Our Olives:
In the Summer of 2006, plans were
made to clear the bottom acre of the farm for olives. The
planting was done on July 1, 2007. A ultra high density
planting (10 feet between rows and 5 foot spacing between
plants with a two wire trellis) was chosen with the intent
of growing exclusively for oil. Half of the trees are
Arbosana and half are Arbequina. These two varietals from
Northern Spain have shown cold tolerance that we believe
will give us the best chance for regular crops in spite of
our borderline cold temperatures in winter.
Much like
our grapes, we can expect a small crop in the third or
fourth leaf after planting. Our first very small harvest
will most likely be in 2010 or 2011. The winter of 2008-2009
was a setback for our olives. The unusually cold
temperatures and two weeks of heavy snow caused many of our
young trees to loose most of their leaves. By the following
June it was clear that we had lost about 90 trees which we
replanted in July of 2009. About 75 of the trees made it
trough unscathed and look like normal trees of their age.
Most of the rest of the trees died back to the ground but
still had strong root systems. Those trees re-sprouted and
grew well in the summer of 2009. We feel they will be fine
but they have lost a year and no longer are pruned to a
single leader. Things were back to |
normal, we thought. Then, in December of 2009, we had
three consecutive days of temperatures between 10 and 15
degrees at night.
Again, it looks like we will lose a number of trees. And
many will die back to the ground again and we will lose
another year. We don’t give up easy so we will be replanting
in the summer of 2010.
On August 8, 2009, we added a
high density (10’ x 10’) planting of 26 more olives, 22
Leccino, two Pendolino, and one each of Picholene and
Frantoio. They were a bit larger at planting and seem to
have been hurt less by the cold weather in December 2009. We
have a neighbor, David Lawrence who has grown olives for the
past half dozen years (oregonolivetrees.com and he has an
olive tree nursery) and his experiences with these Tuscan
varieties has been very good. We hope ours do as well.
The pioneer olive growers in the Willamette Valley are
Ken, Penny and Paul Durant (oregonolivemill.com and Red
Ridge Farms and Durant Vineyards). They have installed the
first modern Olive Mill in Oregon. With a mill in the area,
we will be able to produce gourmet olive oils that are
fresher than anything known in the Northwest. In November,
they have an “Olio Nuovo Festival” and serve up the
freshest, best tasting Olive Oil I have ever had. If you
find yourself in the Oregon Wine Country in November, do not
miss this event! |
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