We all thought that the 2023 would also be a harvest of plenty.
April started out fantastic; farmers all across Italy were delighted to see their groves full of olive flowers.
But then the weather turned very strange. Rainstorms came every single morning, and the afternoon weather switched to unusually hot temperatures.
Now this would be fine weather for a few days, but not for a full month. The hot sun in the afternoon combined with the damp rain of the morning began burning off our olive flowers.
By the end of spring, more than half of our flowers were gone.
Then summer began; a very very hot and very very dry summer. We had a full 60 days at over 100 degree temperatures without a drop of rain. Our farmers who have been tending the land their whole lives hadn’t seen something like this in more than 50 years.
We were incredibly thankful to have our solar well during this period. We also used our tractors to bring water to groves not close enough to receive water from the well.
We did our best to nurture our trees and the small buds that survived, but we still lost about 75-80% of our harvest, as did most Mediterranean olive producers.
When we experience difficult seasons like this, we are forced to re-examine how we’ve farmed for generations. The methods our grandparents employed are no longer reliable.
It is now critical to go grove by grove and valley by valley, even ones just one mile apart, and evaluate how to tend each one differently. But this is why we are dedicated to building a diverse collective of farmers!
Together, we share our knowledge, pool our experiences combating difficult harvests, and brainstorm how to survive and thrive in our region’s changing climate.
And as our collective has become known in our farming community, we have more and more families asking to join us. We are proud that our reputation of helping each other and using regenerative agriculture is spreading.
And as each season passes and the Libellula family grows a little more, we look forward to welcoming these incredible farmers into our collective.
And we can’t wait to share with you this Friday, April 26th, the truly exquisite extra virgin olive oil that we were able to press – despite the ups and downs of the 2023 season!
