It all starts with our land.
Without healthy land, we don't have healthy trees. Without healthy trees we don't have nutritious olives. And without healthy olives, we have no high quality olive oil. So the health and vitality of our land is key.
Healthy land includes the soil, the water, the animals that exist in a harmonious eco-system. We are careful to support and not interfere with the sophistication of nature.
Our Story
We came to this land in 2017 and fell in love with it immediately. It was wild and beautiful.
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Looking at it closer, it was obvious that no one had worked the land in the past 10 years. That meant nature took over. There were a number of dead trees, overgrown shrubs where we could barely tell what was there. Many of these were healthy olive trees that were overgrown by other species.
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Our goal was to keep this rawness yet let nature thrive, while at the same time bringing allowing the olive trees to thrive. This meant clearing tons of rubble, some of the overgrown branches and because we believe in co-existance between animals and plants, we created sanctuaries for animals to thrive.
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The land is nestled on a small mountain range (called Serra), which creates a protected little valley. This means it's a bit secluded and protected.
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In the surrounding area are many roman ruins, reminiscing of the time when the romans were here. The Moors and Arabs also invaded these lands in the 800's. Now, it is a protected valley, ideal for the production of olive oil.
Ancient Olive Trees
No industrial planting: every tree is unique.
The "oliveiras" (olive trees in Portuguese) are the Baron's of our lands. They've been around much longer than we have.
The majority of our olive trees are 300 to 1000 years old. That means they came to life somewhere in 1100AD and 1700AD.
We don't know who planted them all those years ago, but it's clear that they were not planted as an olive grove. They live in no particular order, woven in amongst Cork trees, Stone Oak trees and others plants.
Respectful Farming
Minimal intervention
We prune the dried and wild branches off the trees to keep fruit strong. If we didn't do this, the olive tree wouldn't look like a tree but more like a bush without an apparent stem.
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Biodiversity
We keep an eye on pests and insects that could harm the tree and harvest. These are specific types of moths and flies that attack the flowers, leaves and fruits. We also closely monitor the bacteria, viruses and fungi that may harm the tree.
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Composting
The husk or pulp from the olives that remains is mixed in with the leaves and branches. We layer this with straw and cow dung and let it sit for three to four months so it can decompose. To help to decompose this mixture we regularly wet it with our olive mill waste water. This leaves us with a rich compost that we return back to our olive trees as nutrients. Our process circular and leaves us with no waste.