I sometimes call myself a "self-taught" farmer because I did not grow up on a farm. But to be completely self-taught is rare. All of us can point to teachers, mentors, and even libraries of resources that helped us learn new things. Take my adventure with olives, for example.
Three years ago, I decided to plant olive trees -- 10 acres of them! As you can imagine, I have done quite a lot of research to ensure that our methods meet organic standards and result in good harvests. My expectation was that our first commercial harvest might be as early as 2025.
So, you know how “olive” to learn and grow. Recently, I received the brand new book "Olive Production Manual for Oil" from the University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources. Reading chapters one day at lunch, I learned that harvesting this year’s “baby” olives is extremely important. Next year’s bloom will not “set" if we do not remove all of this year’s fruit. Yikes! There is work to do!
For the next few weeks, the Farm team and I will spend each morning in the grove, picking hundreds of pounds of olives and enjoying the birds and their unique morning songs. These olives will not be milled for oil as their weight is too low to justify the effort -- so no "pressure" on the team! I will be brining the picholine olives for use as tasty condiments for our own kitchen.
