Over on my other blog I am keeping myself amused this month with the Squares blogging challenge, and as frequently happens when hosting the challenge I find I have spare squares. This is one of them, and as I took it in Portugal last year I thought I’d share it here. Do you know what it is?
It is a newly grafted olive tree. A common sight in the Algarve in the winter months as farmers reuse old trees, rather than wait years for a new tree to germinate and grow.
Olive trees are very slow growing, and are also one of the oldest cultivated trees in the world. There is uncertainty when the first olive trees first appeared in Portugal as there is sparse documentary evidence. In researching this post I came across a blog which suggested it was as late at the 18th century, however most botanists and historians agree it was probably the Romans who brought olives to Portugal. It would appear though that it took a while for the Portuguese to consider it an important crop. Abu Zacaria, a renowned botanist from Seville, wrote a tome in the 12th century on their cultivation in and around Seville, and al-Idrisi, a 12th century Moroccan explorer also describes in depth olives and Seville in his extraordinary Tabula Rogeriana. However of olives in the Algarve there is little or no mention during this period, and even in our favourite book on Algarvian agriculture it highlights that Portuguese olive oil doesn’t have a great reputation. We though love, and much prefer it to the peppery Italian products that dominate English supermarkets.
How interesting. I wouldn’t have had a clue without your information.
One of the many upsides of growing up with parents who were/are keen gardeners is that some of it sunk in!
Truly weird! Thank goodness we have you to explain these things 🙂
I like to find unusual things!
I would have had no idea. An interesting post!
So glad you enjoyed 🙂
I’d never have guessed!
When we first came across them we only realised what trees they were because of debris left at the base
At first, I thought they were insect antennae in your first photo, Becky. How wrong was I?
Hee hee, well someone else thought they were matches so don’t feel to bad!
Phew! At least it isn’t just me! 😀
I can now see faces in them 😀
😆 And now so can I! The two on the left look as though they are facing each other…! We can’t blame this on the Moon!
lol! I blame squares, after a week or so hosting I always start to go a bit sqrazy 😉
Wonderful photos Becky 😀
Thanks Cee, this post was a great excuse to search them out 🙂
They look like giant matches.. Thought a bonfire was next..
oh my I never saw that until now, but you are so right. They really do!
They do quite often burn the rest of the tree, so there may have been a bonfire somewhere near!!
They tend to burn the undergrowth beneath the trees before shaking the olives to ground..
ooh don’t do that in Portugal as far as I know thank goodness
I saw match sticks and also thought it might be llama covering ones head. My imagination goes crazy sometimes.
Hee hee! Think everyone has come up with something. It is a bizarre shot and thing to see ☺️
Just like clouds. You never know what your mind’s eye is going to see. 😳
That’s so true
Yet I recall that Sonia started a bush in Teddington and it romped away very quickly. Perhaps on a better stock.
She would have definitely had better stock 🙂 she had such green fingers
Interesting info and picture of grafted olive tree!
Thank you
It’s funny what sounds so exotic from a distance. Olive groves are non-existent in the Midwest, where I live. I did travel through some when I was in Italy, so I remember the rolling hillside thick with shrubby, dwarfed trees.
I had to look up one word because I couldn’t understand it from context.
Algarvia! I’d never heard of it.
“Algarvia is a civil parish in the municipality of Nordeste, on the island of São Miguel in the Portuguese Azores.”
So not only is your post on such a specific crop, in a far away country, but it’s on a narrow slice of island with a form of government I’ve never heard of! Next I will be googling a civil parish.
Thanks for the journey. Now tell me, was this a journey for you as well, or are you describing life outside your front door?
ooh I use Algarvian to describe anything in the Algarve, the southern region of mainland Portugal. It is a term used quite often. Not surprised though to learn there is a small parish in the Azores called Algarvia 🙂
You mean Google misled me? Curses. Unfortunately I can’t give Google up, or I’d never be able to spell really hard words again or find fun facts.
hee hee, likewise with google!