Tuesday, December 06, 2011

Olive Harvest 2011

Puglia, Italy. Friday 26 November 2011

The usual close down visit and olive harvest with additional birthday planning.

As every year we go out long after the last paying guests have departed to prepare Trullo Azzurro for the winter. That mainly consists of putting all the bedding and linens into VacuSacs but also rearranging the furniture - the garden tables and chairs get brought indoors or stacked into the antechamber of the pizza oven.

We also go out to harvest the olives. Our friends Carol and Mino had already harvested theirs so we only had ours to do. We were expecting a small harvest because of the heavy pruning in spring. This year we only picked 18kg compared to last year's 84kg. However we predict a bumper crop next year because of all the new growth plus the habit of fruit trees in general to alternate good and lean years.

We also had time, therefore, to harvest a couple of trees belonging to our neighbours, Mark and Sue, which yielded another 7kg off their two trees. At a 12 percent yield that means our combined output will be 3 litre.

Storage space is at a premium which means the nets needed to be very carefully folded away so they will fit inside the crates which can then be stacked away inside the pizza oven storage space.

Olive nets - 01

Olive nets - 02

Olive nets - 03

Olive nets - 04

Mary insisted on a shot of me stripped to the waist as proof of how warm and sunny it was even in the middle of November.

Olive nets - 05

Olive nets - 06

The other item on the agenda was finalising the date for my 60th birthday celebrations to be held at Truddhi in the local village of Trito. We fixed on Sunday 23-September-2012 rather than the Saturday. That fits in better with Truddhi bookings which are Saturday to Saturday. Also Mino is normally doing weddings on a Saturday, so by having it on the Sunday makes it much more likely he will be there as well.

Trullo Azzurro logoTrullo Azzurro: beautifully restored trullo in delightful, secluded valley near Locorotondo, Puglia, Italy. Available to rent on a per week basis, sleeps 4-6. For more information visit http://www.holiday-rentals.co.uk/trulloazzurro

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