El Plano de Santa Bárbara

Ramón inherited El Plano from his father and worked it for forty-two years. At seventy-eight he was still going up on his own with the tractor. He sold every olive in bulk and the price was set for him at the weighbridge. The winter he fell and broke his hip, the farm went unpruned and the fly and the leaf spot took hold.

We bought 17 hectares in three blocks that touch each other. We pulled out 240 trees that had stopped giving and replanted empeltre in the same frame. We swapped the old open pond for a covered cistern and put a meter at the head. Ramón drops by every other week to see how it is going and takes his oil home.

The first season with us gave 96,900 kilos, at 0.18 acidity. All of it was bottled under the brand. This is where we try things out before taking them to the other farms.