Palacio de los Olivos

Palacio de los Olivos

Family business

Olivapalacios, SL is a family business dedicated to the production and packaging of high quality Extra Virgin Olive Oil (EVOO) .
Our olive groves and mills are located in the Campo de Calatrava region , in Almagro, in the province of Ciudad Real , Spain, considered an olive oil production area since time immemorial, on land of volcanic origin that is very rich in nutrients and with Exceptional climate for olive cultivation.
The two varieties of olives, Picual and Arbequina , are grown and harvested in our almost 300-hectare olive grove , and processed in our mill.
Since 2009 we innovate with the highest technology , sustainable and respectful of the environment in each part of the production process. And we work on a practically artisan EVOO from the care of the olive grove and the olive to the packaging of the resulting liquid gold, so healthy in the Mediterranean diet.

OUR OLIVE GROVES

We pay special attention to the care of our olive groves (soil and olive trees) to maintain their normal growth and good production.
Climate and location provide it with oxygen, sunlight, temperature (cold weather), water, and natural nutrients such as nitrogen, phosphorous, potassium, calcium, magnesium, sulfur, iron, manganese, copper, zinc, molybdenum, boron and chlorine, necessary for the correct development of the olive tree. Although, in addition, in certain areas, we help with programmed irrigation and/or fertilizer (both root and foliar).
The monitoring of the entire process of cultivation and care of our olive grove, such as irrigation, nutrition and pruning, among others, is carried out by specialized and experienced technical personnel, such as agronomists, who record each step in our Countryside. In turn, all this control allows better and greater control of traceability.

We analyze and observe the profile of the soil in each area of the olive grove throughout the year: its physical appearance, texture, presence of stones, structure, porosity, water storage capacity, density, consistency, color, temperature, matter, reaction, salinity, number of microorganisms... because it is very useful for us to improve decision-making about the olive grove itself and the campaign in general.

Our olive trees come from the Olea europaea olive variety .

HOW DO WE WORK IT?

Our soil system is tillage under the olive tree and no tillage in the streets. We take into account how tillage influences olive tree production and the environment, according to aspects such as water absorption and its conservation, its degradation and risk of erosion, the amount of organic matter and plant/animal residues. , the ease of contracting diseases...
We have an area of the olive grove in an intensive system.

The single-foot olive trees are isolated, placed in 7×5-meter frames with a density of 150 trees per hectare, with a 7-meter wide street or corridor , with the useful life of the plants exceeding 40 years.
It is equipped with drip irrigation and is thus arranged to facilitate mechanized harvesting, with buggies; facilitate control, nutrition and pruning; do not harm the olive trees during the harvesting campaign.

Another small part of our olive grove is arranged in a super-intensive system , which is giving very good results with our Arbequina.

It consists of rows of very young olive trees arranged in a hedge, with densities of between 1,000-2,000 trees per hectare.
The separation between olive trees is between 1.25-1.5m, with 4m lanes.
The useful life of the plants is about 15 years, so after that period we are renewing the plantations.
It is equipped with automatic irrigation and harvesting is mechanized with harvesters.

The olive tree is a tree of early maturation, easy detachment of the olive, high productivity, good regularity (little vecero, thanks to irrigation and early harvesting, among other techniques that we apply). It is not very resistant to cold, limestone soil, drought and tuberculosis, flies and verticillium; and it is very resistant to repilo.

VARIETIES

Both varieties of olive tree, picual and arbequina, have a thick trunk with a twisted appearance, quite wide at the base and compressed; gray bark finely fissured, with cracks; and good rooting, with shallow roots that cover equal to or more than the perimeter of the crown.

The Picual olive tree is long-lived and stocky; of small size and open size, thick vegetative density, wide irregular and extended crown and perimeter between 1.5-3m; and its branches are thick, twisted, gnarled and curved.
The Arbequina olive tree is of medium-low vigor, open size, medium density, early maturation, difficult detachment of fine and flexible branches, high productivity, good regularity and medium-low fat yield.

The leaves of the olive trees are perennial and are present on the entire surface. They live about 2-3 years and fall off in spring, to make way for new leaves. They are somewhat narrow, 1-3 cm wide and 4-10 cm long; lanceolate with slightly pointed apex, entire, coriaceous, glabrous; dark gray green on the upper side, and paler and densely scaly on the underside (because they contain an important pubescence that protects them from the cold); and with a very short petiole, smooth edges and sunken stomata, which allow them to reduce water loss.
The flowers are hermaphrodite or male, small, with a calyx with four sepals and a corolla with four white petals, two yellow stamens, arranged in long clusters in the leaf axils of the wood, and they have a pleasant aroma. As the olive tree is an angiosperm plant, it flowers between June and August and is pollinated by insects.

NUTRITION

Our olive trees are nurtured and cared for with special attention, and we provide them with the right amount of nutritional elements that they cannot obtain naturally and must consume throughout their vegetative cycle, depending on the fertility of the soil and its physical-chemical characteristics, and the nutrient reserves contained in the stems and old leaves.
For this, we establish a rational fertilization program , with fertilizers of different concentration of nutrients, according to the nutritional needs and the rate of absorption of the same throughout the different vegetative phases of the olive tree.
Previous soil and foliar analyzes provide us with a reference on the nutritional status of the olive grove, very valid as a guide for calculating the subscriber. We nourish the olive tree because, during budding and flowering, the trunk and branches export nutrients to other parts of the olive tree to later recover them from the ground, and because a transfer of nutritional elements from the old leaves to the new organs that sprout takes place, because they fall off.

PRUNING

We prune the branches of olive trees, always in a controlled and environmentally friendly way, to lighten or reduce, and thus balance growth and fruiting, shorten the unproductive period and lengthen the productive one, and revitalize the olive tree (we avoid premature aging) .
We always reuse the remains of pruning as part of natural fertilizer.
We prune the lower branches, to obtain a one-foot tree shape with three to five main branches. We take care to keep the center open, so that water and light penetrate without difficulty (that is why it does not have a spherical shape, which could be more visually beautiful, as decoration).