GaryM
Veteran Member
Rox,
Conratulations on the good news! That's your reward for all the hard work and worry.
Conratulations on the good news! That's your reward for all the hard work and worry.
Our Olive Oil more good news
- Thread starter rox
- Start date
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Egon
Epic Contributor
Lets not forget about " He who does as She commands " !!
fishman
Veteran Member
It is threads like these that remind me why I joined TBN in the first place. Thanks Rox!
Gee I thought I was writing to much and would be a big turn off, I am surprised that you enjoy reading this, and thanks for all fo your kind words and support.
Another day today of burning. We ahve perfect weather, a mist in the morning and everything si wet and no wind. it lightly sprinkled but we jsut put on windbreakers and kept working. As is usual, my hsuband was outside starting the fires at 8am I showed up for work at 10am. We finally finished all the burning of everything we have prunned so far. It was a great day for buring. At the end of the day we used rakes and raked up all the small branches and piled them on a large tarp and dragged the tarp to the burn piles. The field right in front of the house that is inside a huge huge circle drive looks like a park not a farm, it is so pretty.
We did ahve heated words about the first terrace my husband pruned, my husband only did the major pruning, not any fine pruning. I said i would go rake up that first terace he pruned and i simply can't resist getting out my pruning shears and doing a bit of fine pruning, which of course makes more branches to burn as well as slows me up. I hae seen that you get about a 50% improvement in the trees and their olive production with the major pruning and about 50% with the fine pruning. My hubby wants to jsut get throught he farm and get all the major pruning done and then come back once everything has been major prunned and a year or 2 later do fine pruning. The problem is I really enjoy the fine prunning and i have a hard time just leaving the trees with only a mojor prunning when I know if I spend jsut a little bit more time and do a fine prunning they will be awsome. What I did was help him get the bige huge field completly cleaned raked and burned. now he will quit griping about the time i am spending to go to the first stone terrace and do a more cmplete job. i would say we are both right. he is right int he fact that if we fuss to much with any one tree we will never get the overall job done. However i also am right in the fact that if you jsut spend 15 to 20 minutes per tree you double olieve yield doing fine prunning. So as in most marriages, there was a meeting in the middle. There are a whole lot of trees that are only going to get major prunning and a lesser number of trees that will be prunned perfectly. I love the artistry of olive tree prunning. You ahve to look at the tree and each branch and project how the branches will grow in the next year or 2 and make your cuts.
So many crazy connections happen to us here. About 6 months ago we received a phone call. A man who lives in our city of Salon de provence has a dream to open a french restaurant in Milwaukee. He said to his friend that he heard there was an American couple who bought an olvie farm here. His freind said, 'Yes I know them pretty well, they are customers of mine at the hardware store I ahve their phne number" So the guy calls us and asks my hsuband about opening a french restaurant in Milwaukee and my hsuband helps him with tips and advice. This eveing he calls, his friends from Milwaukee are coming over, in fact they have eaten at my hsuband's former restaurant and he would like to bring them over on Monday. So the guy form our city is coming over to meet us tomorrow. So much for our day off, now i am going to have to clean the house a bit, maybe I can get my hsuband to do it.
About that day off we are plannign tomorrow. I really ahd to push a bit for that. But heck we have been working every single day since december 27th without a day off and at the end of the day today when all the burning was done and everything was raked I told hubby that we should take the day off tomorrow. he really hesitated but finally agreed we should take a day off. we did have one day away form the farm but i don't consider it a day off. My hsuband cooked deserts for an afternoon tea for a charity organization which provides services to the homeless in Marseille. so I finally talk him into taking a day off and now this evening the phone call about the visitor tomorrow so that cuts into my "day off" Sunday we have 40 visitors who are participating in a road rally and we are the local stop. I'll be giving an olvie oil tsting and I bet we sell a lot of oil that day. then Monday it will be the Milwaukee visitors.
Received an e-mail form a German customer, she owns a small shop that sells only products form Provence, they drive their minivan with trailor to our area 2 to 3 times per year and load up on their inventory. She put in a nice order 11 cases of olive oil plus wants to buy the tapenade which isn't even made yet and i have yet to make corrections to the label and get it printed. Even without buying olives or tapenade it will be over 1,000 euros. She is a great cusotmer, we let her stay in our guest house at least one night during their provence "Buying Tour" and my hsuband makes them dinner. She hooked us into a german author/company who publish a book rating olvie oils. I sent them samples and they said our oil was fantastic and we are making it into their book for 2007. I'll ahve to rely on my german customer to one day bring me a copy fo the book so I can have a look at it. My customer said it was a well known book in Germany so at least we are in it.
