The Olives

In mid-October we were finally back volunteering on a farm. The one we went to was a small B&B / farm, run by one woman (Mara). The B&B was a former mill, where we all stayed, and every day we drove to her olive fields in another location. That's what we were there for - the olive harvest! There was us, Mara, and three other WWOOFers. Nicky and Janice, 50-some year olds from London, and Martin, a young cook from Germany.

Mara had over 200 olive trees, which we mostly got through in two weeks. It was fairly easy work, with the routine of laying down nets under the tree, then using plastic rakes to comb all the olives off the branches ideally to fall onto the nets. We'd make a couple of trips around the tree to get all the branches, including climbing up the middle (only a couple of metres high) and using longer and electronic rakes (dubbed "the rattlesnake"). When the trees with nets were done, the nets were gathered up and the olives put into crates, which we hauled into the garage every day. At lunch time, we'd gather around a rickety table and eat a picnic, usually a cold pasta or rice dish. Most days were sunny, and the view (especially from up a tree) was off beautiful rolling green hills, with the Adriatic Sea on the horizon.

The days that were rainy were our days off. The first of these was a lot of fun, since the other WWOOFers had cars and took us all to a few scenic towns. We also had a massive lunch together with lots of local specialty foods, including strozzapretti ("the priest strangler", pasta spitefully served to a greedy priest). Anyway, our harmony with the other WWOOFers sadly deteriorated a fair bit by the end of two weeks. They started to complain a lot about the work, muttering about Mara's decisions, and even often bringing up the lack of meat, though the farm was advertised as fervently vegetarian. In the end, the difference in us and them endeared us to Mara more ("you are the true WWOOFers!") and we parted very warmly.

We did also get to watch the olives get turned into oil at a local press, but I think Matt described that for another post.