Picking Olives

I have been happily working for our neighbors since I arrived in Panicale. I do a few hours of work and they give me internet, lunch, and a bag of food to bring home. It could not be better. This is the road I wander down every morning to their house.

Olive trees grow so slowly that if you shock them by cutting them down they do not die, they just send up more trees.

Picking olives is simple. Put a net down to catch them, and rake or hand pick the entire tree. There is some technique to raking the tree. Climbing in them is both necessary and enjoyable until one falls out.

This tree below has been the record for producing the most olives, and it has a hole right through it.

One tree makes about 1 liter of oil.