OUR ORCHARDS

Our olive orchards, totaling 135ha, were planted primarily between 2006 and 2009, with 20ha added between 2021 and 2023 and a further 5ha in 2024. Our orchards comprise of 77 000 trees, situated primarily on Groot Kruis at the top of the farm and Oudemuragie lower down in the valley.

The initial cultivars: Frantoio (and its clone Favalosa), Coratina and Lucina are a blend from Tuscany in Italy. Since then the farm has experimented with several cultivars from Spain, Israel, Greece and Tunisia in an effort to find trees that best adapt to our climate.

Although the farm has both Kalamata (black) and Manzilla (green) table olive cultivars, its primarily function is to produce premium quality Olive Oils, hence the selected cultivars are “oil” cultivars. Healthy trees have adequate nutrients and water and simply look heathy. At De Rustica you can see the colour and vitality of our trees and this is in no small part the result of our sustainable orchard management and soil health.

ORCHARD MANAGEMENT

Throughout the year our team works on the health and sustainability of our olive orchards. We aim to augment and restore the cycles of nature – the energy cycle, the carbon cycle, the microbial cycle, the mineral cycle and the water cycle.

We allow the space between the rows to grow diverse herbaceous plant cover which we mow, and distribute between the trees. We chip and return all pruning material between the trees (the bankie) and augment this with pomace and sheep manure, aiming to evolve a deep layer of plant biomass to cover the earth, limit water evaporation and stimulate a healthy microbiology in the soil.

Pests and diseases are closely monitored and controlled. De Rustica’s dry desert conditions limit fungal diseases and our isolation limits visiting pests. We tend to avoid treating pests and diseases in a “blanket’ fashion rather targeting specific problem areas to build systemic resistance.

We focus on ensuring that our trees are well irrigated and pruned to maximise health and yield. We monitor soil moisture weekly and if needed use hand auger samples to refine and optimise our water use.

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