Man and the olive tree

The “Assisi-Spoleto Olive Belt” landscape is not a natural one. Every one of its changes has taken place thanks to the intervention of man, who has guaranteed that its system remained intact down through the centuries. The presence of the plants and the hydraulic-agricultural arrangements determine conditions more conducive to the regulation of the waters and the stability of the soil. In the Spello-Spoleto stretch there are olive groves with embankments or with “terraces” or semicircular walls called “lunette” constructed with dry walls, which contribute to creating an even more striking, particular landscape. These works are an example of the great industriousness of farmers, and serve as hydrogeological and landscape protection for the olive grove, preventing the occurrence of unfortunate events.
Most of the olive groves are of a traditional nature: irregular planting layouts, densities that are not always appropriate, old plants with irregular trunks and often multi-trunked (“bushy vase”), in various cases with “terrace” or “lunette” (semicircular walls) arrangements. This all makes it more difficult to obtain the maximum productions and the application of mechanization. There are also intensive olive groves created after the frosts of 1956 and, especially, 1985. The training forms used most often are the vase and bushy vase in traditional systems, and vase in intensive ones. The bushy vase (multi-trunk) is derived, in most cases, from the cutting of the tree back to ground level after a frost, which has damaged its whole canopy, and the subsequent training of 3-4 shoots.

As far as the cultivation technique is concerned, the soil management is carried out, in most cases, by planting grass and mowing it 2-3 times a year, in the spring and fall. Planting grass offers some important advantages: it prevents soil erosion and permits an easy movement of people and machines, facilitating the carrying out of the various cultivation jobs, in particular olive picking and pruning. Fertilizer is applied yearly, and plants are pruned in general every one or two years. Irrigation is practiced only in a small number of the new intensive olive groves, and uses a drip system. The addition of water makes it possible to speed up the growth of the plants in the young groves and obtain more regular productions in the adult ones.
In most cases olive picking, which is the most demanding and costly phase, given the limited sizes of the farms and the structures of the traditional type groves, is carried out with facilitating equipment. In some cases it is still done manually, especially in the groves that are structurally more difficult. In intensive groves, on large farms, or where the services of contract workers are used, it is done mechanically with trunk shakers usually equipped with an overturned umbrella to catch the falling olives (total mechanization).

In Umbria the olive tree has always held an important place in culture and traditions. Its product, oil, is a fundamental element of numerous religious celebrations, and accompanies people from baptism to funeral. The olive tree and oil are also the basis for numerous sayings and proverbs. The historic and cultural significance of the olive tree in Umbria is also ensured by the presence in various localities, including a number of places in the Assisi-Spoleto belt, of monumental specimens that have recently been catalogued, of which the most important example is the olive tree of Sant’Emiliano in Bovara, Trevi.

From the economic standpoint, for several decades all the strategies of Umbrian olive-growing were focused on raising the quality of the product as the only way to promote a costly production. The achievement of this goal was facilitated with the approval of the “Umbria” extra virgin olive oil production guidelines to which, at EU level, the Protected Designation of Origin (POD/DOP) was issued with Reg. 2325/97. The purpose of the POD/DOP indication is to offer the consumer guarantees, permit a higher profit for the farmer, promote and certify the quality of the oil through a close compliance with the production guidelines, and organize a marketing chain.

The varieties permitted by the guidelines and their respective percentages are: Moraiolo (at least 60%), Leccino and/or Frantoio (for a percentage lower than or equal to 30%), and other varieties (for a percentage lower than or equal to 10%). The Moraiolo is the most widespread cultivar and definitely the most suitable for weathering the difficult soil and climate conditions thanks to its rustic nature. It is a cultivar of limited development; it has always been the one that has adapted best to the rocky soils, and has a smaller contour than others. Its fruit is small, ripens late and gradually, and has a strong resistance to detachment. Most of all, the plant has a strong resistance to the temperature fluctuations that occur in the spring, and to drought in the summer.