I have written three words under my profile picture:
Farmer, photographer, traveller...
in an attempt to briefly describe the main aspects of my daily life. The photographer part is always there, more or less active, but there. The other two seem to compete with each other and every time one of them is gaining, the other one loses. In 2022 the traveller part seems to be the winner and as you may have noticed, my gardening posts are very rare and poor! Nevertheless I am not giving up on anything, those three pylons of my life still stand and after 2 months of travelling, I am ready to spend the next two, on the olive grove!
Yesterday was the day of the "repérage", which simply means that @traisto and myself took a long walk at the farm to check the olive trees and plan the harvesting schedule. Our main concern was the damage caused by the olive fly, the notorious (at the areas that produce olive oil) Dacus oleae that is feeding from the olive fruits and lay its eggs inside the fruit. Depending on the weather conditions, that small fly is responsible for the destruction of a considerable part of the production and in same cases, even a total loss of the crop!
One valuable ally in our battle against the vicious insect, are the spiders! Quiet and effective they are doing a pretty decent job if you just let them be and not destroy their web by walking back and forth the whole time. But unfortunately they are not enough.
Although it is a very common practice, spraying the trees with poison is not an option for us. So we turn to the solutions used on organic farming. This doesn't give us a 100% protection but we still have a lot of beautiful, healthy and free of chemicals olives, to produce our organic extra virgin olive oil!
But this isn't a hard day's work so we can just sit back and enjoy the view that we have missed so much, while we were away :)
The cold of the winter is not here yet but picking up some firewood before it does, is a wise thing to do!
I may have been a lousy gardener lately but fortunately, my land is blessed with volunteer herbs that grow and flourish without any care on my part! This beauty is one of the most important herbs for the bees since it is the last abundant blooming before winter. I am not sure about the name in English but it should be whorled heath. In Greek it is called ρείκι and we have two kinds of it. One that it blooms in the spring and this one that blooms in autumn. If you know how it is called please let me know.
This was meant to be a #gardenjournal post and it actually is. You can find all the information about the November challenge here.
But as my photographer part is always alert, I couldn't hold myself from taking a few pictures with no particular gardening interest but with amazing light :)
I hope you'll enjoy them!
I'll end this post with one picture of myself for the selfie challenge. Actually it is not a selfie since @traisto took the shot but I'll count on the big heart and flexibility of @riverflows :)
Thank you for reading and if you want to know more about me you can check out my introduction post.
Commenting, upvoting and rebloging are highly appreciated!
Oh I love the selfie, it's perfect - and yes, of course just any photos of my Hive gardeners is met with an open heart! It's so thrilling to see your photos again and you guys on the land. It feels like soooo long. And obviously I'm impressed with the view. Although why are Marcos and @traisto sitting around - don't they have work to do?
Well, it IS so long, but as always since we came back it was as if we were never away!
Apparently Marcos believe that he is doing a job and a very important one. At least that's what @traisto claims in her post :)
Thanks a lot! It is good to be back, both on the land and on our little, online community!
Your photos are wonderful as always. I also photographed these pink flowers, I really like them 😊
It's good that you choose the organic option. I heard that the best olive oil comes from trees that have suffered from extreme heat, which then produces more "polyphénols" if I used the correct term.
Have a nice day! 😉
Thank you very much @pipoune for your kind words!
You are right about the polyphenols, a dry and arid climate helps, although there are many factors that define the quality of an olive oil.
Have a lovely week :)
Cool article! Many of activities that I usually do! Photography, gardening & traveling are some of favorite activities too!
I was also recently picking olives in Punat, Krk, Croatia. & the region of Croatia where I'm living produces the best olive oils in the world...
It's nice to hear you're not using any chemicals! Olive fly is a nasty one!
How much did you pick? Did you use any machines for picking?
Thanks a lot, glad you like it :)
We haven't harvest yet but we usually make a ton of olive oil, more or less. We use hand held electric sticks, we couldn't manage this quantity otherwise!
