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LETTER FROM TUSCANY Olive Picking Season
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Every year for the olive picking season we accept a number of young people, the greater part Aussies coming through Helpexchange, to assist with the work. We don't have as many olive trees as our neighbours, the Bindi family, who have more than 2,000; we have only about 200, of which 100 are still very young and producing very very little. This new grove was planted in 2003, the driest and hottest year recorded in two centuries. To pick about 100 trees is a hell of a job and a dangerous one. Every year there are a number of people falling from trees or off their ladders, so we ensure our pickers tie their ladders firmly to the trees with rope. Most accidents happen when pickers, attempting to pick olives far from their reach, cause the ladder to slip and fall to the ground. This year, the olive picking season has been very depressing, at least for our small farm. We had little or no rain throughout the whole summer, resulting in olives dropping to the ground around September/October. The fruit left on the trees were very small and often affected by 'la mosca', the fly. Our area of Trequanda, Petroio and Castelmuzio is famous for producing high quality extra vergine olive oil: green to the look, peppery to the taste and, most of all, untouched by flies or pesticides. Because our olive groves are situated about 500 to 600 meters above sea level, the height reduces attacks by flies and other insects on our olives. No olive fly means no pesticides, and the green colour and peppery flavour of our extra vergine is the result of early picking and the mixture of our olive trees. There is a great variety of olive trees used in our area to produce our extra vergine, the most popular being Frantoiano, Pendolino (also called the inpollinator) Moraiolo, Leccino and Olivastra. The mix of these different olive trees gives our produce its particular flavour and colour. Every grower swears that his or her extra vergine is just the best. Normally one gets about one box or two from each good sized olive tree, a full box of olives weighing about 18 to 20 kilograms. From 100 kilos of olives a grower can extract about 15 to 18 kilos of extra vergine. |
All growers use a press of one kind or another; the quality and quantity depending upon the distance from the area. This year, from each of our trees, we could not get more than one quarter of a box. Luckily, last year was a good year for us and we can survive on the the surplus of oil produced in 2006. It was lucky year for others, too! Peter and Julia had joined us as helpers in the Spring of 2006. We liked this young Aussie couple very much and, when the time came for them to leave us, we suggested they approach a friend of ours in Fiesole. Peter and Julia stayed in Fiesole several months but, when olive picking season came, they returned to help us. Fresh air, physical work, the good food cooked by Barbara, our vino contadino and who knows what else -- maybe the stars -- made it happen. Peter and Julia in that period conceived a baby. She was born almost a year ago in Melbourne, Australia, and she has thick black" Italian" bushy hair. Her name? Olive. Saluti, |
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