After our Olive Harvest being so disappointing last year we were really hoping for a better one this year. In fact it turned out better than we had hoped for, but unfortunately we did not have the labour to complete picking in the time we had allowed this year. Two years ago when we had a massive harvest of 1,074 kilos it took four of us, two sessions of four days to pick this quantity!
Our friends who have helped us for the last few years were this year unavailable, but fortunately my sister was able to time a visit to help us and some other local friends managed to give us a few hours between them. This meant that for the majority of the time it was just three of us harvesting, for the four days we had allowed. With the mill accepting a minimum quantity of 300 kilos we decided we needed to carry on for a fifth day, which pushed our harvested weight to the 380 kilos. With time and labour there is no doubt we could have harvested a second batch, but quite honestly as this amount was going to provide more than enough for our own use and family and friends that we share with, we decided to call a halt. Shame about the unpicked olives but there you go, that’s life, no one else wants them as everyone has more than enough of their own!
David and I have been harvesting olives every year since our arrival in Italy in 2004 and quite honestly we sometimes feel we have been there and done that! Having an Olive Grove is hard work needing attention throughout the year, although of course it is extremely rewarding to produce your own olive oil. For those that do not know from previous years we harvest all our olives by hand, just using little rakes something like a child’s sand toy. This method ensures that there is very little damage to the olives during the picking, but it is of course a slow and labour intensive method. Rewarding work in the sunshine though, we have always been lucky with our timing of the harvests as regards the weather, only getting soaked to the skin once, as heavy rain arrived just as we were completing picking one year, with no option but to carry on.
We were certainly lucky with the weather this year. My sister had beautiful blue skies to enjoy while she was here and it was a pleasure to be outside in the sunshine all day.
I will follow this post up with one about the milling process soon but for now I will share photos of the harvest from November 10th to November 14th inclusive. Good timing as the following morning we had our first frost, although it disappeared quickly and we had another glorious day of which we spent a good few hours of at the mill, but that is for next time.
For those of you that are new to this blog and may be interested in the previous Olive Harvest posts, here are the links.
Olive Harvest - Phase One – 2009
Olive Harvest - Phase Two - 2009
Olive Harvest 2010 - Che Disastro!
Olive Oil 2010
Lots more photos can be viewed in in My Flickr Albums in the collection entitled Olives and Olive Oil.
All rights reserved by LindyLouMac Photo Collection
Ciao Christy - La Dolce VitaThis is a series which I participate in from time to time, welcome to News From Italy to anyone who has called by from this link about sharing La Dolce Vita in Italy.
Those olives look delicious. And harvesting, although lots of work, looks like lots of fun. Great stuff!
ReplyDeleteHi LLM - Had to go back to Firefox for this comment...
ReplyDeleteLove this post, I can almost taste olives as I read and to think of the oil on the great things that my wife Sue cooks. Yummmmm...
The colors of the various olives are lovely.
I had not realised that you had lived in Italy since 2004.
Wow! That sounds like A LOT of work! And even though your harvest was smaller this year, it still sounds massive!
ReplyDeleteWonderful pictures!
Hi Linda, wish my wife and I could have helped you this year. It looks like you had a great harvest, although you had to leave some olives unpicked. I think the olive oil from this region is now my favorite. We brought a can back with us that we purchased in a store and are enjoying it!
ReplyDeleteAs we told you, my mother orders from Canino every year, but I will let her try the oil from Montefiascone that we brought back. David said that he prefers the oil from Marta and Montefiascone to that of Canino despite the DOP designation for Canino. Based upon my limited tastings, I agree with David.
Olive harvesting is really hard work and our land is also terraced! One's own oil is however liquid gold.
ReplyDeleteI just went to a blogging event yesterday in a restaurant that belongs to a man from Umbria who is passionate about olive oil. He does tastings, courses and wrtoe a book and told us some fascinating things about harvesting and olive oil. I always new it is extremely labor intensive, especially doing it by hand with rakes like you do but I am sure that the product that derives from the process is superior in quality. Good job!
ReplyDeleteHi Linda. SOme gorgeous photos of your olive harvest for us to look at today. I'm glad it was much more successful than last year, and how wonderful to now have a ready supply of your own Olive Oil. I bet it tastes delicious.
ReplyDeletePity we do not live a little closer or we would help you with the olives. If I do not reply to any emails for the moment it is because my computer is up the creek and I am on my old laptop. It is very slow and emails are even slower!! Diane
ReplyDeleteLooks like hard work, but so worth it! Love the crisp sunny pictures.
