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The grove throughout the year
What does an oil producer do during the year when he is not harvesting? This is a question which many people ask themselves. Does he lay himself on a deck chair in the shadow of a big tree and watch the growing of the olives?
On this page we want to bring you closer to amount of work there is, throughout the year on our farm.
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Spring
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Spring is the greenest season of the year in southern Portugal. With the winter rain and the slow warming of the air, various grasses and herbs begin to sprout in the olive groves. The olive trees grow new shoots and leaves.
The olive groves are not ploughed by us in the traditional manner. Instead, the grass is mulched three to four times a year. In this process the grasses and herbs in the olive grow are mowed, chopped and spread under the tress. The advantage of not moving the soils is that the soil erosion is prevented! At the same time, the plant cover which is caused by the mulching prevents the ground of drying out and it supports soil life.
Once the first blossoms appear on the trees, it is time, to protect them from varmins or disease, to ensure the development of the fruit. Therefore we only use products which are approved in organic farming. Also the biodynamic horn silica preparation is applied at this time. This should improve the plants health.
In Spring, an while the soil is damp, we also need to grow the fodder (hay, silage) for our cattle herd.
The irrigation system has to be serviced to insure a flawless operation in the upcoming summer months.
Meanwhile we are busy bottling the fresh olive oil so that we can send it to our customers in Portugal and other European countries.
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Summer
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The Alentejo region is one of the sunniest corners of Portugal. Summers days are long and hot with high temperatures up to 45 degrees Celsius. Prolonged drought and heat, discomfort people and animals. Also the plants have difficulties with the heat. Not much goes on in this region, and we close the operation for a three-week summer break. Part of our olive groves, especially the new plantings are irrigated from our lake, filled by the winter rain. The trees convert the power of the sun into assimilates which are incorporated into the growing fruit. At the same time olives are also susceptible to punctures by the olive fly, trying to lay their eggs in it. As this degrades the quality of the olives we hang self-made traps in the trees.
We also service the farming equipment.
In August and September we have to remove the shoots that grow around the base of the trunk, which sap energy from the tree.
Because the bottling of the oil implies a lot of manual labour, which is very time consuming, we are kept busy throughout the summer doing this endless work.
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Autumn
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In autumn, the biodynamic horn muck preparation is spread in the olive groves. It supports, amongst other things, soil life, soil fertility and vegetative growth of the plants. After the first rain in autumn, the sowing of cattle feed is possible again.
We also service the processing plant, so that it is ready for the imminent oil production. This includes a thorough cleaning, in which we take all the machines apart to clean the interior as well.
The olive trees are looking great with their bending branches from the weight of the olives. The olives are still green as autumn begins. They slowly change their colour from green to violet and then black as the ripening progresses.
Now it gets serious! The moment for which we have been working all year long: the olive harvest. From October to January the entire RISCA GRANDE crew is occupied with the olive harvest and the olive oil production.
Large nets are laid out beneath the trees, onto which the olives fall when the trees are shaken. Depending on the age and size of the trees we either use a mechanical method or harvest by hand. Younger trees which are smaller can be harvested mechanically.
The very old specimens with their gnarled trunks and expansive crowns, however, only can however be harvested by hand. For our excellent olive oil RISCA GRANDE ANTIQUE for example, only olives from these old trees are used.
The right level of maturity and health of the olives are decisive for the quality of olive oil. Therefore, we take care at the harvest, that fruits which have fallen to the ground early, don’t go into the production.
Twice a day the olives are loaded with a crane onto a trailer.
For the quality of the oil it is essential that the transport of the olives is as short as possible and that unnecessary intermediate storages are avoided.
We ensure this, by the fact that the freshly harvested olives are processed in our own oil mill on RISCA GRANDE.
For the production of the aromatic olive oils RISCA GRANDE LEMON and RISCA GRANDE MANDARINE we add the fresh picked fruits from our citrus plantations to the olives.
We produce our high-quality olive oil with the newest technology. The olives are cleaned in several steps from branches and leaves, washed and then crushed and kneaded. Of the kneading the olive paste is pumped into a centrifuge, in which the oil is separated from the pulp and the water.
With both this innovative system and the cold extraction using only mechanical methods we extract the olive oil as carefully as possible, to keep all the valuable and healthy ingredient.
Finally, the finished oil is pumped directly into large stainless steel tanks where it is stored until bottling. A sample from each tank is sent to the laboratory of the University of Lisbon, where a specialist panel checks the sensory quality and where other quality parameters are investigated.
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Winter
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The remaining waste products of the oil production, i.e. Residue, twigs and leaves are composted along with the manure provided by our cattle herd. At the preparation of the compost pits, the biodynamic compost preparations are put together. After one year of composting, we spread the so-produced natural fertilizers onto the olive grove.
The cutting of the trees follows an annual rotating concept, so that each tree is slightly trimmed every two to three years.
The trimming material is then chopped and left on the ground.
So that the oil from the current crop is available at Christmas time for our customers, it must be filtered and bottled before leaving our farm.
Each year in late February, we have a stand at the Biofach in Nuremberg. There we present our oils and maintain personal contact with customers and olive oil lovers. An exciting highlight of this fair is the participation at the "olive oil prize", in which tasting carried out by people in the trade determines the winners. Our oils have already won several awards. After the trade fair negotiations are carried implying a lot of office work.
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