Casa da Amoreira

Municipality of Fundão, region of Castelo Branco, Portugal

Origin.

The quinta sits in the municipality of Fundão, in Castelo Branco. Hard light, cold nights, and more rock in the ground than earth. Olives want exactly that.

A bottle at the mossy foot of an ancient olive trunk

The trees

Three hundred years, and counting

Seventy trees, some young and some very old. The oldest have been standing at least three hundred years and you cannot get your arms around them. The young ones were put in so there is still a grove here long after the old ones have gone.

The orchard

Everything else that grows here

The olives are not the only thing growing. Cherries, oranges, apples, pears, plums, figs and loquats — all of it eaten here. A quinta this size feeds itself first.

  • cherries
  • oranges
  • apples
  • pears
  • plums
  • figs
  • loquats
Seven wicker baskets filled with green, red and black olives on the grass