The olive groves from which we produce our Extravirgin olive oil belong to our families for generations and have always been followed by traditional methods and crafts.
They are located in the territory of Gonnosfanadiga, a town famous and appreciated for the olive oil production and which is part of the prestigious association city of the oil.
Two are located in a rugged and arduous granite hill, a type of soil that allows for a great oil though the yield of olives is usually much lower than the average, and the working of olive groves is made somewhat difficult by the orography of the area.
For these reasons, they are not very convenient economically, given the large amount of work required to obtain the final product, but they are certainly the ones that give us greater satisfaction from the perspective qualitative and human, for the high quality of Extravirgin oil, and because located in a truly spectacular and welcoming from the naturalistic point of view.
One is even surrounded by forests of cork and you can enjoy an incredibly fascinating and rewarding, panorama that only the Sardinia can offer ;-)
The third is instead at the foot of the same hill, on flat ground and the ground, still derived from granite, is more sandy and workable.
The olive trees are secular and were planted by our grandparents with the grafting of wild olive.Also because at the time there was still no nurseries that sell the plants ready to planting, certainly easier to implant and faster in produce but also more delicate and less pronounced fruit character than wild olive.
As the type of cultivars all three olive groves are composed of a mixture of Black of Gonnos and Third of Gonnos, whose oil has the characteristic of being very aromatic (you can hear a strong flavor of artichoke and of freshly mown grass), spicy (due to the high concentration of oleocanthal), from the low degree of acidity (usually less than 0.3%) and the intense yellow-green color which gives to the oil also a pleasant robustness to view, as well as to the taste.
Basic work consist in the tillage of the soil, cleaning the wild olive, pruning and snipping of foliage, plant care in order to avoid pests and diseases.
The tilling of the land is superficial (to avoid damaging the roots of the plants with the tools used), occurs twice a year and is aimed at remove weeds and to aerate and oxygenate the soil. This activity is usually done in spring and autumn.
As mentioned, the plants were obtained from implantation of wild olive trees and this means that at the base of trees there is always a constant growth of new shoots of wild olive that must be cleaned annually because otherwise deprive substance to the mother plant as well as being disruptive to the various processes of the olive grove. A job that usually takes place in the autumn before the olive harvest.
Instead, just when the rigors of winter tend to subside, we proceed with the pruning operation that consists in cutting the unnecessary and old branches to promote the regrowth of new and more productive wood. In addition it gives to the plant a form which facilitates the next harvesting, going to eliminate especially the shoots interior so that the foliage will develop outside and tend their branches in a sort of umbrella. This not only facilitate the collection also makes the plant is well ventilated (to counter fungi and parasites nesting) and is also in the interior bright and sunny.
Still there are to combat diseases, insects and pests. We try to avoid to the maximum the use of chemicals, indeed practically do not use, and also in this phase action is taken with mechanical operations or with non-invasive devices: for example, to limit the action of the olive fly we use sheets of paper sprinkled with adhesives, or other traps based on hormones that attract insects within them.
Finally comes the long awaited harvest time, it almost never reveals abundant and productive as we always delude ourselves may be ;-), and even here we use traditional methods, except for the use of electric beaters, stretching the tent on the ground where the drupes fall on , which are then collected in perforated crates to be airy, and , on the same day of collection, transferred to the mill for grinding.
Olive grove NURACI 1
Olive grove NURACI 2
Olive grove LIERUS
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