Hi Hills,
We have an olive farm about 2 hours (driving) south west of Barcelona, outside a village called Flix. Great area.
One or 2 points to bear in mind.
I don't know your budget, but most farms large enough to supply an income do not have water or electricity. Ours dosn't.
We catch rain water (when it rains!) and produce electricity via solar. Chris, my husband, put the solar system together. It cost us a lot less than having a company to do it.
(He's very usefulI like that, except when I think I'm up for a shiney new washing machine, and then the bugger goes and fixes the old one! Rats!)
I can almost run the house as if on mains. We still have a big generator to back the system up.
Don't be fooled by 'water comming soon' we were told this 4 years ago when we bought. Just been told it's another 2 years away!
Dito with 'electricity near by' pointing to a pylon. Most of the time these are not the type of pylon you can get a domestic supply from. If you can, as far as I know,
the cost of the transforma alone is around 5,000.00 euros Plus, plus,plus etc!
How's your Spanish? Yes the locals are very helpful, but you need to communicate with them!
We have nearly 500 olive trees and about 50 almonds. Due to lack of rain only about 1/4 of the olives fruited last year. Of that 1/4 only around 25 were worth dragging
the nets out to. Due to it being our 1st year resident and me having a broken arm, we harvested 10 trees. From those 10 trees we got 275kg worth 178.00 euros. (sounds lazy,
but with so much else to do and being our 1st year, we just wanted to test the water! see how the system works)
Olive farming is not hard work.
It is time consuming.
You have 3 or 4 months to get the harvest in.
Actually it's quite as calming job. 'What do you do Fiona?' ,'Oh I comb trees!' It's like stroking the cat using a big comb!
Thats not all there is to it.
The land needs to be ploughed. This keeps the weeds down. Fire is a major hazard, you have to keep the dry grass at bay!
The trees need to be pruned. Let the air and light in.
From time to time you wil need to spray them, pests etc.
I worry that it's a lot for a woman and her son to cope witth.
It's a good life.
Weather today, 20 degrees with big, fluffy white clouds.
Kiki the cat basking in the sunshine, and Sid the canary nit-whittering his brains out.
I wish you well.
Regards,
Fiona.