Spring Food

What we do with and for the land at IL Fiorello We compost on site and that includes all the olive tree pruning, the material other than oil after milling olives, kitchen byproducts, and manure from local horse farms. The mass is composted all year long and then put on the Grove just after harvest […]

Il Fiorello is working hard to be sustainable.  We believe that good stewardship of our land and our trees is very important. Although we have just submitted paperwork for the formal organic license, we have been growing organically and sustainably for the past four years. Our Mill has been certified to mill organic olives for […]

  QUEEN BEES AT IL Fiorello Rick Schubert of Bee Happy Apiaries and Ms. Brittany Dye, Ms. Queen Bee, have honored us with Queens. We should all be wearing crowns in honor of our most royal guests. We have 1144 queens in 286 nuc boxes, meaning the Queens are in their own boxes four to a […]

Pruning olive trees is an art, an acquired and learned art.  Each and every person who prunes trees has their own best way, and of course it works for them. Consult an expert to help you get started or have them prune your whole grove with you. But here is some basic guidance on pruning. […]

Our citrus trees have finally made a wonderful comeback. They are producing large, no huge, quantities of fruit. Last year, the frost of December 7, 2103 destroyed the plants. I, in my way of trying to take care of everything, wanted to prune the dead branches right away. But I was persuaded to wait until […]

Everything seems early again this year. We are responding to Mother Nature’s calls of Spring even though it is only February. I feel sorry for my friends back East in all the cold and snow. I hope this blog gives them hope for planting. Everyone has spring fever here at IL Fiorello. We are busy getting […]

  In the winter things are quiet in the olive groves, but the animals are still active. We grow olives, lavender, citrus, and figs, and have a culinary garden. The olives grow at our home in Green Valley and at our Farm in Suisun Valley. If you live in an olive grove you have animals, […]

Il Fiorello goes solar! We have installed solar panels on our Visitors Center and on our Mill Barn to capture the brilliant sunshine energy of Suisun Valley. We decided to make the commitment and do what we really believe in, using a better way to produce energy. As we expand the Visitors Center we will […]

THE SOLANO COUNTY OLIVE GROWERS MEETING REGARDING THE OLIVE FLY INFESTATION FEB 28, 2014 This is a synopsis of the olive fly meeting held on Feb 28, 2014 in Solano County. This represents information given to participants by experts in the field. As with any synopsis this does not constitute a complete coverage of the […]

The olive fruit fly, Bactrocera oleae (Rossi) (Diptera:Tephritidae), is an important pest to be very aware of if you grow olives (Olea europaea). This pest was introduced and invaded California around 1998, and spread rapidly throughout the state and northern Mexico (Rice et al., 2003). It is very prevalent in Europe. We are spraying our […]