I haven't heard of Croatian olive oil before but I'll take your word that it is good! I am genetically programmed though (as every one that is from Crete) to tell you that OUR olive oil is the best in the world :)
There is a very famous Italian magazine specialized for extra vergine olive oil. Every year they publish a list of 100 best olive oils in the world. Every year there are at least 30 oils from Croatia in this list. I forgot the name of the magazine but I'll remember it...
It was joke! But I guess that my English are not good enough for humour :)
Of course Croatia can produce excellent olive oil, as many other places too. I was emphasizing on the fact that my countrymen are too stubborn to accept that any other place on the planet can be better than our own, in any field! This stubbornness is so notorious that we make fun of each other about it :)
I've tried different Greek, Italian, Spanish, Moroccan & Croatian olive oils & till now the best I've tried was Croatian. But of course, it depends of the olive grower & the producer - how high quality of the olive oil they want to produce. Croatia is small so here we're oriented towards the highest quality while Italy, Spain & Morocco are oriented towards the quantity.
Moroccan oils are the worst!
@fotostef I found out the name of the magazine - Flos Olei - check it out! 😉
OK Thanks! I'll check it out :)
It's a really good magazine & I see you really like working with olives so I also think that you will enjoy reading! 😉
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amazing photography 👍
Thank you @ajirdeal, I am glad you like it :)
Very amazing set of captures. Farmer means you appreciate nature and live to see things grow, photographer means you love remarkable moments and you love to capture them, as a traveller you of of a high level of intelligence as you must have learnt different cultures, languages, met several people among other outstanding things.
Cheers
Thank you very much @pazartesi for stopping by :)
I think the olive harvest has started in all Mediterranean countries. Here too, olives are being picked and turned into olive oil. I hope it will be a fruitful year!
Thank you very much @cute-cactus!
I hope it will be a fruitful year too :)
Hello friends, I want to know about your photography, how do you do these beautiful pictures, want beautiful pictures like you, but I lack experience to teach me, my friend.
Thank you @ahleap, I am glad you like my pictures!
Beautiful and awesome shots clicked by you 👌
Thanks a lot @anmolsingh3006, I am glad you like them :)
How awesome! Now that's a place to come home too!
Sorry about the herb; I absolutely cannot help with that.
Thank you very much! It was really nice to be back :)
@fotostef Your photography is mind-blowing.. I particularly like your three wards. Farmer, photographer, traveller. Hope you will give us something more beautiful like this.
Thank you very much @dream-sky, I'll try my best to keep you satisfied :)
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Absolutely stunning photos mate ☀️
Thank you very much, I am glad you like them :)
Great captures @fotostef 😊😎
You have a great combo there… they match well. And of course one is always dominant to the others.
Nice selfie 😊👋🏻
Have a wonderful new week!
Thanks a lot @littlebee4 :)
Have a lovely week yourself!
You are welcome @fotostef 😊👋🏻
Thank you ☀️
I hope you have great things to share with us despite the fact that you have been absent for a while. Lovely photography of your gardening. I appreciate your hardworking.
Thank you very much @jude9 for stopping by!
I thought that you might be in Scotland, seeing the heather/ erica in your post photo, @fotostef !! What glorious images! I was glad to hear about your mention of organic solutions/ partial solutions for the fly in olives - this year the flies were really prolific in my street, though I still have a few jars of olives from last year... I will do some research on the fly and see what I can do organically here, too: I have achieved great success with old, neglected lemon tree just using soapy water very frequently... Buon lavoro a voi!
Thank you very much @clareartista :)
The fly is a hard enemy! The solution I use, works only when it is applied in a lot of trees at the same time (more than a hundred, preferably more) but I am sure you'll find your way around it! The one thing that I am sure though, is that the weather plays much more important role than any of the solutions that we, humans, are trying to figure out :)