966 harvesting the olives

When we bought our place the previous owner laid claim to the olives for the first year saying that he had done all the preparation work . For the sake of goodwill we agreed to this, but when we were there in November he stopped by and said he would be coming back for them in one months time. I also heard from someone that the harvest can run right through till february, so if that's true it gives you a 3 month harvesting window. I daresay someone in the know will be along soon to clarify things.

As to how to actually harvest them, I don't know how to do it myself but I've seen the nets under the trees presumably to catch any that drop by themselves, and I know they harvest some of them using ladders as the old guy who took ours last year had left a set ( of ladders ) in the garden.

I am also worried about this business of handing it all over to someone else and getting involved in contracts and other bureaucratic hassle........not at all happy with the idea. Kinda takes away the idyllic lifestyle concept a bit for me.

essentially it is quite simple.....

around october / november time when everyone else starts you do too.... there are different types of olives of course.... the bigger ones can be harvested and then stored under liquid..or seeing as you do sun drying leave them out for a couple of months and they will wrinkle up and you can them have them as nibbles with aperitifs...... the smaller ones are used for oil.... your neighbours will be your best experts on what when and how

basically you need big nets..... which have a split in to slide up and around the tree.... you then have to comb or rattle the olives off the tree... there are little battery opearted olive picking machines you can buy they girate back and forward and knock the olives off... because they girate so quickly this method requires larger nets as the olives fly around a bit.... combing works well with younger and well maintained trees...... but generally requires climbing into the trees themselves.... lots of accidents every year ... olive picking is dangerous..... if the trees are aincient and large and have not been maintained the easiet way is to buy several pairs of garden gloves and comb them off with your fingers.... last year i got thru several pairs with our own trees and helping neighbours....

the olives are then boxed or sacked.... the problem then is that they start to heat up and loose oil.... i would say you need to go every four days or so to the mill...especially if the weather is warm... your olives will be weighed and then milled you will need large plastic containers to carry the oil home in.... and you will pay the mill at each visit... depending on the mill the process can take up to several hours....

you need to have visited the local farm shop before hand and to have bought a stainless steel container with a tap fittin at the bottom they come in various sizes from about 20 lts up...

you will need a cantina which remains cool to store the oil in... you will need machinery to caryy the boxes away from the trees and to then transport to the mill although some mills send lorries around

how we work it is that i help neighbours....everyone needs a hand at olive picking time and then they help me.... that way you learn...you help....you make friends and you then get your oil.... we have few trees and because i work longer for the neighbours they pay me with oil....

an olive picking day also consists of various meals and drinks of wine....so make sure you have those ready for neighbours if they help.... best to help another neighbour yourself first and get the idea

the same will apply with the pruning of the trees ...help the neighbours tthey will help you

i might well have left something out but really its not that difficult ...it does take time and it is tiring.... oh yes ...if your olives are on a hill you will need canes to stake on the low side of the nets to stop them rolling away

two of you working hard will pick your fifty trees in about 3 or 4 days... this will vary on the crop and your trees of course... as i say be careful.... accidents happen a lot.... dont overstretch for that last elusive olive....let the birds have it...

good luck....

For information on contracts, contact your local "Coldiretti" office, I am pretty sure they will also produce the contract for you, as far as interrupting the idyll is concerned, the contract will run for a number of years (5, 10, 15 whatever), so all you have to concern yourself about is collecting the rent, whether cash, oil, or a combination. :)

Thanks everyone for the help..and John you are a star with your detailed description...just printing it to give to Alex !!!!!

Flyingveepixie, what were you quoted to draw up a contract ?

Thanks george, will try your suggestion before we make a firm decision.

george.... for once i disagree... politely i hope otherwise ronald will give me another telling off....

for fifty olive trees it just isnt worth any fuss..... neighbourly co-operation in my opinion is the best way....you will get enough oil for the year....eg allow at least 1 lt every two weeks and you should be comfortable with that...depending on taste.....

its the same with grants....you can go and register your trees and claim a pitifall allowance but in all honesty fifty trees are not even worth queing for...

here there is a gardening type person also that comes and prunes lots of the older neighbours trees.... am sure you will find one close to you in puglia and pay him to prune the things for you.....

pick the olives...as many as you want and leave the rest to the birds.... in all honesty we are talking here of sums of less than e 100 in income produced ..

or better still invite all your friends and family over for an olive picking fest....

as regards closure of mills...most of the smaller ones in this region aim to be finished before xmas

Adriatica (John) Thank you from us, I also have just printed it out. Thanks also to Alex & Lyn for posting just what we were wondering about.
We have just returned this weekend from signing the compremesso on our beautiful casa in Abruzzo. We were discussing the 120 olive trees we will now own.Current owner has this years olives which is fine, we will not be doing the final signing until Oct /Nov, - but we were clueless about what to do from next year.
One thing-What are the mills called? and do you need to book or just turn up and wait.

