Heavy rain and strong winds: fallen olive trees

During the first few months of 2026, rainfall has been very abundant—too much, in fact, in many areas. In our case, we’ve had as much rain in January, February and March as we would normally receive over an entire year.

What happens with so much rain? Well, the ground often turns to mud, and the stability of the trees decreases. If you combine that with a day of strong winds, you get the result you can see in the photos.

Across all the olive groves we have, the wind knocked over quite a number of olive trees. The almond trees weren’t affected, as they are still very young and, during the winter period, they have virtually no canopy since they’ve just been pruned.

Fortunately, just a few days after all this damage occurred, we were able to lift them back up thanks to the work of a backhoe. In the end, a few olive trees were lost, but not many, even though the number that fell was quite high.

As for the olive trees that have dried out as a result of root damage, we now need to remove them and replace them with new ones… and we’ll have to wait several years again before they start producing olives. That’s farming.

Versión en español.

First mechanised harvest work in our olive grove

At this time of year, it is normal to talk about planting or sowing... but whenever you plant, you harvest, which is what happens with olive groves. The last harvest we do throughout the year is the olive harvest (the work we show you is from December) and for us, on this occasion, it is a milestone as it is the first time we have done mechanised harvesting in our olive grove... quite an advance!

Until now, we have always harvested manually, as the olives on one tree were not yet producing. Last year, these one tree olive trees were harvested, but we did it manually so as not to damage the trunks, as they were a bit thin. This year, we decided to mechanise harvesting work, and it has been a complete success.

It has been a great success, as it significantly reduces the time required and because mechanised harvesting is cheaper than doing it manually. In terms of time, we completed the harvest in two days, whereas previously it took us almost four days. As for costs, manual harvesting costs us 0.2€/kg, whereas mechanisation has reduced this to 0.08€/kg. This cost can even be improved when we have higher production, as the olive trees are young and production is set to increase in the coming years.

Finally, we would like to thank Juan Pedro for his excellent work operating the harvesting machine (umbrella).

Versión en español.

Pruning in olive groves. Remove all the bad and keep the good

One of the key tasks we carry out once the cold winter weather has passed is pruning our olive grove. Normally, we begin this process in March, but this year, thanks to the abundant rainfall, we had to start, a little later, almost in April.

In this post we would like to share a brief summary of our pruning work, as well as comment on some tips and things to bear in mind when pruning olive trees. It can basically be summed up as ‘remove all the bad and keep the good”. But how do you know what to remove and what to keep? Each tree tells you.

First, it's important to understand the type of pruning you’re going to perform. Not all pruning is the same:

• Creation (training) pruning for young olive trees.
• Thinning pruning for trees in full production.
• Renewal pruning for older olive trees.

In our case, we’ll focus on training and thinning pruning.

We apply creation pruning to olive trees up to six years old, with the goal of preparing them for mechanised harvesting using umbrellas.

The key objectives are:

• Raise the main structure (cross) to a height that allows the harvesting machine to operate without interference.
• Prevent lower branches from touching the canvas of the umbrella.
• Structure the cross with two or three main branches.

This type of pruning is applied to olive trees over six years old and aims to maintain a balanced leaf-to-wood ratio.

Our main tasks include:

• Removing excess wood (especially thick branches) to encourage more leaf growth, which is essential for olive production.
• Eliminating vertical branches ("males") in favor of horizontal ones ("females"), which are more productive.
• Observing the tree’s natural structure—because, as we always say, “the tree tells you what to cut”.

Some of the things to be considered in all types of pruning could be:

The olive tree must be well tucked in, i.e. it must not lose its leaves.

• Pruning is based on removing what is left over to leave what is good, i.e. removing the ‘bad branches’ to leave the ‘good branches’.
• Small branches should not be removed, i.e. thick branches should not be ‘sanded’.
• Pruning varies according to the variety of olive tree.
• A picual olive tree wants to be pruned aggressively to remove thick branches as it is a variety that tends to generate a lot of wood.
• A white-leaved olive tree wants a less aggressive pruning to remove less wood as it is a variety with a fine wood structure.

To conclude, pruning is essential for maintaining productive and healthy olive trees. Whether training young trees or thinning mature ones, the goal is always the same: remove the unnecessary to strengthen what matters—and let each tree guide your hand.

Versión en español.