Olevo

The vegetable gardens above the grove at home, on a stifling hot afternoon in July. They're doing well, regardless, gifting us the first summer vegetables including various sorts of salads and beets, courgettes, potatoes, and eggplants. The tomato plants are winding their way up the bamboo poles, and various other goodies on the way as well.

The thick layer of mulch and hay is protecting the earth from the heat, sealing in the moisture and the soil’s rich natural ecosystem of microbes and bacteria. We use only organic composts without any pesticides or fertilizers, and water only briefly in the morning and evening from our natural rainwater drip irrigation system.

Survive and thrive @ olevoitalia.com

This is what a heatwave does to your lush long grass in an olive grove seeded with herbs and flowers 🙄. The grass is bleached yellow, the flowers burned and shriveled in the heat. But no matter how hard it is to work in these conditions, it's the circle of life, and the olive trees love it.

We've had a few heavy storms, so the earth is hydrated. The regenerative gardens have sailed through their difficult period and are blessing us with their first summer vegetables, and we picked all the cornflower and camomile we needed and wanted at the farm for our hydrolyte tests. All good!

On we go @ olevoitalia.com

Distilling cornflower hydrolite in the lab at the farm. We have a very simple setup at this stage, still figuring out the best way to work and what we still need, but the process works even in rudimentary form and the results are lovely, so much so that we've ordered a second, larger, distillation machine.

These are very hot days so we're working outside early till mid morning, then again in late afternoon till sunset. We have to be disciplined and organised, and work fast before the heat drives us inside. The vegetable gardens are struggling in the heat, so they need extra care and attention as well... 🥵

June heatwave @ olevoitalia.com

The grove at the farm in the first days of the first heatwave of the year. We're busy harvesting the camomile and working with our new distillation machine for the first time, but the heat means we've shifted to our summer work schedule; starting earlier, escape the sun in the afternoon, and a long shift from late afternoon into evening.

We're planting in the vegetable garden at home, seeding in the nursery, and have moved the plants out of the hot greenhouses into the shade. There's much to do, and we have to be more efficient with our time, especially with all the online techie stuff we're working on.

Early summer heat 🥵 @ olevoitalia.com