Olive Grove Eggs on Nostr: This year was the biggest olive harvest in living memory, and the almonds are bowing ...

This year was the biggest olive harvest in living memory, and the almonds are bowing under the weight too.

Not a drop of irrigation, the almonds are not an ecological disaster when left to their own devices. However the price to pay is less yield per tree. The olive's alternate fruiting cycle means this year is near zero harvest for us.

And it is the drive for consistent yield and price that motivates the questionable practices of the mega farms who have driven their input costs up and the prices down en route to becoming mega farms. It is a ludicrous system of misaligned incentives that the consumer, the farmer and nature pays a heavy price for. Or we could just eat a little less and leave much of the almond industry to nature and find more purpose in the orchards beyond monoculture almonds.

#chickens #growstr #Spain #homesteading