The English Olive Press; June ‘26
May was a beautiful month at The English Olive Co’s olive grove as it came alive with the hope of new growth, flowering and lots of wildlife. Olive oil sommelier Andrew visited us, and David visited Binissaida in Menorca to learn about regenerative olive growing and agri-tourism. The month finished off with some record breaking high temperatures - with the olives being the only crop on the farm to enjoy that!
Welcome to the June edition of the English Olive Club Newsletter, sharing some of the highlights and what we have been up to in May. A big welcome to all our new subscribers and thank you all for your support and engagement to The English Olive Co on social media. We have now been on social media for 1 year, and have nearly 800 followers on both Instagram and Facebook, for which we are very grateful of your interest.
Weather has again played a big factor last month, with a 2C frost on the 11th May followed exactly 2 weeks later by the hottest day ever recorded in England in May reaching 34.8C in London, and 32.3C for us. The olive grove project was mainly initiated due to evident climate change and the need for the farm to spread its risk of which crops will perform better in a dryer and warmer climate. Two olive tree varieties have not enjoyed the dozens of frosts we have had this spring with tree mortality going into several hundred, but it does remind us why others have not tried planting this quantity of olive trees so far north before! The cold weather will continually challenge us, but the olive trees are currently the only crop on the farm that do enjoy temperatures above 30C! Some of the ‘dead’ looking trees are however now showing signs of life, which is great to see; we now hope to encourage those shoots to maturity.
Irrigation has been a busy feature again this last month, with us applying about 15mm (0.6”) of water every week through the trickle irrigation system. We have also added some seaweed extract to the water to give the trees some natural nutrition and help to reduce the stress from the temperature extremes.
Signs of life at the bottom of the ‘dead’ trees. 25th May 2026 broke the warmest day ever recoded in May. Possibly our biggest tree at 1.5m or 5’.
It is easy to sometimes to forget just how small the olive trees were when we first planted them just over two years ago, and to now see how much the majority of them have grown. From being 30cm tall at planting, and then to encourage their growth and manage their branching habits has been a real challenge but also a pleasure. The biggest trees are now 1.2m to 1.5m tall and look full of potential, which is so rewarding. The trees that have died, mainly from the cold weather in November 2024 and then spring 2026, are sad to see, and we continually ask ourselves what can we do differently and what can we learn. Our knowledge and experience is growing every season and every year, but we are also lucky to have others involved in olive grove management or in olive oil producution get in touch with us.
At the beginning of May we had Andrew from Atelier Olea events and tastings come to visit us while he was in the UK. Andrew did his Olive Oil Times sommelier course in 2024, and joins the very select and elite group of English olive oil sommeliers. Andrew lives in Puglia, the renowned olive oil producing region of southern Italy. It was great to listen to Andrew and his olive oil knowledge, and the tasting courses he runs in the UK and overseas for business colleagues and also for those who want to build on their olive oil knowledge and learnings. We had a great visit and is very apparent that an olive oil sommelier is also an olive oil ambassador - thank you for the visit Andrew.
Olive Oil Times who run the sommelier course is also the worlds leading publication on olive oil news, health research, production and culture, and are a great source for learning. David was fortunate enough to be interviewed by Costas Vasilopoulos, who wrote about our olive grove journey so far, under the title “In England’s Fens, a Farmer Bets on Olive Trees and A Warmer Climate”. The whole article can be read here.
Andrew visits David and The English Olive Co, and puts his Olive Oil Times sommelier training to the test. David featured in Olive Oil Times.
In the middle of the month David visited Binissaida in Menorca, very close to the capital Mahon, and about 2km inland. Binissaida are a regenerative farm with agri-tourism, and further information can be found here. The beautiful old house and outbuildings offer many smart and modern bedrooms and they have shaded and covered areas where they regularly host weddings and other gatherings. On the farm they have two varieties of olive trees, Arbequina and Koroneiki, which are then washed, milled, centrifuged, with the olive oil also being put into bottles or tins on site. In addition to their own olive grove production they also provide this service to other growers on the Island who do not have their own equipment.
Bea looks after their olive grove and runs the olive press, or Tafona, in Spanish. She kindly showed us around the farm where they are growing many herbs and salads, in addition to the 1,550 olive trees. Their olive groves range from some planted many decades ago to some trees planted in the last few years. Their olives are harvested by ‘combing ‘ the olives off the trees, falling onto a net which is then gathered up and the crop put into crates ready to go to the Tafona. They keep the produced oil in an insulated room at a constant 16C to maintain quality. At the time of our visit the olive trees were flowering, but not all the trees were looking very happy. They too had experienced some poor recent weather, with a strong cold wind, a Tramuntana, picking up salt off the sea, and some of the flowers then being burnt off. The timing of this storm meant that the flowering will not recover and harvest potential will be reduced.
Bea’s knowlege and enthusiasm on the tour was infectious, but she saved the best until last - the tasting. The prompt board to help us pick up all the aromas and flavours in the olive oil was a great idea, and the tasting with the freshly baked bread was delicious. The Arbequina was a fresh, smooth and mild olive oil and the Koroneiki was equally fresh, but with stronger flavours and a big peppery kick (high polyphenal content). Thank you Bea and thank you Binissaida for the great visit to see how other oliver producers go about their craft, and how tasting sessions could possibly work for The English Olive Co in the future!
David being shown around Binissaida olive grove, Menorca.
We look forward to the long June days and the olive trees flowering and showing their potential for harvest 2026. Please keep your ears open for our upcoming Radio 4 feature, and if any of you are looking for any gifts for the home of for Fathers Day (21st June), then please do have a look at our online shop, which can be accessed here.
Best wishes,
David