Like most regions, Tuscany is has many proverbs in relation to nature. Usually formulated poetically, they are a testimony to the experience accumulated along the seasons and transmitted generation after generation.
Here is one that olive oil farmers know well, and that rings very true.
"The blossoms of the olive flowers in April are for the barrel, those of May only for tasting, and those of June are for punching" (*)
The month of April has been rainy, and the olive trees are now covered in tiny white blossoms, called mignola, and that the May sun should help bloom.
Thousands of flowers will then cover our olive trees, promising a fruitful harvest... but quiet! tradition asks that one does not rejoice too quickly of a promising mignola... yet another example of the century-old wisdom transmitted by tradition.
(*) “Se mignola d’aprile vai col barile; se mignola di maggio giusto per assaggio; se mignola di giugno ne prendi un pugno”