Mercury dropping

Its getting colder here - only three degrees tonight so the fire is on and the heating is on for the first time this autumn/winter.

Picking again today and so tomorrow off to the Frantoio to have them pressed. Then straight into our olive oil festival Festivol Sat/Sun/Mon.

This is the sky tonight. As Rachel often points out, if you painted that then everyone would say it was not realistic. Nature is better than art?

Naming

A survey shows today that the most popular names for babies in 2009 were Olive(r) and Olivia. What are the odds on Margherita for 2010.

And in a very poor - brain dead from picking link - our new season's olive oil is now available online at www.casa-margherita.com

Busy busy

Had a good weekend but busy. Our first consignment of olives were pressed on Saturday afternoon and then bottled or tinned. I then took these back home and labelled them up.

The market itself for an all day affair and went really well.  There was a lot of interest in the new oil and Trevi was full of Italians having a weekend break and a fair smattering of other nationalities.

Rachel also had a drinks reception in the gallery which was well attended.

Today was an enforced rest day as it has been raining on and off for most of the day but the forecast is good for the rest of the week so it's back to picking and a return to the mill on Friday so I am ready for the olio nuovo festival this coming weekend!

Olive firestarter.

Last year we used this press for part of our harvest.  This 'cake' is built up with hessian mats spread with olive paste and the pressed down and the oil extracted. The by product of this is a hard circular mat of olive waste.

When dried it is a very useful fire lighter and I have been using my leftovers from last year to light our fire here at Casa Margherita.

I am the reaper

When you are picking you are quickly reminded of how you pruned your trees earlier in the year. If you cut corners and didn't remove all the dead/old growth then now you pay the price as the picking is harder work that in should be as the tree are a mass of tangled growth.

If your pruning cuts were not flush to the branch then it is now that you reap your rewards as you scrape your hand over the protruding remnant.

Also, if you went to the other extreme and over pruned then again your reap your rewards as you have little fruit.

2 3 4 you are the reaper.

The end of the day

We have begun the harvest here at Casa Margherita and this is a typical view in most groves at the end of the day. We are doing well so far with over 300 kilos of fruit gathered.

Terziere

These are the tree areas of Trevi that take part in various contests during Ottobre Trevana with the most important being the Palio.

In addition to this they each open a Taverna for the month of the Trevana. The format is rustic but the food is great (with lots of Trevi celery dishes available) and the atmosphere ebullient. The food is also very reasonably priced which means they are also packed.