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Speedy and I were pretty happy this spring as we watched the olive trees blossoming – it looked to be a good year for olives, something we haven’t enjoyed for the last four or five years. Then came the summer that wasn’t. Uncharacteristically cool and wet, the hot dry days we expect in July and August never materialized. For the first time since we’ve lived here I did not have to water the gardens at all.
The olives didn’t like it. The first problem is an annual problem, but one that has never been as bad as this year: the Mediterannean fruit fly.
Photo by Jack Kelly Clark
This little stinker, only about 1/4″ long, has an ovipositer that allows her to deposit her eggs in ripening olives. The maggots that hatch dine on the meat inside the olive until they are ready to burrow out, leaving behind a black and mushy mess. We’ve always had some fruit with the tell-tale dots that show an egg has been laid. This year we’ve had ample evidence that the larvae flourished. Why they were more successful this year than other years I don’t know; I think I’ll blame climate change.
Two other problems, certainly climate related, are a kind of rusty growth on the fruit that is called either anthracnose or soft nose. I don’t know enough about either of these conditions to know which has affected our olives; I just know that either one leaves the fruit completely damaged and useless.
Fruit showing both the rusty disease and puncture wounds from egg-laying
Usually at this time of year, if we are having a good year, we are dragging out nets, olive rakes and sheets for our own particular style of harvest. (You can read about our harvest by pressing here and here.) This year there is no point.
Many of the olives have turned dark prematurely and have fallen off the trees on their own. There’s no telling what quality of oil might lie within the few hardy individuals that are still clinging to the trees. We’re not going to invest the not inconsiderable time and effort to find out.
Ours are not the only trees thus affected. We have heard from friends that no-one in our part of Italy has an olive harvest this year. This is a pity for those of us with trees, but it’s a misery for the people who have the business of pressing olives. They will have few customers this year. Fortunately for olive-oil lovers, we have also heard that the crop in the south is excellent this year. With luck they will pick up the slack for those of us in the north.
One thing that never seems to die is hope – and I just know that next year will be the best year ever for olives.
Poster courtesy of Santa Clara Design
An Ex-Expatriate 
Ugh! Our cherry, plum and kaki trees had a bad year too. Ditto for the chestnuts trees after having been infected by an invasive wasp a few years back. We all hope that things will get back to normal next year.
Sorry to hear about the chestnuts, Rowena (and the other trees too) – let’s hope things get back to normal next year. Bah.
olive fly is not related to climate changing. It was here before WWII. It can depend on the previous winter, it has been very mild and the larvae do not die. Then, of course, the damp Summer helps. There is practical no solution but chemical products that are dangerous to handle, and should be applied far from homes and garden. We shall have more luck in two years time (generaly olive trees produce every other year).
But Agostino, might not the peculiar weather (the very mild winter, the very humid summer) be related to climate change? A friend who, like us, does not use chemicals on his trees, told us that his neighbor, who does use the chemicals, also had a very bad olive crop, or rather, had no crop at all. I hope you’re right about it being better in two years – we’ve been waiting a long time! Thank you for visiting the blog and commenting.
Our summer was very wet here in Bagni di Lucca. I got absolutely no figs this year, very disappointing.
We didn’t have figs this year either. Nor did we have apricots, cherries, or many plums or cachi (sp?) – it was just a rotten year for fruit trees. Bah. On the other hand, it was a great year for the uva americana. Hope we all have better luck next year.
About to embark on our annual olive picking with friends in Tuscany. Same problem. Our olive picking will have to become a general harvest celebration with lots of eating and visiting interesting places (not that we ever worked very hard at the best of times)….
Sounds like the most important elements of the enterprise are still in place, Pat. Buon appetito e cin cin!