Our Thanksgiving in the Olives

Our day was spent at Eve's once again, harvesting olives.  It has been an interesting season, with much rain, meaning no picking.  It's impossible to pick olives in rain, wind, or fog for many reasons: besides the obvious dangers and difficulties of climbing trees and ladders in wind and rain, moisture can cause the olives to spoil in their crates before they are taken to the mill, or frantoio, for pressing.

We awoke to a cloudy but dry day and a phone call from Eve telling us "it's on" so off we went.  I love this description of olive trees, "If you ever get a chance to climb one to pick its fruit - which is remarkably easy to do, given how short and accommodating the younger trees are - the feeling will no doubt remind you of climbing into the lap of a favorite old aunt, the one who'd benignly allow you to yank at her necklace without a hint of protest or resistance."

About olive harvesting:  It's a fact that the quality of the oil decreases with the increase of mechanization and electric tools because the more gently the olives are treated the better the resulting oil. The high quality oils normally are obtained by hand picking the olives directly into a basket (brucatura) - the best method of all but the least efficient and so the most costly (unless you have two American friends who will spend the day picking all for a delightful lunch on your patio).

Our Thanksgiving lunch, overlooking the picturesque valley, along with warm sunshine and great company gave us much to be thankful for. 

We can only be said to be alive in those moments
when our hearts are conscious of our treasures. 
~Thornton Wilder

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1 comments:

Anonymous said...

I am sensing a theme. Steve, wine, olive oil and friends...
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