A harvest day

In the old times, speaking of olive harvest would bring to memory pictures of cold, wet, windy winter days spent picking olives either from tall tress, balancing on wooden ladders, or back-aching bent over the ground to pick the fallen ones. Frozen hands, painfully sensitive ears and noses tickled by the thin branches and hardened leaves.

As all things in life develop and change, so did also the logic of cultivation of olives and production of oil. No more tall trees to allow crops to grow in their shade, or late harvest to achieve the highest oil percentage at the mill*. The trees are kept lower to ease hand picking, and the olives are picked at the best time that enables to maintain the polyphenols high and produce the best quality olive oil.

Last Sunday was a truly beautiful autumn day, quiet and peaceful, one could almost feel the nature preparing for the winter rest and soaking up the last sunrays reminiscent of the summer. The night humidity deposited a thin layer of pearly droplets on the grass, leaves and fruits, so we had another coffe waiting for it to dissolve. Nets were then laid around the olives, and the harvest begun.

Morning in the orchard

Branches bent by the weight of the fruits

Somebody having fun on the net...

The literal fruits of one year's work

Harvest done for the day, now fast to the mill!

*That is technically not correct. Olives picked later (i.e. after the optimal period) do give a higher percentage of (lesser quality) oil, but this is because the olives have lost in weight due to several factors like transpiration and others...It also costed less to the farmer, as you pay the mill a certain amount per kilo of olives, not per litre of oil produced.