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Adopt an Olive Tree

We have to admit to seeing this adopt an olive tree idea elsewhere but is seemed a really good way to let people anywhere in the world share in our ”dream” with us, and raise some much needed income to be able to put back and expand the land with new and vigourous Olive trees. The Olive trees we inherited are old don’t know how old but Jesus may have had a picnic by them once, we had around eighty five of these and since being here have planted twenty more, these started life as ten year old trees plus the five they have been in makes them approaching full fruiting young trees with more years than we have to continue their production. As we are not that young now we have had to go for the expensive route so we insure we have time to see these trees in full flow, and the next planting was only this month just before the winter this was just ten trees as we have no grants and ten fairly mature trees ready to fruit next year has set us back no less than three hundred Euro. If you would like to be a part of “The Dream” we are offering you the chance to adopt one of our trees for £55 Pounds/ €80 Euro (we charge in Pounds so the Euro rate may vary) per year for yourself or maybe as a slightly unique present for someone, in return we will send you a certificate in the name of the person of your choice along with a picture of your olive tree, further we will also send you the oil from “your” tree at harvest time which is in early November, your gift certificate can run from any date throughout the year so it can be presented to run from someone’s birthday for instance and the oil will be early November during that period.
The harvest can vary but we guarantee no less than 75cl of oil, given the restrictions on produce between countries we have to limit the delivery of oil to EU only countries, but would love you to share in the ownership side only with certificate, pictures and of course the invitation to visit your tree if you are from outside the European Union, maybe you or a relative have links with the “old country” might be an idea to help strengthen that link. You are welcome to adopt an older tree if you wish, or one our young “babies” who are in need of a loving adoptive parent to make sure of their welfare. This idea is more or less non profit making as we promise for every tree you adopt we will be planting another Olive tree with the funds raised, we will send a further picture of the new tree you have helped pay for as well, although we have got to wait until March before the next plantings when winter has passed, again these will be ten year old trees so the year after planting they will be producing olive oil. The new trees are of two varieties one is Piantone, and the other Leccino they are grown here because of our high altitude, and severe winters and produce an oil of high quality and unique taste, in fact during the middle ages all Olive oil produced and shipped from Le Marche carried a high surcharge in levies because of its high value around the world. OK it is not a huge amount of oil to receive but Trees only produce at their most productive time only about two litres and at their worst about half a litre, hope that does not happen though or we will have to buy in from our neighbour his oil to keep our promise of 75cl of oil to you, also you know that this is pure oil with no additions, did you know that a lot of big producers “blend” the oil even down to adding vegetable oil. We have a two hectare (nearly five acre) field directly behind the house and would love to fill this with around three hundred more olive trees
Also when you adopt an olive tree please try and make the time to come and visit your tree what a great excuse to have to come to Italy, you will experience our way of life, our dreams for the future, and if you have time maybe stop in our B&B or apartment just to soak in this magnificent part of Italy rural and unspoilt so far. This is a new page and have included a buy it now Paypal link on the page so you can purchase immediately if you wish or send an e-mail if you prefer for details that may not have been covered.

These two trees are very special to us the one to the left is “Mitzi” it even has her favourite squeaky toy in the branches, the other is “Bella” these were our two dogs who made the trip with us from England to “live the dream” you will find lots about them on the site pages as they were an integral part of our life here, now as we walk from our front door they are right in front of us to remind us of our ever changing life.

If you look closely in the above picture you will see the method of training our trees during their formative years, in the centre there is a willow branch formed into a circle to help give the shape of a wine glass the branches are kept trimmed to allow lots of air and light into the middle, then rubber string is then use to hold the tender young branches in shape until we end up with the perfect tree.

As you can see this is the area for our next “dream” of three hundred new trees, here we are with Pepe and Dante our very dear friends clearing the way for a clean canvas to start with, but even the cleared trees will provide wood for our range so nothing is wasted. Then on to the planting in the newly prepared area, didn’t know ten trees would be so much hard work just 290 to go over the next year or so. Everything must have gone to plan as you can see in a couple of the shots we are being watched over by our “new fearless” guardians our little Italian terriers, also featured elsewhere on the site showing them growing up. 

 

the button below will enable you to “adopt an olive tree now” if you wish

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