Olive Harvest

It's the olive harvesting season in Molfetta and all of the olive groves around town are filled with people beating, shaking or raking their trees to get the olives down. The fellow in this photo is beating the branches with a long pole. The olives fall down onto the large green nets which are used to carry them to a truck. After all the olives have been harvested, they are taken to a mill to be pressed for delicious extra virgin olive oil.

Last year I photographed the pressing process. Take a look here.

The Olives are Beginning to Ripen

We have different varieties of olives growing in our yard. Some are called Nolca and are good fried. For a recipe take a look at my other blog. We have already harvested those. In late October/early November we'll harvest the olives that we'll press to make our own oil.

In this photo, my husband and oldest son are gathering another kind of olive that is treated in a saltwater and lime solution. That may sound strange, but I assure you the result is delicious! These olives are very large and green. Forgive me if I don't know the name of the variety, but we are really not farmers!

The photo is a bit dark, but it was a dark day. Quite a change from the perfect blue skies I showed you this summer!