - eventually you get there. And at the end of it, I'm always amazed at what one person (or two in this case) is capable off. Whether you walk 800 kilometres in 26 days or plant hundreds of trees in a couple of days - things are almost always more do-able than you might think.


A couple of photos to show the process:


Gerry trimming knee-high grass.

Taking a coffee break between heaps of grass that still need to be raked to somewhere!


Marking the positions of the trees with blue spray paint.

The paddocks after all the grass were mowed and the markings in place. The "before" picture ;-).

Preparing the hole for the very first tree to be planted. A J5.

Mixing in compost, limestone and gypsum.
Hopefully this tree is marking the start of
big things to come.


The first row of J5's starting to take shape.

J5's ready and waiting.
The first row halfway up the hill. Gerry staking
the trees as we go.


Halfway through the process.



Beautiful little J5 trees on top of the world!


Collecting garden tools at the end of a hard days work.

Staking the last tree for the day just before sunset.

At the and of it all - 11 days later on a lovely sunny afternoon, we popped a bubbly between the trees
to celebrate the new olive grove.

The "after" photo. :-)
This is the grove as it stands now. From the left: (not seen in this picture) 5 Ascolano trees right at the top.
Second row (Sevillano planned) still empty, the next three rows are more Ascolano's, one row Frantoio, then two rows of South Australian Verdale, another empty row (future Picholine) and the last three rows with J5's.
11 rows in total except for the 5 extra trees at the top (Tharfield included a couple of extra trees
in the batch we bought from them).

It's been a couple of days since planting and the rainy season is upon us. We spotted hundreds of earthworms crossing the road, presumably trying to get away from the soggy soils (?).

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

The stakes are high!

Realising that the little Manzanilla trees of last year have outgrown their bamboo stakes, we decided to upgrade to two hardwood stakes per tree. I really don't like it when trees are tied up against one stake, not being able to move or "breathe" at all. The trees have to toughen up at some point, and giving them a bit more leeway seemed like the logical option. Trees are in any case not supposed to be staked indefinitely. Just the first couple of years to keep the roots intact while they develop strong stems that can withstand gusty winds. What you don't want is "root-shake" - the tree swaying in the wind until damage is done to the roots. And since we are about 2kms, as the crow flies, from the wind farm, wind is unavoidable.

The downside of two stakes per tree was that we immediately doubled the expense. We saw an advert in the Organic NZ magazine by Growing Things and decided to give them a go. They sell, amongst others, hardwood stakes that are untreated (organic if you like) and should last 10 to 15 years in the ground. At least that is what they claim. Mike Ponder, in his book "The Good Oil", mentioned that the hardwood stakes they used only lasted a year in the ground ... I really hope this is not the case.

Gerry helping to carry the stakes to our car.

Gerry and Jan between heaps of different stakes at the Growing Things warehouse. 
I think the ones we got are beech wood.

Hammering in 200 stakes in one morning is no easy feat! It resulted in a number of nasty blisters. :-}

Monday, June 6, 2011

Grove layout

After much consideration, the final layout of the grove is now fixed. I have included supplier names to see how the different trees "perform". They will all get the same treatment/care, although none of them might get the right treatment! Hopefully this will not be the case. :)

Kalamata is off the map at this stage, but not for good. I will add these if and when we can source them as time goes on. They will be planted towards the left of the Manzanilla block.

Sevillano (Queen) and Picholine (the classic Martini olive) still need to be sourced.



Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Kapiti field walk

Uncertain whether we should join the NZ Olive Association, Olives New Zealand, we decided to attend a field walk and pruning demonstration hosted by Kapiti Olives. Owners Dave and Helen Walshaw were kind to let us attend and see how it goes before we make our final decision.

Olives NZ seemed to be more directed towards the oil industry, which I immediately thought would not help me much, but soon realised that everything you can possibly learn about growing olives will be the same. It is still an olive tree, right?

So on 22 May we drove down to their Kapiti farm to meet other people from the industry. It was raining while driving there and since a big group of about 40 people were expected, Dave had to clear his shed to make room for discussions and mingling. After explaining what Olives NZ had to offer, it's history and budget, Dave went on to talk about harvesting and how they go about it. All of this is new to me, except for what I have read on the internet and in books thus far.

Keeping to the programme, rain and all (we're almost starting to get use to this :)!), we headed outside for a walk amongst the trees and Dave also let us squash a few olives at different stages of ripeness - some varieties ripen earlier than others - to feel the difference. Kapiti olives' trees seem to be in excellent condition. Beautiful trees and just walking amongst them must rate (at least for me) as a very memorable experience. They have a stature about them that is hard to explain. Dave quickly demonstrated a wee bit of pruning, before the rain really started to wrap things up.

Afterwards, drinks and snacks were served, courtesy of Anne (?), the treasurer of the Kapiti Regional Committee. More mingling and meeting people before driving home.

Some pics from the event:

Dave in the beige jacket giving a talk and Helen, his wife, on the far left of the picture.

Dave talking about the fruit and when to harvest.

I have to admit that I have never before had the opportunity the squash a fresh olive to pulp!

Graeme (ex-partner and friend of Kapiti olives), also an expert on olives, standing on the left in the back
with the navy jacket.

Dave inside the tree and me on the right trying to see what he's doing.

Taking out a big branch as well as some "water shoots"/suckers growing towards the middle of the tree. Pity about the rain though ... I would have loved to see and hear more in this regard.