The giants of the Mediterranean Algimiro Borgia del Salento Lecce

The giants of the Mediterranean Algimiro Borgia del Salento Lecce


Antonio Bruno *

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Algimiro Borgia tells me how he managed the traditional olive grove in compliance with the monumentality of the plants, and his words we can all learn how, through soil conservation work and biodiversity, it can be a harmonious relationship between man and nature and stimulate the sustainable development of Salento in Lecce.

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The team Algimiro



The olive del Salento Lecce gave a lot to do with people like Algimiro Borgia was his passion in this tree. Algimiro with the passage of time had formed a team of 15-20 people to take up the olive groves that provided from February through April than May. He says that every man of his team could do Rimonda slupatura and two trees per day. Come on, do not look like that, I understand, I've already written what is Rimonda and now want to know what slupatura, and that's fine, I'll write!



The slupatura of olive trees



The wolf or caries is caused by fungi that penetrate into the trunk. Wood struck externally by the wolf shows a darker than normal and lifting the bark is unmistakable brown necrotic tissue. With the practice of slupatura take away the wooden parts that have degraded or wood decay. In practice, consists in the slupatura accept and spongy wood chisel in the old olive trees. The healthy wood stripped must be cleaned, sanded, cleaned and protected with conservative and healing substances such as copper compounds, or you can heal with fire.

Algimiro tells me that in 5 hours and a person to have Rimonda slupatura the two olive trees, which means that to be Rimonda slupatura and a hectare of forest trees of his team of 20 people it took 2 days of work 5 hours!

The days go by February and May are 120 days and then the team of 20 people each year Algimiro arranged to make Rimonda slupatura and 60 hectares of olive grove. And how many times I wrote in Salento Lecce there are 85 thousand hectares of olive grove!

Lots of work each year in the olive grove, men like the stairs are Algimiro balances, look up and see that only the depth of the sky.



The olive harvest



Here they are women, beautiful women south of the Mediterranean, on his knees before His Majesty, the olive tree, are gathering the olives one by one. There were also women with children, in a festival, the harvest of the product.

Women where they put the olives? Some women, such as those of Casarano del Salento Lecce, puts them in the baskets of rushes, including Alessano del Salento Lecce instead put them in a pocket of her apron, "Mantero. From baskets or Mantera olives then ended up in the bags. Algimiro tells me that in Ugento Colossus holding the bags went on donkeys. Put the bags on the donkey that carried them to the entrance of the property.

The evening passed the cart (Trainu), which withdrew the bags and carry them up to the mill.



Olive oil quality



But what quality? The oil obtained from olive oil from Salento Lecce was all clear! Algimiro tells me that during his activities very rarely seen in the collection of olives from the tree. He says that only those who had staff throughout the year will carry out a collection from the tree up in October to early November. The gentleman who had originally from Tuscany De Donatis chose the trees that were on the border with roads or with the walls beneath the canopy, and that the product will not be lost, he gave his workers fixed rules to collect from the tree in late October . From those we picked olives from the tree was the olive oil then that would be consumed during the year.



The old unit of Salento Lecce



The unit of measurement was the olive tomolo (Leccese dialect "lu tummenu") which is equivalent to 33.30 kilograms of olives. By convention tomoli 3 olives were rounded to 1 ton. Even today we speak of the tank, especially for the grinding mills, well, a tank is equivalent to 5 tomoli equivalent to 166.5 kilograms of olives that is a ton and 66.5 kilos of olives.



You have to collect 300 thousand olives to squeeze a ton of oil



Algimiro tells me that it is the variety of olive varieties ogliarola cellina than to have the same weight in a season that "normal" is about 2 grams for each oil.

To reach the amount of a variety of olives tomolo ogliarola cellina must collect 17 thousand or olives. To reach the amount of two hundred pounds would need to collect about 50 thousand.

Each contains 350 milligrams of olive oil and then a tomolo olive oil about 6 pounds and a ton of oil is obtained by milling of 300 thousand olives.



The amount of olive tree



Algimiro speaks to me of the trees, those that produce normal tomoli about 3 pounds of olives or a tree, but adds that with the old system by pruning an olive tree olive tomoli gathered 10 or more than 3 tons and could arrive at the amount of 15 tomoli olive tree that is less than 5 pounds! She tells me that in the properties of Colossus in Ugento Luigi and Massimo has seen with his own eyes a piece of a thousand plants in almost all had 10 tomoli olive tree we're talking about 3 thousand tons of olives!



The number of olive trees per hectare



Algimiro tells me that in passage of Salento Lecce, on the grounds of Duke Guarini, olive trees were planted at a distance of 15 meters by 15 meters, each hectare of olive trees had 50 to 60 plants, but in most cases, trees were planted at a distance of 10 meters by 10 meters to reach the 90 plants per hectare.



The age of the olive trees



Many times I have written to know the age of your olive tree or a beautiful specimen that you have ever meet in your walks. Algimiro reminds me of the scientific concepts on the growth of trees and translates them into a subtle and practical way to know immediately the age of an olive tree.

The olive tree grows to about ½ cm per year, depending on the richness of the soil, but this average figure is more likely in practice to land a first-class is growing a bit 'more while in the poorer land grows a bit' of less.

To know the age of your olive tree you need to measure the distance from the olive tree until the outer circumference, for example, if this measure is 100 cm, you multiply by 2 and get the age of your olive tree, as you can find in this case, the olive tree has the age of 200 years!

Thanks to the wisdom of Algimiro Borgia now you can go around to know the age of the trees and imagine that you will find the climate, the smells and traditions of 200, 300 or 400 years ago. Bella suggestion right?



* Agronomist (expert in urban and regional diagnostic entitled International University Master's Degree in Diagnostic IMD Urban and Regional Urban and Territorial Diagnostics).