Tuscan Living

A belated post at the end of our third year at Cincina. Almost too hard to comprehend how quickly time has passed and how settled we feel here. Progress has been slow this year as Nick has not been able to be as active as he’d want to be, nevertheless we are moving forward with our plans and projects.

Olive harvest 2024

This year we had two harvests – the first in mid October and the second in November.

The first harvest

We and our neighbours Lina & Carlo jointly harvested our olives. Made sense to pool our resources over the three days of harvest and this has worked out extremely well. The harvest has been planned over two phases. A mid October harvest to be followed by a second harvest the following week. Leading up to the first harvest was rather fraught. Too much rain and we had visions of another disastrous year. Fortunately, although there was consistent rain leading up to the harvest we had none of the wind we had last year so most of the olives were still on the trees (and still on the unharvested trees).

Harvest is governed by the slot at the frantoio. Same format as before, start two days before with the third day being a wrap-up and getting ready to go to the frantoio. We were lucky as the rain held off for both days. Day one was harvesting Lina & Carlo’s trees and day two ours. This year we had Katrina & Roderick helping us. They had been with us earlier in the year as WorkAways and wanted to experience the harvest. Cheryl’s cousins Grant and Ruth were also here to help. There was a wonderful sense of teamwork and camaraderie which made the long days joyful with everyone enthusiastic. This year we had 50m long nets and two shakers. Very effective and over the two days we managed get get 698Kg of olives to the frantoio. An impressive haul.

Given the weather leading up to harvest the yield expectations were grim. We saw yields as low as 5% ahead of us. Carlo was convinced we too would have a low yield but I thought we’d be OK and get over 10% – have faith in our land and the trees. In the end we attained 11%, the second highest of the day, and even the staff at the frantoio were impressed. Between us we had 77l of superb quality oil and still had a second harvest.

The Second harvest

Like all good plans they go wrong. Although we’d planned the second harvest for the following week, circumstances resulted in delaying harvesting until early November. Leading up to harvest the weather was warm and sunny so we had expectations for a better yield than before.

This time the amount we harvested from our trees was not as much. Whereas the prior harvesting was of trees more accessible, this time we targeted some of the more challenging trees. Most have their fruit on the upper branches where they get more sunlight. Unfortunately getting to these with our equipment proved to be more difficult than we thought so after a morning on our land we switched down the hill to Carlo and Lina’s trees. Far more productive with accessible trees and these too were laden.

The team was Jemimah, Jack and Carlo with Cheryl joining in when she could. Nick could help with net holding only. Still over the two days we managed to get 890Kg olives picked. Slightly over the 600Kg limit but the frantoio was fine with this. The 600Kg is the max weight that their equipment can process per booked timeslot.

Curiously enough the yield was down to 10.3%. We’d expected better yield given the warm sunny weather. Just shows we have much to learn about our trees and how they perform. Still 10.3% is high compared to others. For some the yields make harvesting non-viable. We’re just thankful that we’re not dependent on oil for income.

Did some research on what EVOO (extra virgin olive oil) can sell for. Found one site offering 12 500ml bottles for €300,00. Gets even sillier with a UK based site selling numbered bottles for Tuscan oil at approx 30 pounds for 250ml. They have a back story about their philosophy and processes but do they really sell these? Given a few years we could get production up to 500/600l or more!!!

Still overall, it was a wonderful harvest across our joint properties, an abundance of amazing oil and we remain very grateful for all those who helped us with the harvest.

Veg Gardens

We have more or less stuck to the ideas behind ‘no dig’, and had some success as well as lessons learnt. The ideal for no dig is raised beds with loads of imported compost. Sourcing that is a problem. However we do have loads of wood chip and that was the basis for this year with drip irrigation.

Lessons learnt:

• Paper/cardboard with wood chip is an excellent weed suppressor. Only issue is planting where the wood chip is too thick. Getting water to the plant and the plant in soil as opposed just the wood is an issue.
• Using a leaky hose has limitations. We no doubt should have buried the leaky hose under the mulch. That may have helped. Water pressure too is a problem especially where the hose is on a slope. For some plants like the sweet peas it worked fine but our corn was a total failure.
• Drippers work well. Great to direct water and you get consistent water to each plant. Will expand their usage next year.
• Using the well as storage works well. Throughout summer we used no town water at all – a good saving in euros, thanks again to Carlo and Lina for allowing us to share their water right from the stream and take a few litres when we needed. Still more to be done with the pumping infrastructure and automating keeping the well level adequate. Suspect that distance from the source and elevation of where the well is stretches the workings of the pressure controller.

Produce this season

The tomato crop was fantastic; a mixture of varieties and we’ve enjoyed tomatoes from early summer in June to October. The last of the toms (known as ‘green’ tomatoes) made delicious chutney, had fun making that with Jemimah. Our pumpkin crop was very successful this year too – after a few were munched early we didn’t have high expectations. However as the summer progressed we watched as the pumpkins took shape, sometimes seemingly growing overnight! In the end we harvested 5 pumpkins and have already been enjoying them as soup.

The star performers were the zucchini – even when they grew into large marrows. Lina, showed us how to cook them as ‘steaks’ in the oven. Have now planted our winter crop including broccoli, cauliflower, fennel and as part of good practice, we’ve planted fava beans to replenish the soil where the tomatoes were planted. In early November the garlic was planted, onions to follow.

Lavender

We have planted six rows on the upper terraces with WorkAways to help. The weed mats have been down for a couple of months so there is little grass under the cloth but healthy growth between the rows. These are wide enough to mow between but careful line trimming will be needed. At low speed there are no problems. At high speed the line rips the weed cloth apart.

This planting was with plants that we sourced from  Il Lavandeto Di Assisi. The prices may have increased but the quality of the plants we got last year was fantastic. We should have a nacent mini field in flower next summer.

We’ve also been experimenting with taking lavender cuttings. Attempted that last year with no success. This year we’re having much better results. Took a set of cuttings in late August. Five per 10cm square pot with a plastic bag over the pot to keep the moisture in. Just kept these outside away from direct sun and most have taken. Three to five per pot!.

Started potting these on and amazing root growth thus far.

As we trimmed the plants in early October, took many more cuttings. These too are five per pot but in a tray with bottom heat heat in a small poly tunnel. Look healthy so hopefully will get a similarly good strike rate. These will be for late next year or so. How these overwinter will be interesting. There is always Il Lavandeto Di Assisi for additional plants.

We’ve also decided to develop a second field of lavender that is closer to the the house and an area that we will be able to enjoy more due to its accessibility. Here too there are old vine terraces and planing will foilow the terraces. Rows goling down the hill would be interesting but maintenance between the rows could be a nightmare – not mower friendly.

Inside

Making some progress here too. Over the last couple of month the focus has been on downstairs hall and stairwell. The walls have only been patched. We had no appetite for wholesale replacement of the plaster but patched and painted it does looks so much better. The skirting boards are all fitted and that adds to the effect. Given the number of corners and inconsistent angles we glued the smaller pieces together so that they would be square and ‘adjusted’ the walls to match. Have also found a decent compound which has amazing adhesive properties. Within seconds the boards are bonded to the walls even where there are curves. No more need for rocks to hold the boards in place.