‘Raccogliere le olive’
For the uninitiated, the olive harvesting in Tuscany goes on from October to December every year and peaks around tupping time, November 5th when absolutely everybody, whether they have olives or not, get out their nets, boxes, trailers and stand under their trees. It’s in their blood here and they can’t stop doing it and talking about it....everybody...everywhere!
All the olives that are picked here are for processing, usually at the local frantoia, and pressed to turn them into a delicious green, peppery oil and it’s big, big business. You can forget that crap stuff you buy at the Lidl, this is the real deal.
You need a few tools to do the job:
Paletti = stakes for holding the edges of the net to stop the buggers rolling away.
Cassetti = boxes take about 25kg and this year, with a bumper crop, one decent tree can fill 3 of these!
Rete Olivastra= a bloody big net!
Rastrelli = little rakes to use by hand to strip the olives off the branches.
Carri Carri = a cart or a donkey(chooka)...that’s the one on the left!
And lots of energy....it’s tiring work!
Today we are high up in the olive terraces again, in a beautiful garden with about 90 more trees to go...
We are averaging about 30 trees per day.
For the purists among you, turn off now because unless you have a spare two months there is no way that you can pick this many olives by hand so we have to have get the big power-tools out to give a helping hand....so to speak!
The ‘macchina di olive’, A mechanical aid connected to a battery with strong fingers that flick up and down and shake, rattle and roll the olives off the trees.
Today’s first weapon of choice is the ‘Tickler’ with a sleek, long slim shaft giving fast, long, deep strokes, perfect for teasing off the olives from the smaller trees, a snip at about €500 and does a pretty decent job.
For the bigger jobs we have the ‘climax’, a more heavy duty model that is better suited for the ‘larger lady’ as it’s carbon fingers are more powerful, and it’s 33 voltage can flick your olive off very easily and it comes with the added bonus that it doesn’t get stuck in a thick bush the same.....that’s worth the extra €300 dobbers!
Both models give a fully enjoyable experience for the user as long as you have a powerful battery, a firm grip and steady hand...
One downside is that by using a ‘tool’ you are more likely to get ‘tanti foglie’, which sounds like an STI but it just means that you just get loads more leaves and twigs in your nets, and this unfortunately just can’t be helped!
A quick word concerning health and safety........there, that’s that sorted then, but then saying that, if you get one in the eye from a great height you will know about it...been there, got at least half a dozen ‘T’ shirts.
Once the olives have flown off the trees in every direction the next job is to collect up the big nets and fill up the boxes.
The olives are emptied through a machine here that separates them from the leaves
as they fall past a fan and you are left with a nice, clean crate of olives ready to go to
the frantoia.
Lunch or ‘Pranzo’ is a welcome break and is always a ‘celebration’ with a table full of local food, bread, meats, cheeses, fagioli, salsicci, bruschetta, panettone, birra ,vino, grappa and good banter.
Frantoia blog next week.....hopefully!
‘Shaker maker’ is a great track way back when Oasis were great, this one off the first album.
