Welcome to our site! We live in Greece in the island of Crete and “tzitzikas” in Greek (“tettix” in anc. Greek) is the word for the insect cicada. We have chosen that name for various reasons. And why not? Tzitzikas is a happy summer-singer, which makes our days nicer. It enjoys the hot season, but keep in mind that Tzitzikas has to wait 4-7 or even more years living underground as a humble worm until it reaches the insect stage that can sing on the trees! What a dedicated nature’s artist… Click for more...
In Tzitzikas site among others we will describe our place, the island of Crete. This couldn’t be done otherwise, but starting with the cultivation of olive trees, a major influential factor for both our society and economy for the past millennia. During that period, both the DNA of the olive trees and that of the local people have coevolved affected by the island’s climate and some dare say, adapting to each other. And there are good reasons for that; olive oil is a major component of our diet on daily basis. Almost everybody owns even a small olive orchard in order to supply one’s household with olive oil. Almost everybody has participated in olive harvesting either professionally, or exercising the traditional manual methods with the company of friends and relatives joining forces to accomplish the task before winter comes. Almost everyone has enjoyed stove cooked food or has felt the warmth of a fireplace, using olive tree wood as an energy source. Last but not least, everyone has enjoyed the dense olive orchards’ shadow during the hot Cretan summer, accompanied by the Tzitzikas songs!
In Crete, the most commonly cultivated olive variety for oil production is Koroneiki, a highly productive variety yielding supreme quality oil. Click for more...
Olive trees initially form vegetative buds that subsequently develop to form new branches. During the cold period some of these are differentiated Click for more...
Olive trees blossom during spring. However, lack of annual blooming is often observed every second year, resulting in alternative bearing i.e. Click for more...
As a rule in most olive orchards, alternate bearing is so severe that every second year there is absolutely no-fruit formation. Meanwhile, Click for more...
After flowering, wind-pollination takes place and olive fruit starts forming through various developmental stages. A crucial stage among others Click for more...
Olive fruits are harvested when most of them are black-purplish. They have reached their maximum possible oil content earlier on, but a prolonged stay of mature fruits on the tree seems to help the following oil extraction. This is carried out at the mills, which in Crete is performed solely by mechanical means in low temperatures. After extraction oil is either both packed and shipped according to the customer’s needs or is stored in dry and cool Click for more...
In the framework of olive cultivation pruning trees after harvesting is common practice. Pruning is focused on fruit bearing branches which next year will only give new vegetation, Click for more...
Stables are cleaned annually and manure -produced mainly by animals fed with olive leaves- is collected for soil fertilization. It is crucial to use well fermented manure, to avoid spread of pathogens into the soil Click for more...