The Big Event

 After six glorious relaxing weeks, the week has arrived! The purpose for our visit is upon us.  

 To get these little green marbles off the tree, into a truck, sent to the press and returned as oil.

Seems easy to say, but nature never makes life so simple! This year Mother Nature added her gift of rain and colder temps just to increase our challenge.  While the month of October was beautiful and crisp, the first weekend in November became a damp cold cursor of what might come during winter.  While we all were delighted to see the mist of rain,(drought is always on our minds) any other weekend would have better for it. I guess Mother Nature has her own way of handling life…..

Our menu and partial grocery list

The week of Harvest is filled with lots of Lists. What are we feeding the helpers, how soon do we start preparing, where are the ladders,Who are we expecting to come help, where will they stay, where are the rakes…. Its a never ending list that constantly changes and evolves as the week goes on. Have you ever noticed how satisfying it is to cross off items on a list? If you have never tried it, I highly recommend it. The sense of satisfaction one gets from such a simple act has to be considered one of life’s best emotions!

Looking down from the tree. Olives are raked onto the tarps .

Here’s a close up of the rakes used to gently pull the olives off the branches

That’s a whole lot of olives in the bin ready to head to the press

In case you thought the bins were at ground level! 

( pictures thanks to Kathy Toy)

During the entire day, the rain continued to come down and drench everyone. I was lucky…My job is to help in the kitchen and make sure there was ample amounts of warm food to nourish everyone. I got to stay dry and warm. 

Breakfast to start the day for Carole

Breakfast is an ongoing Buffet of frittatas, sweet breads and fruit along with hot coffee and teas. 

Lunch is always warm and delicious soups made by my friend Bibiana with Albert’s homemade focaccia sourdough breads.

Afternoon snacks this year included wonderful Chai to warm those workers made by my DIL Gita. After a full morning of picking, the Chai was the best pick me up and get back to work drink we could have asked for.  After the last olive makes its way into the bins, the celebration begins. Dinner, drinks and music to celebrate another year’s work done.  The joyousness of the community is truly wonderful. 

Green gold!

This year’s oil vs last year’s oil. As it ages it becomes a golden color. The taste also becomes smoother and richer.  

Was it a successful Harvest? Well, there were over 3000 pounds of olives picked( a ton+) and produced 43+ gallons of oil. More importantly there were 70+ friendships renewed, thousands of hugs given and and unending supply of happiness shared.  I’d say that was worth every cold wet moment spent in the trees.