27 October 2011
With much anticipation the 2012 olive oil harvest for L'arte dell'Olivo has finally begun!!!
Our farmer Raul called to let us know he was starting the "raccolta" (olive harvest). Keith couldn't wait to go out to the oliveto and help. Being that I've helped others harvest before, I wasn't exactly running to the car but with the excuse of being official photographer I grumbled and came along.
We had been working so hard on all the of the particulars of the olive oil business this year that I almost forgot about the very thing that "makes" our oil so special...the olives!! One of the secrets of the amazing taste of our olive oil is that Raul harvests earlier than others in the area but at the moment he feels the olives are in their prime.
Our olives are all picked by hand and allowed to fall gently down onto nets that are placed under each tree. It is similar to picking cherries although olives tend to be a little harder to get off the tree.
Those picking work the trees together, some up in ladders while others work on the lower branches, everyone adding to the growing pile of olives below on the net.
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Keith was ecstatic to be out helping harvest. Here he is picking wearing his own traditional basket that is common to pick with if you aren't using nets. It was just for a photo opp. Soon both he and Raul were attacking the tree with gusto and with the help of a few others in a mere half hour they had finished and moved on to the next tree.
Raul hires a group that helps him harvest, all of them working in teams to pick every olive on the trees.
The olives gather below on the nets, often together with leaves and branches that later are sorted out.
Everyone carefully steps around the growing piles of olives as they pick trying not to crush any olives on the ground.
Olives are very carefully handled from start to finish in order to preserve the olives intact as much as possible. Olives that are punctured, crushed or even left for too long before crushing often produce a higher acidity oil, which isn't a good thing.
This morning there had been fog over much of the valley and a sprinkling of rain. The workers hadn't been able to begin harvesting until after lunch so they were now working hard to pick everything they could before sunset.
Fun Fact: It takes 13 pounds of olives to make 1 liter of olive oil! Not everyone realizes how much work goes into the final product.
Depending on the varietal, the olive trees come in all different shapes and sizes. Some big, others full, a few sparse, each tree has its own character.
This oliveto actually dates back to 800 A.D. which seems quite crazy and unbelievable just looking at the size of the trees. An olive tree's root system can live for hundreds and hundreds of years, protected under the ground. The part of the tree above the ground is subject to the elements and as Raul told us, in 1985 he lost almost his entire olive grove when there was a big freeze. Many of the trees split apart and dried up and had to be cut off all the way to the ground. It takes them 5 years before they start producing again, 15 years until they recover completely. Talk about a year you will never forget!
This year wasn't exactly being kind to everyone. Earlier this spring there was a sudden cold that froze and dropped many of the olive flowers make this years yield a lot less. Across the valley near Cortona they had a terrible hailstorm in May that literally tore off the forming olives from the trees.
This year many people aren't even bothering to pick their minimal olives and those who are have been saying they are experiencing a third of their normal harvest. We feel lucky to still have some to bring back as "nuovo" in November but it will be in a limited quantity.
Considering the rain and fog earlier it had turned out to be a beautifully warm day. We had a gorgeous view of the Val di Chiana stretching out below us.
Everyone was taking advantage of the late afternoon to try to get as many trees harvested as possible. There were ladders, nets and people everywhere you turned!
Here's a video that I took of the harvest just to give you an idea of how very zen it is to be harvesting olives...
After each tree is fully picked they take up the nets in teams to gently gather together all of the olives.
Once the olives are all together they spend a little time trying to take out any branches and many of the leaves.
Since olives are weighed when they first are brought to the olive mill it is in our best interest to remove as much of the extra leaves and branches as possible. This group was doing their best to take out anything that didn't belong.
The olives are then gently poured into containers just to carry them to the large trailer in the back of the tractor which transports them to olive mill.
As everyone slowly finished up Raul and Keith took a moment out to enjoy the view and discuss upcoming business.
The always hospitable Raul invited us over to his storage facility where he had saved a bottle our first pressing of the season. Finally, our "nuovo"!!!! He also insisted we join him in having some of his prosciutto, actually made by him from his pigs, in a simple bread panini. Who are we to say no?
Raul's a pretty amazing man and I've blogged about other dinners we have had with him. His prosciutto is seriously the best I've ever had and after being out in the oliveto I can't tell you how amazing it tasted, I didn't even realize I was hungry! With a little of his wine to wash it down, we feasted on prosciutto and enjoyed Raul hamming it up for the camera.
Raul insisted he show us a HUGE leg of prosciutto that came from a 300 kg pig! He is a craftsman of all kinds of things, and luckily a master at producing an amazing olive oil!
We couldn't wait to finally try our official 2012 L'arte dell'Olivo "Tuscany Nuovo"! On the way home we bought bread and then as soon as we arrived Keith started a fire to make the traditional "fettunta".
Fettunta is THE original garlic bread. You take a rustic bread, slice it up, toast it over an open flame and then rub raw garlic, drizzle L'arte dell'Olivo liberally over the bread and sprinkle salt on top. Absolute yumminess!
Last but not least, surround yourself with family and friends to enjoy it and the evening with you!! It doesn't get much better than this!
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