Olive Picking 101

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When asked to spend eight days in Tuscany in exchange for three or four days of labour, would anyone say no?

We drove from London to Lucca in a day, 18 hours to be exact. The next day we were in the fields, harvesting the olives. There has been little progression in the olive harvesting methods or technology since the Romans - you lay out nets beneath the trees, then methodicaly run your hads down the branches popping off the olives. Small rakes are used to reach the upper brances. When the tree is sufficently barren you gather the nets, empty them into crates and move onto the next tree.

Oil gains the Extra Virgin lable with a specific acidity level, most easily achieved when the time from picking to pressing is less than 72 hours. We picked furiously for three days and then were off to the presses the following morning.

Tuscany in early November is stunning, fall colors, crisp cool mornings and evenings where you can still be outside in just a sweater.