World's largest olive patchwork, a photo from Granada, Andalucia

Photographer's Note

Olive trees around Loja, on the way to Alhama de Granada.

Loja is a town in southern Spain, situated at the western limit of the province of Granada, 50km from Granada city.

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Andalusia is the world's largest producer of olive oil and its flavour is basic to the region's cooking. Starting at breakfast, when toasted bread is drizzled in virgin oil to eat with morning coffee.

Driving through Andalucìa, it is easy to see that the most abundant crop throughout the Andalucìa and, in particular, Jaèn is the olive. In certain areas, tidy line after line of olive trees stretch for as far as the eye can see. In Jaèn more than 4.500 square kilometres is devoted to olive groves containing around 40 million olive trees. During an average year, these trees produce approximately 900.000 tonnes of olives, most of which are turned into some 200.000 tonnes of olive oil. In short, Andalucìa produces one-third of Spain's olive oil and a mighty 10% of that used in the entire world.

Olives are harvested from late November to January. Although there is some mechanisation, much of the job is still done by the traditional method, which is to spread a cloth or net beneath the tree and then beat it vigorously with sticks. On small olive groves this can involve the whole family and be quite a festive occasion. However, it is becoming more common that large olive groves are owned by just a few landowners.

(http://www.andalucia.com/environment/olivegroves.htm)

pauloog, AROBN54, dkmurphys, Bluejeans, jhm, Cricri, Didi ha puntuado esta nota como útil.

Critiques | Translate

agulberk (3794) 2010-08-29 4:25

Hi Ricardo
I'm living in Turkey. breakfast in our country will not be without olives.
Photos were really interesting and very beautiful.
a good presentation
Congratulations
Warm regards..

pauloog (11751) 2010-08-29 4:50

Hello Ricardo,
A fantastic patchwork indeed, a wonderful grapjhism not only of the trees but also of the different slopes in the landscape.
One can however wonder what the environmental balance is of such widespread monoculture, even vegatation between the trees gets no chance...
Regards,
Paul

jonathan_hart (21276) 2010-08-29 5:14

it's quite a big place! pointillism made of olive trees, indeed amazing :)
a good lighting in the middle of the photo and some shadows around, it looks good
jc

AROBN54 (11475) 2010-08-29 7:44

What a wonderful patchwork, Ricardo. Lovely light and shadow, good clear color, nice sharpness. And just an amazing scene of all those rolling hills with nothing but olive trees. The sky is a beautiful backdrop to it all, too. That's incredible. Many thanks and kindest wishes,
Shelly

Urs (14082) 2010-08-29 8:02

Ola Ricardo

Fantastic patch work and I like olives very much. I have to go there, but I'm not sure if I will know which one are ripe. Interesting if not geometrical design - well done. Thanks for your critiuqe.

Best regards
urs

bantonbuju (51815) 2010-08-29 12:58

thats awesome, ric!

such an immense pattern - it happens rarely to us to see SUCH a natural pattern...

great work! on landscaping

best,
j.

dkmurphys (79209) 2010-08-30 0:30

Ola Ricardo,
A very impressive agricultural work there. I like the composition, very picturesque landscape. Well seen.
Have a nice day.

Bluejeans (64251) 2010-08-30 10:20

Oi amigo ,
Se o jornal expresso não se enganou tem um olival em Portugal com 5200 hectares :) que era Espanhol e os Portugueses compraram por 91 milhões de euros , mas conseguiste aqui um belo padrão de oliveiras nestas colinas , ficou lindo belo efeito visual especialmente os tons vermelhos da terra, boa profundidade de foto , parabéns!!
Um abraço Gonçalo

jhm (211736) 2010-08-31 5:01

Hello Ricardo,

This is a extraordinarily picture with the different olive trees on the slopes in background.
Also the foreground is nice through the symetry
Composition and presentation are nice for look at. TFS.

Best regards,
John.

Cricri (176) 2010-09-10 23:21