Courses and Services
FIELD WORK
Not only private citizens are interested in knowing more, but also firms and companies are interested in expert advice and targeted interventions throughout the production chain of their crops.
In particular, my personal intervention focuses on management, maintenance and making the most of the land, pruning, harvesting, the oil mill process and extra virgin oil tasting.
TEACHING AND TRAINING
In these past few years I’ve noticed that more and more people are interested in taking part in my courses, which are often funded or supported by local organizations or associations or directly requested by private companies. The courses I hold, attract a wide range of practitioners that simply wish to learn more about the fascinating world of pruning and harvesting. As I often say during my lessons, it’s not just the technical and practical aspect that is essential: the bottom line is the general approach, one’s knowledge and respect for nature and plants.
The way I see it, respecting our environment is healthy for all of us, not just for landowners or farmers. The benefits of a clean and healthy environment are there for everybody.
Here are my courses in detail:
Theoretical and practical pruning and grafting courses, particularly fruit and olive trees.
OLIVE PRUNING COURSE OUTLINE
THEORY (1-2 DAYS)
- Olive growing: basic concepts
- Pruning: basic concepts and specific objectives
- Balancing growth and fruiting: agronomic and eco-physiological aspects
- From dichotomic pruning to minimal pruning
- Different types of tools and how to use them
- Pruning timing and methods: growth, production and reform
- Pruning intensity and turns
- Ways to grow olive trees and harvesting methods
- Management of olive tree pruning residue
- Workers’ safety
- Summary and discussion
PRATICE (1-2 days)
- Pruning various kinds of cultivation and various ages of olive plants
- Pruning for growth
- Pruning to produce
- Pruning to renew
Extra Virgin Olive Oil (EVOO) tasting courses, where I share my experience and my passion for Nature and its fruits.
Program for the “Producing a quality EVOO” course
1 OLIVE CULTIVATION
Cultivation
Harvest
Transportation
Storage
2 PRODUCTION OF EVO OIL
Defoliation and washing
Crushing and kneading
Malaxation
Extraction
Centrifugation
Decanting and filtering
Storage
3 EVO OIL: CHARACTERISTICS
Indicators of genuineness, safety and quality
Chemical parameters of oil:
free acidity
number of peroxides
spectrophotometric determination of K232, K270, delta K indicators
linoleic and linolenic acid
other parameters
sensory analysis
4 TASTING EVO OIL
Basic sensory qualities of EVO oil
Tasting