ReplyDeleteLindy,
ReplyDeleteI have a few olive trees in Italy, but we never get to pick any, as we leave in September! In Puglia olives are harvested very early, as it's really hot, there, so, by November most of them would have become Olive oil.
I love you photos. It looks like fun, but I'm sure it must be backbreaking work!
I can see that you are mutating... you are becoming a real Italian, Lindy!
CIAO
ANNA
I never knew what went into olive picking! These pictures are simply amazing!
ReplyDeleteOhhh ! Great harvest Linda!Amazing pics like always!
ReplyDeleteMonica
I love Olive Tree. It's so wonderful!!
ReplyDeleteBeautiful pics as always...
Buona notte
Congratulations again, Linda, on your successful harvest. Looks like so much fun! Having your own olive oil all year must be wonderful. Wishing you a great week. – g
ReplyDeleteLindy, I'm available for the next year :)
ReplyDeleteWow Lindy what an amazing post, I had no idea of the time or labor involved. I think like many I have a romantized idea of the whole process. It's great to know that you can just decide to stop without stressing over every olive unpicked. Your photo's are gorgeous and we would love to be volunteers when we get back to Italy so will have to be 2012 harvest!
ReplyDeleteciao and thanks for your support and words of encouragement they mean so much!
Lisa
What a fabulous series of collages Lindy. It looks like your sister really enjoyed the experience. it reminds me of the family and friends who used to love to come and help us help pick cherries when we lived in the Okanagan Valley in British Columbia.
ReplyDeleteso much work but delicous rewards!
ReplyDeleteWonderful Lindy you had lovely blue skies for the picking I'm sure that made the task more pleasant. Enjoyed seeing your pics of the olive harvest and you must feel a sense of achievment in a job well done. Brava!! Enjoy the rewrds.
ReplyDeleteHi Lindy, I am glad you had time to blog and to visit. The olive harvesting sounds like a real busy time. It kind of looks like fun but I am sure it is all hard work. Lovely post and photos.
ReplyDeleteOh, my, I'd love to do something like this. You got some great pics. We had black olives today as an appetizer. Love those!
ReplyDeleteI've only seen real olives trees on TV, never really seen one before as they dont grow here. I'd LOVE to be there one day. Happy Thanksgiving and tks so much for being my friend. Have a blessed weekend :) Hugs..mk
ReplyDeleteWhat a lot of work that is! It has to be a labour of love!
ReplyDelete380 kilos is already an amazing amount to be harvested and I can only imagine how satisfying it must be to finally call it quits. Wonderful job you all!!
ReplyDeleteIt looks a fantastic harvest to me! Great photos, as always.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed looking at your olive photos. I enjoyed seeing all the olive trees while I was in Italy. Who knew I was only an hour away from you while visiting Orvieto? You certainly have chosen a beautiful area in which to live!
ReplyDelete-Karen
Hard work or not, it's so obvious that y'all are livin' the life!
ReplyDeleteThis is fascinating...we love olive anything here...the picking procedure and milling sounds so intriguing...Back breaking work I suspect to some degree...I can see you now sampling your crop....Cheers!! Fr fr fr frost....oh oh!
ReplyDeleteOlive is one of my favorite food. How interesting to see the photos. :)
ReplyDeleteGreat photos! I absolutely love olives, but that looks like a lot of work :) I bet it was worth it though!
ReplyDeleteWhen I saw your comment about harvesting olives I had hoped so much that you shared your experience and pics with us. I am so glad you did!
ReplyDeleteGreat photos. Shame about those left behind, but it is good news for the wildlife ;)
ReplyDeleteCongratulations from the bottom of my heart about your successful harvest! I think I can feel the fragrance of olives. And sense the happiness that you experience. Once again, congratulations :)
ReplyDeleteGreat pictures and post! Just when I thought we were finished picking olives (200 liters worth) my husband's brother arrived from NY and decided that he wanted to pick his olives too...so guess what I'll be doing today? In any case, while the weather is beautiful it's a joy. Will check out your photography website too. I love your photos and would like to get more into photography myself. Did you take a course or are you self-taught? Is your camera expensive? Mine is about 5 years old, point and shoot. Don't know how much I can get out of it...
ReplyDeleteDiane@ Breaking my own rule, see above box, as this seems only way to answer your question! No I am self taught, digital photography is a great way of experimenting. I am not sure what you would call expensive, cannot recall exact costs but guess thye are mid range cameras. I use Panasonic DMC-TZ65 and a Nikon Coolpix P500 both of which I like very much.
ReplyDelete