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<pre>It is a rest day from the olive harvest due to rain. We have picked about
80% and have an average crop which demonstrates the incredible toughness of
the olive.

The year started with about a month of frost. Fortunately it was only
about 4 degrees below rather than the 6 to 8 which causes real damage. Day
temperatures hovered around 2 or 3 and the growing tips were all scorched.
Young trees (two years) were totally scorched off and most died.

Spring was dry - very dry by our standards. In June we had a heat wave (
about 34 to 36 degrees) just at the time the flowers were setting. This
should not have been a problem except that the trees were under severe water
stress at the time.

By July we were worried by the drought but in August the rains came.
Average rainfall for August is 20 mm and we got 250 mm. Delight at the
breaking of the drought was somewhat dampened by the fact that we had a lot
of hail. A lot of the fruit was knocked on the ground. Almost every one left
on the trees is damaged to some degree.

Some of our neighbours lower down the hill have had olive fly but
fortunately our high altitude seems to have saved us from that problem.

The harvest weather has generally been good but last Saturday the south
wind (Sirocco) blew strongly. Sand and dust arrived from the Sahara.
Temperatures were more like November in Australia than Italy and many fruit
fell on the ground.

For all those new olive growers - welcome to an average farming year!

Cheer Brian Chatterton.
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