John, I also disagree with me, but, errrm, I beleived that the people concerned were going to allow the farmer to carry on farming the olives and claiming the grant without any agreement, surely that can be dangerous, BUT, if they're going to pick what they need themselves, No Problem. :)
I think I was probably referring more to Flying Pixie's problem too, ohh, going for a lie down, too HOT !!!

here in the hilly inland area of abruzzo production is quite limited.... not the large commercial mills which produce vast amounts of oil...

what happens here is a cold press the olives are taken to the mill....FRONTOIO.... after speaking with the owners and making sure they have the space...they are then crushed by mill wheels ... the paste then loaded into the press and after that the water is seperated off and hey presto oil.....

when storing it keep it in the cool cellar and be prepared at colder times for it to solidify...yes olive oil freezes when it is as unadulterated as this..... so winter time make sure you have decanted some ready to move up to a warmer room for use...thats the main problem with the stainless steel vats with taps...when its cold it doesnt come out

we happen to have an olive mill..... god knows what to do with it.... but it does provide a talking point....

george to offer some solice..... weather is supposed to change tuesday or wednesday.... dropping by 10c and a bit of rain..... so it will only be 30 c... no need to lie down

John you are a star when you get going...now get that olive press out and teach us how to use one and that will really save all our skins !!!

as sometimes happens and a post here takes my fancy i do tend to waffle on... our olive mill is not in use now..... have all the bits and pieces...but it was manual in the pressing stage and the separation ...these days there are electric motors that run everything though still where we take ours human intervention and physical work is still required... for those that might live here can reccomend the mill in basciano... a small family run one...

our neighbours all worked in our mill.... we have various stories from them concerning 24 hour days and long bouts of drinking.... falling asleep and getting hit by the arms of the mill wheels ...they have these spade type appendages to scrape the crushed olives off which stick out....

its an old verbal history of time past....and when you reflect it sometimes makes you sad to know that in a few years from now it will all be lost...

however to olives and today... if you have a small amount eg up to 100 or so plants.... it is a lot of work...but there is definitely no money to be made... there is however fun and a sense of achievment to be had...

in co operation with neighbours it can be a rewarding struggle..... to sit on the hills eating a meal provided with fresh pasta and a few litres of local wine and pass the day after slaving all morning .... to roll back to the village late afternoon ...and here i must add a process which i forgot to say in the previous ones....

the sacks or boxes are put in the barn.... but before taking them to the mill they are rolled down something a bit like a long draining board... at this stage you remove all debris...eg leaves and twigs and then they are sacked/boxed agin for the mill

... and then you get invited to eat the evening meal and everyone chats about the highs and lows of the day.... its a time of year where you sleep well and eat well....

the mill visit with you sacks of olives .... each farmer turning up with tractors or cars and trailors...a sort of belonging as you help unload and then move and weigh the sacks before the process... you are now part of that club... that struggles each year to pull in the harvest... and as such you have the right to cut the slice of bread from the loaf on the table and dip it into the fresh green oil sitting in a dish...sprinkle a little salt on and eat it down with a glass of wine from the bottles on the table.... yes it all sits there and as your oil is processed and drips out they might put the dish under yours to replenish it ... and maybe you ll feel proud as they dip the bread into your oil.... and every one will be sitting chatting and telling their story about the harvest that year...in fact you can sit there all night if you want... for a couple of months a year the place just keeps going

... so if you can skip the contracts and such....do it yourself... it will be worth it

Aaahhh RAIN, I remember that, wet stuff, right???

As still a resident in England, I vaguely remember that round yellow thing sometimes seen in the sky, what's it called now...........no it's gone!

Jan :o

[QUOTE=alex and lyn]Thanks everyone for the help..and John you are a star with your detailed description...just printing it to give to Alex !!!!!

Flyingveepixie, what were you quoted to draw up a contract ?

Thanks george, will try your suggestion before we make a firm decision.[/QUOTE]

We've not looked into the possibility of a contract yet. To be honest I don't really think it would be worth it for us as we only have 34 olive trees. My 2 main concerns about it are:

1. someone coming along and helping themselves and eventually gaining the rights to work our land but I think that's kind of unlikely anyway.

2. Our olives going to waste which would be a terrible shame.

I just don't know what to do about this. We also have a lot of lovely fruit trees including 3 cherry trees which were absolutely laden this year but as we hardly ever get the chance to get over to Italy most of the stuff goes to the birds and the insects.

John,
What a brilliant post ( the last one as well !!!)

I've printed them all off for reference but hope our harvest is as enjoyable...i think we'll give it a try this year , our next door neighbours are great and both have HUGE olive groves, so I'm sure they'll point us in the right direction ...also an old boy up the road ( 80 odd !) who has zillions of olive trees all beautifull irrigated will offer his advise. Just hope we don't break anything...may ask all my starpping nephews if they want a free holiday....there goes our wine stock !!!!

Thanks again.

While we're on, any tips on storing fruit....

I've got a load of tiny pears ready and I wondered what Flying veepixie can do with his cherries.....Now I think of it, i haven't got a cherry tree..must get one !!! Have got some fruit trees, which we aren't sure what the fruit is !!!!

I have bottled fruit before, but these pears are delicious fresh and really small , so by the time you have cored them and peeled them for bottling, there wouldn't be much left.
Got some wooden crates from supermarket yesterday, so am all ready !!!!

GEORGE...you always make me chuckle !!!!...what do you mean rain ????? Whats that !!!! haven't seen any for weeks !!!!! Never thought I would miss it ........watering the 'garden' is killing us !!!!!!

Lynn,

The fruit your not sure of, is it similar to an apple (same as an apple inside) but furry like a peach. We have a peach tree and can see the difference.

Paula

LOL. I have several dogs, 3 too many, only one from England though, when it rains, the majority of the Italian dogs, sensibly head for cover, the English dog, normally VERY laid back, races around the "garden" till she almost collapses, grinning like a loon, the boy from Napoli, stands around working out how to look his best in the rain, while stylishly sauntering for cover.
That yellow thing in the sky Jan, very rare in England, here it is called sole, over in UK it is known as "a UFO"... Hope this helps, looking forward to the drop down to 30°, we're supposed to be getting thunderstorms too, lovely, I live in a basin here, it's amazing to watch the lightening flashing around the hill tops and through the clouds, and, I don't need to water the little frit trees for a day. :)