The Cultivados support those who toil the land and those who foster the true flavours of food.
In the words of Cicero, "of all the occupations by which gain is secured, none is better than agriculture, none more profitable, none more delightful, none more becoming to a free man." We must remember that agriculture is a measure of human endeavour and is attuned to nature around us. Agriculture, in its noblest sense, iprovides an exemplary way of life and the foundations of knowledge, while guaranteeing food security for mankind. Our emblem, the Cultivated Bird, resembles the sacred owl devoted to Minerva and Athena. Both Godesses, wise women, protectors of the Arts, would use compassion and feeling as arms against misfortune. The Bird who accompanied them had the gift of transforming this profound Wisdom into constructive, practical knowledge.
Olive trees in Andalusia blossom between April and May.
The flower of the olive tree is hermaphroditic and small in size. The calyx is greenish white in colour and is comprised of four sepals. The corolla has four white petals arranged in the form of a cross, and contains two stamens where the pollen is formed.
Manel Armengol, a good friend and highly cultivated photographer, is currently travelling around the Mediterranean all for the beautiful cause of the Olive tree.
In Tunisia, it is the women who harvest the olives by hand. Just take a look at these faces as photographed by Manel, brimming with humanity, and in his own words, “steadfast and wholehearted”. Manel says that these women showed great interest in the way in which Olive trees are treated in Spain, and they added that they needed “to be treated with much care because they yield the blessed fruit” …
Thank you Manel, these are certainly very touching images.
As explained by Manuel Pajarón in his manual, in order to establish true organic cultivation in an olive grove conventional patterns must be left aside. We need to take a fresh look at cultivation, focus on it from a completely new, integrative angle. One which is capable of understanding more than a single isolated tree or a certain insect; rather, it can comprehend the whole living system behind them.
It is the Olive grove perceived in terms of a “cleared wood” which includes olive trees and the insects which feed on them, and those which feed on those which feed on the olive trees; and birds and any other creature that may be passing through, including ourselves; and the soil itself with the millions of living organisms that form it.
Illustration from the Manual of the Organic Olive Grove by Manuel Pajarón.
Above all, what characterises the Organic Olive Grove is the non-use of synthetic chemical products, which are replaced with natural ones. However, to reduce the complexities of cultivation to this alone would be an over-simplistic approach and would ipso facto cause production to collapse, accustomed as it is to methods of conventional agriculture. There are in fact many steps to be taken in order to improve the fertility of the soil which was destroyed by the use of herbicides. Our aim is to create a patch of woodland where the trees can feed on their own soil (for which purpose the soil needs to be alive).
It is all about generating new systems. In conventional agriculture the emphasis was always placed on yield, while we are talking about more socially sensitive and environmentally friendly systems. We sacrifice yield in order to incorporate a range of ecological services including soil management, nutrient recycling, pollination and water management. All this requires imagination and patience since converting from a conventional to agro-ecological system takes time, generally between three and four years depending on the original situation and the surrounding ecosystem.
The land at Molina de Santa Ana is in transition. For quite some time now no chemical products at all have been applied and we are vitalising the soil by means of different techniques drawn from Biodynamic Agriculture.
Our olive trees are thrilled to bits.
www.biodynamic.org.uk/farming-amp-gardening.html
There are multiple treasures to be found in Nature, although perhaps the most precious of all, often unnoticed as it lies at such a “low” level, is the earth itself. Yes, that which the majority of urban dwellers do not see in the asphalt of our daily lives.
The earth is a source of food and was venerated as such in megalithic times. That was when the Mediterranean was embarking on the art of agriculture. Man tended the land as his own and depicted it in ways that reminded him of its enormous value.
Could this be the image that led to the Owl being adopted as a symbol and conceived as the Bird of Knowledge?
