Lamda Olive Grove
The grove covers more than 5,000 sq metres (5 strema) on the side of hill which slopes down to a stream. By the stream is a wild area of about 500 sq metres, which, until 2008, consisting mainly of brambles. This area has been cleared in a special 2008 Clearance Project . to expose wild Ash trees and the cut-away hillside.
The strange contours of Lamda have been a mystery Until December 2008 when a fellow diner, who grew up in Pidassos, told us that there was a small old house there. Our neighbour at the grove remembers that the house was in existence until the 1980s and if we cannot find the remains it is because it was a mud house.
Chronology of Lamda Olive Grove
2008
December purchase of Delta Olive Grove ajoining Lamda, allowing easier access direct from the road. Combined crop of 76.5 sacks, 507 litres of high quality oil. 10 kilos eating olives also harvested and prepared in brine for domestic use.The September Visit to the groves is the time to check the olive trees and plan for harvesting and fertilizing. This year will be the 9th year at Lamda Olive Grove, though the grove is much older than that.
Following the Lamda Clearance Project 2008, Some work still outstanding at Lamda Grove is the removal of debris, mainly cut bamboo, from the stream and clearance of the remaining overgrown border where tall trees, including oaks, deprive the olives of light.
It is important at Trigono-lamda, but not always appreciated locally, that some mature trees and shrubs are retained, even at the expense of a perfect crop, in order to maintain the balance of nature.
With olives, it is important to put something back into the soil, usually at harvest time, because we take the leaves and branches as well as the fruit, so there is no natural mulching.
While branches are often burnt immediately after harvest, for tidiness sake, and where wood is collected for winter fuel; I've observed that it is quite normal practice to leave the branches for up to 3 months before burning. This will allow leaves to fall. Olive wood burns well, new or old!
2007
During a clearing exercise in 2007, the stone well mentioned in the deeds was
revealed along with a tree stump border which had been completely hidden.
The well would have been dug by hand in the late 19th or early 20th century and is
close to the stream, but has silted up over the years and is now dry.
The olive grove has heavy, fertile, soil and suffers less from drought than from excess water.
An excellent crop is produced in alternate years.
2003-2006
This was an exceptionally bad time as the trees, without a crop, were left unprunned. However, tilling continued and displays of spring flowers improved each year.
2001-2003
From 2001 to 2003, the use of fertilizer and Olive fly spray was suspended as the grove was designated organic-in process. organic ferilizer was used in 2002, 3 types, applied at different times of the year. it proved not only expensive to buy but expesive in terms of labour and, as predicted by others who had tried it, crop production decreased. Olive crops are subject to weather conditions as well as treatment of course, and trees produce a main crop on alternate years, unless pruned carefully to allow an annual crop. This is skilled work and there are different theories and many debates among growers! - All part of the fun, as is the flavour of the crop, which also varies with conditions and soil type.
1999 - 2000
The Olive Grove was purchased between September and December 1999 and the first crop under new ownership, was a superb crop. Normal fertilizer had been applied, and the grove tilled annually but the borders were overgrown, trees very large, and tall, tough grasses grew on the rich, shaded soil. Brambles and lush, shade loving plants, including "horsetail", grew on the lower ground and under the trees on the upper part of the hill. The grove had an air of mystery but lower trees were denied the space and air they needed.