Our main german Distributor e-mailed yesterday to see if I knew the results of the german competition by der Feinschmecker, the biggest gourmet magazine in Europe and also the biggest olvie oil competition in europe. I emailed the editor and he e-mailed me back today that the judging is going on this week and the results will be known on Monday. i ahve my fingers crossed since that PhD who researches olive oil is on the judging panel at der feinschmecker and I am positive he remembers that our oil scored the highest in his research. E-mailed back the German distributor that we will ahve results on Monday. Gosh if we don't make the award lsit this year I hope they don't drop our oil. That would be a bad thing.
Our son is in the Peace Corps, and he was serving in Guinea in western africa, however there is a revolution going on so they evacuated all the volunteers to Mali. We talked to him tonight by phone and that sure was grat, really really great. they are letting his group out a couple weeks early, since there is no sense to send them back, it took 4 days travel to get from his village in Guinea to Mali. So with the transport challenges they decided to cut his group free a few weeks early. His last day with the Peace Corps in February 16th, then he plans on raveling in Mali a bit and then Morroco and Tunisia and then he will come by us in France. He thinks he will be by us early March. it was so good to talk with him. Other good news, he said he was open to the idea of doing farm work while he is here.
That is the news from the olive farm, nothing all that interesting or exciting, other than I'll soon see our son. my hsuband went in september to see him in Guinea but I stayed on the farm. I haven't seen my son since July 2005.
Another day today of burning. We ahve perfect weather, a mist in the morning and everything si wet and no wind. it lightly sprinkled but we jsut put on windbreakers and kept working. As is usual, my hsuband was outside starting the fires at 8am I showed up for work at 10am. We finally finished all the burning of everything we have prunned so far. It was a great day for buring. At the end of the day we used rakes and raked up all the small branches and piled them on a large tarp and dragged the tarp to the burn piles. The field right in front of the house that is inside a huge huge circle drive looks like a park not a farm, it is so pretty.
We did ahve heated words about the first terrace my husband pruned, my husband only did the major pruning, not any fine pruning. I said i would go rake up that first terace he pruned and i simply can't resist getting out my pruning shears and doing a bit of fine pruning, which of course makes more branches to burn as well as slows me up. I hae seen that you get about a 50% improvement in the trees and their olive production with the major pruning and about 50% with the fine pruning. My hubby wants to jsut get throught he farm and get all the major pruning done and then come back once everything has been major prunned and a year or 2 later do fine pruning. The problem is I really enjoy the fine prunning and i have a hard time just leaving the trees with only a mojor prunning when I know if I spend jsut a little bit more time and do a fine prunning they will be awsome. What I did was help him get the bige huge field completly cleaned raked and burned. now he will quit griping about the time i am spending to go to the first stone terrace and do a more cmplete job. i would say we are both right. he is right int he fact that if we fuss to much with any one tree we will never get the overall job done. However i also am right in the fact that if you jsut spend 15 to 20 minutes per tree you double olieve yield doing fine prunning. So as in most marriages, there was a meeting in the middle. There are a whole lot of trees that are only going to get major prunning and a lesser number of trees that will be prunned perfectly. I love the artistry of olive tree prunning. You ahve to look at the tree and each branch and project how the branches will grow in the next year or 2 and make your cuts.
So many crazy connections happen to us here. About 6 months ago we received a phone call. A man who lives in our city of Salon de provence has a dream to open a french restaurant in Milwaukee. He said to his friend that he heard there was an American couple who bought an olvie farm here. His freind said, 'Yes I know them pretty well, they are customers of mine at the hardware store I ahve their phne number" So the guy calls us and asks my hsuband about opening a french restaurant in Milwaukee and my hsuband helps him with tips and advice. This eveing he calls, his friends from Milwaukee are coming over, in fact they have eaten at my hsuband's former restaurant and he would like to bring them over on Monday. So the guy form our city is coming over to meet us tomorrow. So much for our day off, now i am going to have to clean the house a bit, maybe I can get my hsuband to do it.
