orWine Tastings in the Comfort of you own villa or B&B while on holiday in Tuscany or Liguria

To book an informative and fun wine tasting whilst holidaying in Italy or arrange for a wild food walk in your area contact me on tuscanytipple at libero dot it or check out my Facebook page

Total Pageviews

Monday 21 March 2011

Olive Pruning

The weather suddenly turned spring-like, giving us a chance to finish off the pruning of the olives. We had started looking after the olive grove last year. Before that the trees hadn't been touched for some 10 years, so major restorative pruning was called for. We never managed to finish all the trees last year, so we needed to take care of the remaining 15 odd trees, which had grown to a majestic height.

Thursday just Susan and I made a start, then Thursday evening reinforcements arrived out of the blue: two more helpXers arrived, Stephen and Frances from England. Even better they came with their own accomodation, as they are travelling around Europe in their camper van. The kitchen is already full with my cousin Bart and our other helpXer Addie. We immediately found we got on extremely well and they agreed to help us finish the pruning.


I climbed up into the trees with the chainsaw cutting off the big branches, Susan, Frances and Stephen cut the branches into smaller bits and dragged them up to the fireplace while Addie picked a bunch of nettles, sorrel and mallow to make a wild food soup which we then cooked on the embers of the fire.


Bart was in charge of the fire.


Last night we celebrated a job well done by downing numerous litres of vino. Today my head feels a bit delicate and we're enjoying a well deserved break. So thank you sooooooo much to our helpers, we wouldn't have been able to finish the job so quickly without you.

If my ramblings sound a little disjointed, it is because I still feel a bit disjointed...

12 comments:

Mr. H. said...

It sounds as though you are accomplishing quite a bit and how great that the helpX program is working out so very well for you. That soup sounds good and I love how you cooked it up on the spot like that.:) Enjoy your day off.

Jan said...

I'm glad Bart really was in charge of that fire! Fabulous that you got the job done.

Ohiofarmgirl said...

what a glorious day! the fire was my favorite part - say... where's the booze. Fill my cup, Brother!
:-)

Veggie PAK said...

That sounds like a wonderful time was had by all! So nice when people help each other! I wish more people would do it. The world would be a much better place.

Anonymous said...

Congratulations to all. That's a nice sized olive pruning team and you can't beat food cooked on olive wood :-).

We've not started pruning ours yet, but when we do, we eat far more jacket potatoes and Boston baked beans than normal.

Heiko said...

Mr. H. the soup was even better the next day

Jan, Bart wanted to send the photo to the rebels in Libya to ask if he could join them

Ohio, sorry we've drunk it all up! :)

VeggiePAK, this helpX scheme is a really great idea and everyone can join.

Contadina, you better get on with your trees then!

LindyLouMac said...

A job well done :)

WeekendFarmer said...

Nice 'disjointed' update : ). Loved the fire and the soup concept. That is the way people should live. Glad you got the pruning out of the way. Happy Spring!

Anonymous said...

Dopo dopodomani Heiko ;-) well at least until after we've finished the the front wall.

Gingerbreadshouse7 said...

I remember the days when you didn't lock your door and left it open while you were away for hours and came back and everything was the same..and when neighbors helped each other without being asked, just followed what you needed done...Gone but not forgotten.

Heiko said...

Gingerbreadhouse, welcome to my blog. We are lucky to live in a community where these times have quite passed yet. Many doors in our village are still open and neighbours are always ready to help.

GaiasHope said...

We prune our olives the same days! This is interesting, I love Mediterannean :)
Our olives were in bad shape for years as yours, I leave 5-6 trees for next year