Farming

Flowers are hermaphrodite, small, with four-cleft calyx and a corolla surrounded by white petals. Flowers are grouped in a number of 10-15 blooms per bunch, named inflorescence, emanated by the leaves axil of the sprigs of the preceding year.
The blossoming begins around March/April but the real flowering phase takes place from May to the first half of June.

During the ripening period, olives acquire a series of disparate colour shades (veraison) varying from green to yellow, violet until bordering black which is when the pulp gets softest: this is a step-by-step and slow process especially when sunlight is scarce; during the last ripening step, pulp gets wrinkled and loses weight.
Olives have to be harvested when they have wholly ripened and upon reaching the right oiliness level, antioxidants and better organoleptic properties (for typical products better during phases 2 and 3). The harvesting period of olives in Central Italy usually takes place between November and December, when olives attain their maximum size, the utmost oiliness and when pulp partly loses its consistency.