About that day off we are plannign tomorrow. I really ahd to push a bit for that. But heck we have been working every single day since december 27th without a day off and at the end of the day today when all the burning was done and everything was raked I told hubby that we should take the day off tomorrow. he really hesitated but finally agreed we should take a day off. we did have one day away form the farm but i don't consider it a day off. My hsuband cooked deserts for an afternoon tea for a charity organization which provides services to the homeless in Marseille. so I finally talk him into taking a day off and now this evening the phone call about the visitor tomorrow so that cuts into my "day off" Sunday we have 40 visitors who are participating in a road rally and we are the local stop. I'll be giving an olvie oil tsting and I bet we sell a lot of oil that day. then Monday it will be the Milwaukee visitors.
Received an e-mail form a German customer, she owns a small shop that sells only products form Provence, they drive their minivan with trailor to our area 2 to 3 times per year and load up on their inventory. She put in a nice order 11 cases of olive oil plus wants to buy the tapenade which isn't even made yet and i have yet to make corrections to the label and get it printed. Even without buying olives or tapenade it will be over 1,000 euros. She is a great cusotmer, we let her stay in our guest house at least one night during their provence "Buying Tour" and my hsuband makes them dinner. She hooked us into a german author/company who publish a book rating olvie oils. I sent them samples and they said our oil was fantastic and we are making it into their book for 2007. I'll ahve to rely on my german customer to one day bring me a copy fo the book so I can have a look at it. My customer said it was a well known book in Germany so at least we are in it.
Our main german Distributor e-mailed yesterday to see if I knew the results of the german competition by der Feinschmecker, the biggest gourmet magazine in Europe and also the biggest olvie oil competition in europe. I emailed the editor and he e-mailed me back today that the judging is going on this week and the results will be known on Monday. i ahve my fingers crossed since that PhD who researches olive oil is on the judging panel at der feinschmecker and I am positive he remembers that our oil scored the highest in his research. E-mailed back the German distributor that we will ahve results on Monday. Gosh if we don't make the award lsit this year I hope they don't drop our oil. That would be a bad thing.
Our son is in the Peace Corps, and he was serving in Guinea in western africa, however there is a revolution going on so they evacuated all the volunteers to Mali. We talked to him tonight by phone and that sure was grat, really really great. they are letting his group out a couple weeks early, since there is no sense to send them back, it took 4 days travel to get from his village in Guinea to Mali. So with the transport challenges they decided to cut his group free a few weeks early. His last day with the Peace Corps in February 16th, then he plans on raveling in Mali a bit and then Morroco and Tunisia and then he will come by us in France. He thinks he will be by us early March. it was so good to talk with him. Other good news, he said he was open to the idea of doing farm work while he is here.
That is the news from the olive farm, nothing all that interesting or exciting, other than I'll soon see our son. my hsuband went in september to see him in Guinea but I stayed on the farm. I haven't seen my son since July 2005.
jinman
Rest in Peace
- Joined
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Rox, I've been having a lot of computer problems lately, but I've managed to read all of this thread. I hope the computer stays running long enough to reply. The power supply keeps overheating and shutting down. I should receive replacement parts by this weekend.
What a wonderful series of developments with your olive oil. I can just imagine how thrilled you must be, and I can only think that you will be rewarded with a very high rating. I will be "holding my breath" and crossing my fingers for you. If good thoughts can help, I think you have the combined strength of several thousand TBNers pulling for you.
I love your stories of pruning and burning in the orchard. I can tell that you are a very detailed and meticulous, using your knowledge to decide how to cut each branch. I also have to smile when you describe coming behind your husband to "finish" the job he starts. I think many of the men here can relate to having their wives tidy up their work.
Good luck! I can't wait to hear the news.
What a wonderful series of developments with your olive oil. I can just imagine how thrilled you must be, and I can only think that you will be rewarded with a very high rating. I will be "holding my breath" and crossing my fingers for you. If good thoughts can help, I think you have the combined strength of several thousand TBNers pulling for you.
I love your stories of pruning and burning in the orchard. I can tell that you are a very detailed and meticulous, using your knowledge to decide how to cut each branch. I also have to smile when you describe coming behind your husband to "finish" the job he starts. I think many of the men here can relate to having their wives tidy up their work.
Good luck! I can't wait to hear the news.
