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. The winter of 2008-2009 was a setback for our
olives. The unusually cold temperatures and two weeks of
heavy snow have caused our young trees to loose most of
their leaves. We will need to wait to assess the health of
our planting. At this time we do not know how thoroughly or
how quickly our plants will recover. Stay tuned.
Update – June 1, 2009.
It now looks like many of the “dead olives” are beginning
to sprout from the base of the plant. This may turn out to
leave us with stunted trees that will never grow properly.
It also may mean that we will only have lost the previous
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ground growth and that we
still have excellent root systems. If that is the case, we
may have only lost a year of growth and crop. It will take
us the rest of this year to know the answer. In the
meantime, we will likely replant about 100 of the 600 trees
that show no life. We also plan to add 25 Leccino olive on
the upper part of the property. They are a full size tree
(unlike the arbequina and arbosana which are smaller, more
easily trained to a trellis system) and will be planted on a
more traditional spacing without trellis.
Update – October, 2009. As hoped, the root
system on most of the trees survived and we only had to
replant 90 trees. Most of those that made it through the
winter unscathed (about 75) grew well and will likely
produce a good crop in 2010. Those that sprouted again from
the base look like they have lost one year of growth but all
look very healthy and grew well as the summer of 2009
progressed.
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.
The
pioneer olive growers in the Willamette Valley are Ken and
Penny Durant (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.
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