January in the Olive Grove: the silence that prepares for rebirth.
- Azeite a Norte
- Jan 1
- 5 min read
After December closes the harvest cycle and celebrates the new olive oil at the table, January arrives in the olive grove bringing the deep cold of the Transmontano winter. The olive grove breathes slowly, enveloped in the silence of dormancy, while in the villages the ancestral traditions of the winter cycle keep alive the connection between land, memory and community.
This is the month of necessary rest — but also of the invisible work that takes place inside each olive tree, silently preparing it for the next flowering.
The Olive Tree at Rest: The Secret Work of Winter
JJanuary marks the deepest point of the olive tree's vegetative dormancy. While the Transmontane landscape is covered in frost and temperatures plunge below zero, the trees seem asleep—but beneath the tough bark, a silent transformation is underway. [1].
It is during this cold period that the differentiation of flower buds occurs, a fundamental process for the next flowering. Olive trees need to accumulate cold—hours with temperatures below 12.5°C—so that the buds in the leaf axils can transform into flowers in the approaching spring. Without this deep winter rest, there is no flowering, and without flowering, there are no olives. [2,3].
In Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro, January fulfills this role perfectly: the frosts paint the branches white and the cold penetrates the earth, guaranteeing the olive trees the rest they need to be reborn with vigor.
The Olive Grove Under Surveillance: Care in Silence
Despite the trees resting, the olive grower doesn't rest completely. January is a month of careful vigilance: walking through the olive grove, observing the state of the olive trees after the harvest, checking for damage caused by frost or the weight of snow, removing branches broken by the wind.
It is also the time to carry out or complete winter phytosanitary treatments with copper-based products, which protect olive trees from fungal diseases during their most vulnerable period. The application of Bordeaux mixture or copper oxychloride reduces the inoculum of diseases such as olive tuberculosis and olive scab, preparing the trees for the coming awakening. [4].
In olive groves with vegetation cover, surface tilling of the soil can be carried out—light soil mobilizations that improve soil structure and promote drainage of winter rains, without destroying the spontaneous vegetation that protects the land from erosion. [5,6].
January is also a time for planning: observing each olive tree carefully, preparing tools, organizing the agricultural calendar for the coming year. It's the month of silent preparation, of care that isn't seen but makes all the difference.
January in the Villages: the cycle of winter traditions
While the olive grove rests, January is a month of great cultural intensity in Trás-os-Montes. The Winter Festivals — ancestral rituals that celebrate the change of cycle and the arrival of the new year — profoundly mark the calendar of the villages of Trás-os-Montes.
Between December 26th (Saint Stephen's Day) and January 6th (Epiphany), masks and Caretos (masked figures) take to the streets in celebrations that date back to pre-Christian times. The Festa dos Rapazes (Festival of the Boys) marks the passage of young people into adulthood through rituals of renewal and purification.
These festivals, held in villages such as Varge, Podence, Ousilhão, and many others, are a living expression of an agrarian worldview that links work on the land to natural and social cycles. The masked figures, dressed in colorful fringes and brass or wooden masks, roam the streets to the sound of rattles, "scaring away" the evils of winter and celebrating the renewal of the community. [7].
In some villages, such as Bemposta, the Chocalheiro—a figure personifying the Devil—takes to the streets on January 1st in a penitential ritual that blends Christianity and paganism, begging for alms in the name of the Baby Jesus. These rituals, although they may seem distant from work in the olive grove, share the same root: the deep connection between rural communities and the rhythms of the land. [8].
The Cold That Brings Rebirth: The Importance of a Harsh Winter
January is also the month that teaches us the value of cold weather. In times of climate change, where winters are becoming progressively milder, the harsh cold of Trás-os-Montes gains even more importance for olive growing.
Olive trees need to accumulate hundreds of hours of cold (temperatures below 12.5°C) to complete vernalization—a process that induces flowering the following spring. Without this accumulated cold, flowering can be irregular, scarce, or even not occur at all, compromising production. [2,3,9].
That's why January, with its frosts and sub-zero temperatures, is not an enemy of the olive tree—it's an ally. The biting cold is the same cold that guarantees the abundance of the next harvest. And in the centuries-old and millennia-old olive groves of Trás-os-Montes, this cycle has repeated itself for generations, at a pace that no technology can hasten.
January to feel
For those visiting Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro in January, this is a month of silence and contemplation. The olive grove, stripped of the frenzy of the harvest, reveals itself in its purest essence: trees twisted by time, landscapes shaped by centuries of work, the serenity of winter preparing for spring.
It's time to stroll leisurely through the olive groves, feel the chill that awakens the senses, and listen to the silence that only the Transmontane winter knows. In the villages, the fireplaces remain lit, and new olive oil continues to be the star on the tables—in steaming soups, roasted vegetables, boiled cod, and slices of cornbread dipped in the green gold.
January is also the perfect month to attend the Winter Festivals, discover the traditions of the "caretas" (masked figures), participate in olive oil tastings at the still-open olive presses, or simply get lost in the schist villages where time seems to have stood still.
It's also an ideal month for cultural experiences connected to the region—discover more at azeiteanorte.pt/experiencia.
Rest that is preparation.
January teaches us that rest is not inactivity—it's preparation. While the olive trees accumulate cold and prepare their flower buds, while the earth rests under the frost, while the villages celebrate their rituals of renewal, everything prepares for the new cycle to come.
It is the month that honors the necessary silence, the time that does not rush, the wisdom of waiting. And in the interior north of Portugal, where the cold bites and the wind blows strong, January is also a time of gratitude—for the harvest that has passed, for the olive oil that has reached the bottles, for the olive tree that has endured for centuries, teaching us the art of renewal without ever losing its roots.
🫒 Follow along with us as we follow the olive tree's cycle month by month — in February, we'll see how the olive tree prepares to awaken and how pruning shapes the future of the next harvest.
#azeiteanorte #OliveOilInTheNorth #JanuaryInTheOliveGrove #TrásOsMontes #AltoDouro #OliveTourism #PortugueseOliveOil #PortugueseTraditions #TransmontaneWinter #OliveGrowingCycle #SlowTourism #BoysFestival #SustainableOliveGrowing #RuralTourism #AuthenticPortugal #Caretos
References
[2]Engelen, C., Wechsler, T., Bakhshian, O., Smoly, I., Flaks, I., Friedlander, T., Ben-Ari, G., & Samach, A. (2023). Studying Parameters Affecting Accumulation of Chilling Units Required for Olive Winter Flower Induction. Plants, 12(8), 1714. https://doi.org/10.3390/plants12081714
[5]Cerdà, A., Terol, E., & Daliakopoulos, I. N. (2021). Weed cover controls soil and water losses in rainfed olive groves in Sierra de Enguera, eastern Iberian Peninsula. Journal of environmental management, 290, 112516. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2021.112516
[6]F. Márquez-García et al, Influence of cover crops and tillage on organic carbon loss in Mediterranean olive orchards, Soil and Tillage Research (2023). DOI: 10.1016/j.still.2023.105905
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