Our vineyards flooded

Que tudo corra pelo melhor.
A chuva era necessária mas, na quantidade que chegou,…

Votos de um grande 2010!!!

Fingers crossed for picking up your olives.

Would you be willing to talk to me about your olive picking practices? I’d love to blog about that, and I don’t have any information… just the images that I took in early November of olives on the ground in big nets in the Alentejo. Do they stay there on the ground? I have lots of questions.

Please Email me ~ jo @ diaz-communications . com

Thanks.

Hi Jo,

There is some information about olives picking up in this post I made last year http://quevedoportwine.com/general/organic-olive-oil-from-quevedo-using-mechanical-vibrating-harvester/. There is also a video that shows how we make it.

Should some other doubts arise, please drop me a line.

Oscar, it’s been raining ’sardines’ here in the Alentejo too, but luckily our vines, mostly on elevated hills, still have their feet dry! As for our olives, we harvest them green, in October or November.
Jo,no the olives don’t stay on the ground. It is vital that they are processed the same day they are harvested.
We have also uploaded a video of this year’s olive harvest onto YouTube. You can check it out here! http://cortesdecima.com/general/harvesting-olives-in-alentejo/

OH NO! I look in horror at your photo of the poor vines!
I hope your are able to dry out soon! I am sending sun from America to your lovely farm.

Oscar, great to have your resources for my writing. I’ll include you in my blog as being my resource. Thanks!

Carrie,

Same for you as a resource. I’ll mention you both, and if I have questions, I’ll reach out to each of you. Having two sources will be great. I’m also going to be talking about Portugal’s olives and olive making processes, as that’s going to be the entire focus… to bring Portugal’s olives/olive oils into the spotlight.

Jo, that’s great news! We need work like yours to help promote Portuguese olive oil, so few people know how great it is!

Carrie, I wish I could go back and find the quote, but I learned a long time ago that Portuguese olive oils are quite superior. Also, if an olive oil from Italy says, “Packed in Italy,” it probably meant that it was brought to Italy from Portugal. (Tricky) So, I always read where it comes from… I’ll be working that in, too ;^)

I have heard it said too! Perhaps it was the olive oil guru Judy Ridgway?

Spain is also a big producer, the biggest actually, and they export a lot to Italy.

Thank you for mentioning is Jo!

Thanks for all the leads, which I’ll follow up.

Question for either of you: What makes the Alentejo such an extraordinary region for olives (terroir wise), living there and working there?

When I’ve heard that Portugal is the best in the world, there must be some specific reasons of regionality that are unique… likened to your cork forests. (Maybe we can even begin to come up with something unique for marketing that’s yet to be discussed, but has been waiting for millenniums to be uncovered ;^)

Good question Jo! I have also read that Alentejo has very particular climatic conditions, that create an ideal environment for the olive tree growth.One of these is that the soils are generally rich in calcium and potassium. The other is our warm ‘Mediterranean’ climate moderated by the Atlantic Ocean and free from heavy frosts in the winter. In testimony to this are the many ancient olive trees dating back 2.000 years to Roman times in our backyard.

Não faz mal. Quando o nível baixar fica depositada muita matéria orgânica, que é uma grande estrumada

Já há muitas gerações que as vinhas do Ribatejo foram inundadas, mas agora, já com menos frequência, e elas nunca se queixaram.
As cheias conforme disse anteriormente, além de deixarem uma quantidade enorme de matéria orgânica, proveniente dos nateiros, depositada.
Uma grande quantidade de predadores, são dizimados, portanto fica o terreno limpo.