Winter Stories · 4 November · Harvest
The week the olives come in
Nets under the trees, the press in the next village, and the first oil of the year on bread.
The olives around the house are picked from early November. The nets go out under the trees, the branches are combed or shaken, and the sacks go to the press the same day. For a few weeks the whole hillside smells of crushed olives and wood smoke.
The oil that comes off the press in November is green, cloudy and sharp at the back of the throat. It is poured onto bread with salt and eaten standing up. By spring it has settled and softened; the November version is the one people wait for.
If you are at the house during the harvest, ask us. The presses in the villages around let visitors watch, and there is usually oil to buy at the door.
