There's a 'lightness' in the air, which might sound strange, but for those who live through winter in the High Country, they'll know exactly what I mean. There's a slight lift in the air, it carries a smidgen more warm, you can work a little later in the afternoon, you can start a little earlier without your fingers falling off. It simply means winter is finishing and spring is coming. Is this a good thing...well for those who suffer chilblains like I do, absolutely, for those who haven't got all their winter farming tasks done, like I haven't, then not so much. A farmer's lot, never happy.

We had an excellent, but challenging olive harvest season. The extremely dry weather, put trees everywhere into stress, which resulted in slower ripening. An element of slower ripening is good for flavour and oil development, but in the High Country, it usually means you'll start having to manage ripeness with frost risk. So to achieve that balance this year, I colour picked my Kalamatas twice,

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