Olive Oil 3

The sad tale of the 2014 olive débacle

Absent from Tuscany for a while, I nevertheless felt drawn to report from afar on this year's disastrous olive harvest. Trawling the internet for information I came across a site which says everything I would have liked to say. 

I can think of nothing more suitable than to alert readers to this page written by someone who has experienced the debacle in first person. The olives on our 18 trees were equally horrid this year, but we don't harvest them for oil. Yet we are equally affected: this year good local oil will be impossible to come by. 

And there is more bad news in 2015: Xylella fastidiosa

For more upbeat posts on olive oil, see my Olive Oil 1 and Olive Oil 2

We now have to hope for a good, cold winter and a dry summer for the 2015 harvest

 

The Moroccan Wall

At last, a drystone wall!

after: the completed wall and earthworks

before: the crumbling old wall, seen behind the line of the broom plant with new stones piled in front

In his The Stone Book Quartet, Alan Garner evokes the art of making a drystone wall in language as essential as dressed stone.

Grandfather was rough-dressing the stone for the wall, and laying it out along the hedge. Joseph unwound the line and pegged one end in the joints where Grandfather had finished the day before, and pulled the line tight against the bank. His job was to cut the bank back to receive the stone and to run a straight bed for the bottom course.
He chopped at the bank.
...
'Get your knee aback of your shovel,' said Grandfather. 'There's no sense in mauling yourself half to death. Come on, youth. Shape!'
...
Grandfather took the spade from him and looked along the bank. He walked along the raw cut edge and shaved the earth with light swings of the blade.'You've got it like a fiddler's elbow,' he said.
...

Grandfather grunted, and swung the blocks to lie as he wanted. They seemed to move without more than his hand on them.

...
Grandfather and Damper Latham worked together, as they had always done. The stone moved lightly for them.

Mulch marvellous mulch

 Celebrate the Chip!

home-made wood chip mulch

After much discussion, research and attempts to find a solution, including the inevitable delays, 
Le Ripe now finds itself 
Rich in Mulch.

Water

Water VI

three sets of guttering on one roof

During our renovations we planned to direct all the rainwater from our (extensive) rooftops and possibly from the threshing floor as well, into a large water tank. This water would then be used for the garden and vegie patch. The system is ready but the tank has not been installed yet.

copper guttering and downpipe

tallest downpipe

Water

Water V

The water from our well is pumped into two cold water tanks, one of 750 litres, the other 1000 litres. In the first case (in the cottage we call the Fienile), it is either used cold or heated via a conventional gas-fired boiler which connects to taps and standard radiators. In the other, it is either pumped straight up to the house for drinking, washing and cooking, or transferred to another, insulated 1500 litre tank and heated thanks to a modern wood-fired furnace. The furnace heats the upper layer of water and the solar thermal panels' fluid heats the lower layer through a heat exchanger. 

This second hot water tank is also called a 'puffer' and hot water is accumulated from the bottom up, according to rising temperatures, ('stratification'). In the upper layer there is a separate sub-tank storing the hot water for washing. The warm water for the underfloor heating is stored in the surrounding volume. Hot and cold water is then pumped into the apartments. The water for heating runs through hundreds of metres of flexible tubing which spirals beneath the floors.