THE OLIVE HARVEST NO. 4 -- PICKING

Olives were pelting down all around me like hail stones when I took this picture. Everybody was more than willing to be photographed but they would not stop for an instant. This is "Capitano Findus," so called because he is meant to look like the man on Findus packages. His real name is Ilio but he is always called Capitano.

The method being used here is obvious. Capitano is knocking the olives off the branches with a stick. High above, in another tree, olives were being whacked off in the same way by Lamberto whack, whack.

The sun shines, in spite of the forecast for rain, the olive groves are looking beautiful and everybody is in a good mood. Even I am in a good mood.

The local frantoio (olive press) is open. Growers, who have specific appointments, are picking to acquire the weight of olives required for a pressing. At the local press this is 250 kilos or 500 + pounds.

Last week, all of the regulars who use this frantoio contributed a crate of olives each to run through the press for the purpose of cleaning the equipment. It seems a waste, but there you go, that's how it is done.

The first oils will be peppery because many of the olives will still be green. Peppery is how Tuscans like it. I don't. I like mellow and fruity. Olives are incredibly bitter. I once popped a ripe one into my mouth, straight from the tree, and thought I had been killed. The bitterness is in the olive juice, but this is spun off leaving only the oil.

There are commercial growers all around us but none in these particular hills. Depending upon the size of the harvest, the oil is kept for home use and any excess is sold to local restaurants and individuals. We do this too. We go through about three litres per month.

The first year we had olives we had it bottled, stuck pretty labels on it, sold some to a local deli and sent it as gifts to friends and relatives. This was a bad precedent because it was rather expected the next year. The shipping costs were eye popping and sharing the bounty stopped abruptly.

I maintain that our oil is worth about £100 per bottle. (I exaggerate.) Keeping up olive groves is not cheap, paying somebody to help pick the olives, pressing and the cost of the bottles adds up alarmingly. (We sell it for 8 to 10 euros per 3/4 litre bottle, about £8.75/$14.00.) It's fabulous stuff.

The previous pics in this series are as follows: Pruning the trees, 2 October. The olive press, itself, 14 October. Clearing the terraces, 15 October.

I could not resist adding these two pics. A lovely olive grove in the morning sun.

These boots were made for picking.