Summer is about to end in few days. Then, the harvesting phase starts, between October and December.
The harvest is only the last chapter of a journey that is not that easy and linear. 🎢
Before that moment, the oil producer goes through a lot of obstacle 🏇: every decision can make the difference between an excellent oil and a season to be forgotten.
An enemy among the olive groves
During the summer months, the producer can’t relax in the shade of his plants. He knows that summer is the most critical season for those who produce oil.
He is vigilant, because there is a danger lurking: a small and apparently harmless insect, which can cause enormous damages and ruining 12 months of hard work.
🪰 It is the olive fly (Bactrocera oleae), the enemy of olives number one 🫒.
It seems like a detail, but it is important for us to let people focus on it and know how fragile the road that leads to oil is.
The olive fly tries to attack the olives, causing:
- early fruit drop
- damage to the quality of the oil (acidity or sensory defects)
- economic loss, even of 100% of the harvest, in the worst-case scenario
The problem gets worse with the climatic stress, too mild winters or seasonal unpredictability: the olive fly proliferates and it can compromise the entire harvest.
Before harvesting: an obstacle course
For oil producers like us this means:
- Continuous monitoring with traps 🔍
- Difficult choices 🤔 about plant protection with treatments that must be powerful against the fly and gentle with the olives
- Stress and anxiety, knowing that everything we invested in the previous months can be ruined in a flash. 😰
It is a challenge that requires competence and experience to prevent plant disease on one hand, attention and steady nerves to act promptly on the other hand, in the event of an attack of this pest.
The invisible battle among the olive trees
The olive fly is not just an insect. It is the nightmare of those who work all year long to bring quality to the customer’s tables. It is an invisible battle to protect precious fruit. We like to bring people closer to our work, even if they are not here in the countryside with us and they don’t know our sector.
When you taste a good oil, you rarely think about the difficulties we face to achieve that result, but we can assure there is a story of dedication, risk and resilience behind every bottle of our oil.
Claudia Zucca
Web Content Creator
Sono Matteo Marconi, la mia è una famiglia di agricoltori.
Sono cresciuto in un contesto di azienda agricola e mi sono addentrato sempre più in questo mondo fatto di cura e rispetto per la natura, cominciando fin dall’adolescenza a seguire le orme di mio padre, con i primi lavori in campagna.
La mia giornata? Sveglia all’alba per sfalciare l’erba negli oliveti e controllo attento delle mie piante che tratto con Spintor Fly, un insetticida biologico.
C’è poi la fase più faticosa ma anche la più attesa dell’anno: la raccolta delle olive in autunno, per ottenere l’olio extra vergine d’oliva di qualità superiore che produco e imbottiglio. In base al periodo dell’anno, mi occupo anche del fieno per i miei animali.
Sono giovane, ma totalmente coinvolto nelle attività dell’azienda di famiglia e il nome dell’olio che produco con passione (e orgoglio) ne è chiara dimostrazione: Azienda Agricola Marconi Matteo. Nel logo c’è solo la lettera M, iniziale del mio nome e del mio cognome, non per manie di protagonismo, ma perché ci metto davvero tutto Me stesso.
