Juno Olives, our Journey our story
We are Karen and Ian Juno. Our journey began in 1998 when Karen a business analyst and technical writer, and Ian, a project manager, began researching how to keep active in later years. Not that we were close to retiring from work in the city, but living and working in the country was becoming more attractive.
We both came from farming roots, so a return to the land was appealing. Ian's family farmed near Waitomo glow worm caves and Karen's family who immigrated from Ireland and Lebanon, farmed around the Wairarapa.
We stumbled across our land on a freezing, wet winter June day in 2001. It was situated on the Tauherenikau plains 3km from Greytown, Karen's home town. We wandered around the bare land surveying it for more than 2 hours. Back then it was only considered suitable for agriculture - cows, sheep and haymaking. Then we noticed a neighbour had planted 2500 young olive trees. Childhood memories came flooding back of family christmas' enjoyed picnicing under the olive trees at my Lebanese grandparents home. Our journey was about to begin.
birth of an olive grove
It was a warm, drizzly day spring 2001. Kneeling on hands and knees we began planting our first 1280 olive trees. During winter we had prepared the gound, marked out 6 x 6 metre rows, and manually "grass-grubbed" (dug-up) thick rye grass where each tree was to be planted. Grass-grubbing was our chemical-free way to rid grass that was going to compete with the young trees for water and nutrients.
Our choice of trees were a classic mix of Tuscan, Greek, Spanish and French cultivars. An auger drilled deep holes in the stony riverbed soil so each tree could be planted. As the auger drilled deeper large rocks rose to the surface. Those rocks are now stone walls and garden edging around the property.
Tree planting became a huge affair. The drizzily weather didn't stop family and friends coming to help. Karen has a large Lebanese family and they made light work from many hands. Even her sprightly 80 year old parents worked away alongside the young ones - kneeling, planting, tying young trees to stakes.
We planting all through spring, and the heat of summer into autumn 2002. Finally in April that same year, we planted the last tree. We held a multi-cultural blessing on the grove to celebrate. Since then, another 500 olive trees have been planted and 300 more are planned for October.
A variety of fruit and nut trees, citrus, figs and other pip fruit have been planted around the property too. We have established a large vegetable garden and set aside five acres for a small vineyard.
In 2006 and 2007, we produced small quantities of extra virgin olive oil. This oil was stunning. Its rich green-gold colour, herbaceous, grassy intensity and appealing peppery finish was charateristic of oil produced in the Mediterranean. The oil sold quickly with buyers complimenting the quality.
In 2008 the quality of our oil was recognised. We won a silver medal at the 2008-09 New Zealand Extra Virgin Olive Oil Awards. This accolade confirmed that we were on our way to producing premium quality extra virgin olive oil without compromise.
In December 2008, we restored the old horse stables and barn on the property into a rustic boutique olive shop, tasting room and bottling plant. We still commute to work in the city each day, but our journey has been worth it. We now have the best of both worlds. Our journey is now complete.
our products
Plant a vineyard for your children, and an olive grove for your grandchildren. Michael Bouzaid (my grandfather)
