Olive Harvesting, Italian style

As we finish our time in Italy and head to the olive harvest in Greece, here is what we’ve learnt about the olives, Italian style. There are many different varieties of olives, some for table use, others for oil, but they all start off green and turn black when ripe. They are either used for oil or for eating, though we’ve only been to places where they are used for oil so far. The smaller olives tend to have higher oil content, especially when ripe. Typically they get between 10% and 18% oil by weight.

In our picking so far we have been getting between 10 and 20kgs per tree, which equates to about a one litre bottle of oil. Given the amount you are likely to receive for a bottle of oil, albeit top quality, and then think about the costs of the maintenance of the trees throughout the year, the effort to pick the tree, the equipment needed, the costs of using the press, the bottle … clearly it is done for the love, not profit. Most of the small olive farms are run by old people, so it is dying out. Commercial olive groves have a large number of trees, may use some form of mechanisation, and may even mix their olives with those from cheaper sources, e.g. North Africa …

Before clearing

After clearing

The clearance team

Fixing the nets

During the year the trees are pruned to keep their height down and clear of inside branches. Ideally the branches should spread outwards and downwards with fruit as EU regulations forbid climbing trees to pick them! Just before harvest time the ground is cleared underneath them, probably just a mow on a well-kept grove, but strimming and bramble cutting on the worst ones (like the one we’ve been at!). Another reason for keeping the ground clean is that the fallen olives are caught in nets, and these shouldn’t get tangled up in the undergrowth.  Due to the number of brambles on our fields – even the bits left over from a good strimming – the nets get holes in them, so the first task before picking is to fix them, just as a fisherman would.

Using the "Tickler"

On the day of picking the nets are rolled out, one on each side of the tree. Then the picking begins with a choice of tools: hands are popular, but also what looks like a child’s toy rake, with or without a handle. These strip the olives off the branches very quickly. Another tool looks like hair tongs. When pulled down either side of a branch it picks up all the olives. For the highest branches there is the “tickle machine” – think of a long pole connected to a car battery at one end and having two plastic forks at the other. The forks vibrate and, when pushed against the branches, cause the olives to jump to their death. Fun but the olives fly all over the place, not necessarily onto the nets. And holding the pole up for a long period is very painful on the arms. Actually, all the looking up at the branches makes for a very sore neck at the end of the day. When the tree is done the nets are picked up and the olives are poured into plastic boxes, less a few leaves and twigs and insects that get picked out. Apparently Tuscan oil requires a few leaves to add flavour …

Emptying the nets

Removing the rubbush

The crates of olives are emptied into what look like bed frames – wooded frames lined with wire netting. This allows them to air and dry as it may be some days before enough olives are picked to be able to go to the press. They can last a couple of weeks if necessary.

Original press equipment

Modern press equipment 

The press has to be booked and requires a minimum of 300kgs at a time. We were lucky in being able to go to the press with our first load. Though you book a time to be there it is possible to wait for hours as it depends on how many olives the previous people have taken. Often people have to hang around for most of the night awaiting their – overdue – turn. Once the season gets going the press runs 24x7. Each person dumps their olives into a hopper from which they find their way to a conveyor belt taking them first to have excess leaves blown off, then washed, and then into the press itself. They don’t start this process until the previous person’s olives have been pressed and the equipment washed – it would be terrible to mix your oil with someone else’s! Eventually the oil starts dripping out a tap and into your containers. The final step is to pour some into a plate and sit down with some bread, garlic and salt for a tasting.

Our olives!

Our olives – and the others we saw at the press – were mostly green with a sprinkling of black, reflecting that they were the first of the season to be picked. The green olives give the oil a stronger, peppery taste. And the colour! Bright green like spirulina or some of those concoctions of kiwi juice. The colour does fade after a month or so.

Being washed

The result!

Where we are, in the hills above Florence, it is about the maximum altitude for olives. They are less affected by an insect that burrows into the olives and spoils many and being completely surrounded by forest helps keep other insects at bay. Now Italians think their oil is the best in the world. Tuscans, certainly, think their oil is the best in Italy (as does every other region!!), and our host here at Baronci believes her oil is one of the best in Tuscany. So, have we contributed to the best olive oil there is? As a comparison, the brother of our host, Mimmo, has given us a bottle of a very exclusive local oil that is normally exported to the US. We’ll report back later on what that is like.

Tasting hot off the press

More "before" photos ...

But after ...