And We Have Olive Oil

If someone had told me back in 2007 that, six years on,

I would be tromping around just under an acre of

garden in bikini bottoms & flowery wellies

towards the end of October, I would've said

they were mad. 

But for the past couple of days that's precisely what

I've been doing....harvesting our olives.

It's back breaking work and when your back finally locks as you 

go to straighten up, it's no joke. But with the sun on your back

in temps of 24 degrees, there can be no better feeling.....

apart from when hubby returns from the olieficio with 

35 litres of extra virgin olive oil.

In my blog, The Nets Are Finally Out: http://cilentofairytales.blogspot.it/2013/10/the-nets-are-finally-out.html 

I explained that putting the nets out is not a simple job - 

even with our small number of trees, it took us

a couple of days.

And then came the waiting game - waiting to see how

many windfall olives there are to decide that it's the

right time to harvest them....which involves hubby climbing

into the trees to shake the olives off, me standing beneath

and discovering just how painful being hit by falling

olives actually is, sifting leaves out by hand before

sacking the olives ready to take to the oleificio.

Bianca loaded up & ready to go

We spent this morning harvesting what was to be our final couple 

of sacks before hubby took them to the oleificio this afternoon.

He was gone a couple of hours, as the whole pressing

process is very much a communal and 'hands on' thing

in Montecorice - you turn up, you wait your turn & then 

you empty your sacchetti ready for the sifting of the olives

and you can press the buttons for the 

machinery yourself. Everyone stands around chatting,

helping each other offload their crop.

Hubby starts the process

Our 6 sacchetti weighed in at 155kgs and yielded 35 litres of oil.
We can't compare that to our 2011 harvest as the oleificio didn't
ask hubby to weigh them then - all we can say is, for €20
a pressing, it's a bargain!

Our olives turned into our own extra virgin olive oil