OLIVE HARVEST TENSIONS

I woke up this morning so full of autumnal glooms I decided I could not muster a single click, never mind something blipworthy. Skies are grey. But, as you can see, I oozed out and therein is one of the values of blip. It makes a person move. The first thing to be seen were giant field mushrooms which required flattening self out on the grass, bruising wild mint and sniffing it's wonderful scent. Wild mushrooms are two a penny on blip, however, so I looked at the trees.

Wherever men gather now -- in rural coffee bars, petrol stations, grocery stores -- tensions are running high. By eavesdropping at the post office yesterday I learned that "they" are picking already in Capella but then, of course, they are always early because of their micro climate. So, maybe 10 days, maybe 14 for those at higher altitudes. Will the weather hold or will it rain? Will the oil be exquisite, excellent, very good, good or only passable?

Tensions in the car snapped and crackled when we stopped by at the frantoio (olive press) to make appointments for pressings. The frantoio is opening two weeks early this year and it is heavily booked already. Himself was quite alarmed but managed to get a few appointments although not nearly enough. Now he is worried.

Our local frantoio is cold press. A secondary frantoio we sometimes use is hot press. I understand there is less, but better oil, via cold press. More and more people are, however, turning to hot press.

I couldn't decide, as usual, which pic to use. This one seemed the most dramatic for blipping. But here is a close up of the bark on a tree over 1,000 years old. Ancient Tree. It is still producing olives and is very beautiful.

And this is a field mushroom, already the size of a saucer. Just one of these once plate size, sauteed, can be eaten as if a steak. I drool to think of it. Field Mushroom. After all that scrooging around on my stomach, I had to use of of the pics at least.

So now I feel I might survive a grey day. Thanks Blip.