It’s blossom time!

After a few anxious weeks, the olive flowers are out! It’s such a brief blossoming, and so crucial, that celebrations are called for. This strange spring of wildly fluctuating temperatures, winds from every direction, and fires of unparalleled ferocity, left us wondering wonder if our growing buds would ever open. 

It’s also time to feed the olives- some nitrogen, boron and magnesium, via a foliar spray. So, it was into the tractor – and thankfully the new thermostat was installed in the tractor’s air-conditioning just two days ago. Last week it was either stifling heat, or hot air and dust in the cab.  And of course my hayfever goes crazy with olive pollen! So, it was almost pleasurable to be in the air-conditioned tractor cab all day.

Over the next week we’ll be inspecting the trees with trepidation: will the mass of flowers turn into a mass of fruit? will the constant dry winds we are having just knock off most of the flowers?  What is life without it’s little worries. Thankfully at this stage we don’t have the huge worries of fire, and we are not yet bone dry.

When I’m in the kitchen, I’m tweaking my caponata and tapenade recipes. I’ve decided to try tapenade with anchovies for my Christmas market stall. I’m hoping that a trio of extra virgin olive oil, garlic infused EVOO and a jar of tapenade sounds like a great gift to many market goers in Orange and Canberra.

Happy Christmas!