EddieWalker
Epic Contributor
Hi Rox,
Thanks for the updates and sharing what your life is like. It's so totally unique!!! You're living the American Dream, but in France. hahaha
Thank you for taking the time to share with us,
Eddie
Thanks for the updates and sharing what your life is like. It's so totally unique!!! You're living the American Dream, but in France. hahaha
Thank you for taking the time to share with us,
Eddie
gclark94560 said:
Greg,
Hey good luck with your olive trees. What cultivar/variatal did you plant? We get freezing weather here at night, can go on for a month. The key is if it gets above freezing during the day. We even had a little dustig of snow and sleet here in 2004 & 2005, so our olive trees will take some cold/freezing with no harm at all. Actually the trees need it to be cold to go a bit dormant. We grow Bouteillan, Grossane, Salonenque & Aglandau. See if you can get a Bouteillan and a Salonenque tree. The Bouteillan will make superb black olives and the Salonenque for green olives. They are grown for oil, but obviouly if they are making a sweet fruity oil the cured olives are going to be great also. for black olives we prick them with a fork, line a wood crate that vegetables get delivered in with paper towls or wood excelsior, throw in a lot ot coarse salt, thow in the olives then sprinkle on more coarse salt. Put outside in an area that gets sun half a day. About 2 to 3 weeks later add more salt, wait 2 to 3 more weeks and they are done. Put in a glass jar with olive oil. Oh if you want them lower salt you can rinse them and pat them dry before putting them in olive oil. I don't know what i like better the green olives or the black olives. for the green olives we make 'broken olives" we smash/give a good sharp pound them with a mallet then cure in salt water. Int he salt water we add wild fennel. if fennel will grow by you plant some and add it to your green olives. The flavor is to die for. This is the typical traditional way to make green olives in Provence, seasoned with fennel.
gclark94560
Bronze Member
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- Zen Noh/Yanmar YM2000, green
Hi Rox!
Thanks for the reply!! I feel elated to find an olive expert who I can chat with! I am sort of on my own here as the locals and so-called experts all say I can't grow olives here in Alabama.
I am delighted to hear that yours deal well with mild to moderate cold. It seldom gets below 15 degrees (F) here and so far 20 is as low as it has gotten.
I have 2 Lucca and 2 Mission olives. The Luccas are showing a bit of leaf browning on the tip most leaves only. Otherwise they look good. The trees are 2 to 3 feet tall and I have them mounded up half way with leaves and pine straw to protect the roots.
I have not heard of any of the varieties of olives you are growing but have a feeling that they just have different names here. I will try to cross reference the names.
I have used the salt method in the past for curing olives. I then pack them in olive oil with garlic and Italian herb mix. It is amazing how fast 5 gallons of olives can disappear!!
I want to try your green olive method but I think it will an a couple of years before I have enough to try it.
Thanks!!
Greg
Thanks for the reply!! I feel elated to find an olive expert who I can chat with! I am sort of on my own here as the locals and so-called experts all say I can't grow olives here in Alabama.
I am delighted to hear that yours deal well with mild to moderate cold. It seldom gets below 15 degrees (F) here and so far 20 is as low as it has gotten.
I have 2 Lucca and 2 Mission olives. The Luccas are showing a bit of leaf browning on the tip most leaves only. Otherwise they look good. The trees are 2 to 3 feet tall and I have them mounded up half way with leaves and pine straw to protect the roots.
I have not heard of any of the varieties of olives you are growing but have a feeling that they just have different names here. I will try to cross reference the names.
I have used the salt method in the past for curing olives. I then pack them in olive oil with garlic and Italian herb mix. It is amazing how fast 5 gallons of olives can disappear!!
I want to try your green olive method but I think it will an a couple of years before I have enough to try it.
Thanks!!
Greg
gclark94560
Bronze Member
- Joined
- Sep 15, 2006
- Messages
- 91
- Tractor
- Zen Noh/Yanmar YM2000, green
Well - I stand corrected!
I found all of the varieties you listed. Santa Cruz Olive Tree Nursery has them - and a BUNCH more!
Here are the ones I an growing
Santa Cruz Olive Tree Nursery - mission
Santa Cruz Olive Tree Nursery - lucca
Looks like I am in danger of starting a new career in the olive business!
Greg
I found all of the varieties you listed. Santa Cruz Olive Tree Nursery has them - and a BUNCH more!
Here are the ones I an growing
Santa Cruz Olive Tree Nursery - mission
Santa Cruz Olive Tree Nursery - lucca
Looks like I am in danger of starting a new career in the olive business!
Greg
AlanB
Elite Member
Rox, I don't know if it is relevant, or would help, but if you need some German translation or something done, my wife (German) and I would be happy to help, and I am sure my sister (lives in Germany) would help as well.
