Olive Harvest 2012

This is my third season of harvesting olives for oil and so far the best yet.  Why?  Because we invited students and friends to come down to our house and pick with us, had amazing lunches and many laughs.  Normally it is just Ettore and I picking for 3-4 days.  His mom and sister stop by for an afternoon, but usually it is just us.  Having people that you like makes the tedious act of picking olives so much more bearable.  We also have the ability to harvest more olives with more people picking which means, of course, more oil. 

Ettore and I started the harvest on the 1^st of November and we’ll still be picking until the 8^th of November.  So far we’ve managed to fill twelve 25 kilo cases of olives which will hopefully translate into at least 40 litres of oil, but that remains to be seen.  Our appointment at the press is at midnight on the day before we leave for Turkey, so we won’t even get to try the oil for 10 days.  What a shame! 

My Awsome Wine Students

On Saturday the 3^rd I had a few of the students from my wine class come up to help.  It was a gorgeous sunny day, so we had perfect conditions.  I was so happy I did because they were so engaged and interested.  This is what people should experience when they come to Italy.   My friends ask me for oil all the time and I turn them down.  Not because I am a bad person but because I think they do not realize how much labor goes into making a bottle of olive oil.  With 4 people picking for 4 hours we filled 4 cases which will translate into 9-12 litres of oil.  Outside of the classroom my students received a true education in farm to fork philosophy.  Being able to experience the olive harvest will make them appreciate all the more the delicious bounty that the olive tree produces year after year.

This year the trees were generous.  So many olives, just so many.  They were raining down on us.  Once a person gets into the rhythm of the harvest it becomes addictive.  The cramping in your hands means little compared to the ping pong sound of olives dropping on the nets.  

Ms. Parla

On Sunday my friends Gina, Irene and Katie came down to help us harvest.   We weren’t so lucky with the weather.  It rained and it was wet and muddy, but they worked damn hard.  It was so much fun to talk, gossip and work.  Every person in their own rhythm with their own method for getting the most olives from each branch.  Some people turned into monkeys and climbed the trees to get to more olives.   Greed sets in.  You want to reach those that were out-of-reach moments earlier.  The feel on each olive first in your hands and then the sound of it falling into the net is addictive.  You want to pick as many as you can.  You don’t want to stop.  But when you do, you settle down with a nice glass of wine, nod off and feel very satisfied with your day.  

Picking olives is very rewarding work.  

Ettore picking olives

Bon Jovi helping out

Hard-to-reach olives, that is what olive combs are for

Gina and Irene sorting the olives and getting rid of the branches

OLIVES!

At the press, you put you olives into the giant crates

A wash before pressing

Sweet liquid gold.  The reward for our labors.