This is how we started…
“All you need is ignorance and confidence, and then success is sure” …said Mark Twain.
We were definitely ignorant! when in 2004 we bought a derelict farmhouse in Le Marche, Italy, and planted our first olive trees.
We had no idea which type to plant and relied on James, our garden designer from Blackpool, to guide us in the right direction.
It was October, it had been particularly wet, and the soil appeared to be 80% clay as it stuck to our wellies and every spade we put into the ground.
Fortunately, the sun had started to shine as we had 100 trees to plant over the weekend, and they had to go in despite whatever the weather threw at us as we weren’t returning until after Christmas.
We had taken Duncan, our son, and Hugh, a friend of his (both from medical school) to help us…two intelligent boys you may think!
We had a bare field which had been ploughed and tilled, it looked enormous. The men had their tape measures, stakes, twine and mallets, so that the lines could be drawn as a guide for planting.
I was so bored at this stage, the house renovation hadn’t started, there was nowhere comfortable to sit and although we’re only talking 21 years ago, no social media to keep me somewhat occupied.
At last, the twine was drawn in neat lines and planting could begin.
I remember it so well, if we planted 50 trees in the morning, we could go and have lunch in the local trattoria, then we could do 25 during the afternoon and the remaining 25 the following morning…but sometimes plans go awry!
As we drove down the drive after our typical Italian lunch, James was waiting for us!
“You’ll have to start again, they’re not straight on the diagonal!”
I could have cried, I knew Jerry’s lines were straight… it was the ‘intelligent boys’ that had got it all wrong!
Out the trees came, the diagonals corrected and replanting commenced. We managed to get half replanted before dusk, then it was back to our hotel and very embarrassed at how dirty we looked.
An early start the next day and we got every tree planted. The following year Jerry and I planted another 100, this time with straight diagonals!
These trees provided enough oil for family, friends and a little to sell at a few local Christmas Fairs here in the U.K.
Then in 2013 Chloe and Braz bought the house 200 metres down the drive with adjacent land. Our empty field that lay next to theirs was crying out for more olive trees, so we filled both fields with another 250 trees, since then we’ve kept planting, currently a total of 618 trees, Chloe and I feel we know every one of them!
We will never be one of the biggest suppliers of olive oil, our tree planting space is limited.
Harvesting by hand is definitely a labour of love, but in doing so we feel we become part of our olive grove, and we would never want to lose that feeling.
It was such a boost to have our oil win an International Silver Award for Quality, this has really raised our confidence. We will definitely keep going with this lovely family business as there is so much more for us to learn…and another 100 trees to plant in September!!
