Tuesday 15 November 2022

Olive Oyl Time

 Olive harvest has begun


This year Vaso's son has an electric gadget which shakes the higher branches bringing down the olives.  It means less work for more olives and he's very pleased. The lower branches are still hand raked



They're all bagged up and once a week the harvest is taken to the press. The bags are taken inside at night in a secure shed. Unfortunately sacks of olives have been known to disappear under cover of darkness 


It's still quite warm and it's a sweaty job. By afternoon he's got 7 tshirts hanging out to dry off


The trees are not always on flat ground. It can be a difficult job, sometimes on very steep slopes or in fields of thorns or rocky outcrops


Further up the road other neighbours do it the hard way with long ladders 



Our nephew George brought us two 17 litre cans of his olive oil, straight from the olive press. He says it's some of the best oil they've produced with a very low acidity. 

At the beginning of the season the were getting 1 litre from 7 kilos of green olives but now the olives are riper and plumper it's only takes 5 kilos to produce 1 litre.





16 comments:

  1. You should tell Olive to get Popeye to help out with the harvest. I bet it's amazing stuff?

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    Replies
    1. There are quite a few Olive Oyls slaving away. Hard dirty work

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  2. I would love to try some of that. Fresh from the press. Wonderful.

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    Replies
    1. It's certainly different from the supermarket stuff

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  3. Oh wouldn’t it be lovely. Having your own home grown olive oil.

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    Replies
    1. All you need are a few trees and some sort of press.

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  4. Sounds wonderful. We had 2 trees when we lived further north but didn't have a press. The pheasants used to eat them. Nowadays lots of olives are grown in the north and there are presses available.

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    Replies
    1. I heard that nz and Australia were pressing their own oil. What's the price though?

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  5. Hard hard work but so worth it. My sister use to own a property that had shares in a local olive grove, I helped her pick olives one year and we were rewarded with fresh olive oil, so much nicer than shop bought stuff.

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  6. How lucky you are. I just bought a litre bottle of good 'unrefined' oil and it cost me around £15.

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    Replies
    1. Ye gods and little fishes!! We got 17 litres for 70 euros

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  7. ooohh my humans are jealous to bits. There was some milling going on when we were in Crete and we smuggled a 5l tin back to Blighty. It will have to be rationed. We have always wondered how they collect up the olives on steep slopes. Enjoy your nice fresh oil. xxx Mr T

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    1. Steep slopes take more time arranging nets so the olives don't fall out but they'll pick from every tree wherever it is

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  8. Someday I will come to Greece ~ I really want to try all those flavors!

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