The Olive Harvest. “La Cosecha De La Aceituna”

It’s been an odd year for us in terms of growing fruit and veg and the olives have been no exception. Pep announced not long ago that we weren’t going to collect the olives this year. “It’s just not worth the time and work for the pitiful amount that are on the trees” I was told.

Roll on two or three weeks and he’d had a change of heart, mainly ’cause we’ve hardly got any oil left and he can’t bare the thought of wasting the few olives there are when we’re in need of the gold liquid. Heaven forbid us having to buy any if we can manage to squeeze a few litres out of the small black fruit, however much effort it takes. The longer we can put off finding someone who sells decent oil, the better.

Pep’s brother Juan would also collect the olives from his trees so the two of them could put the lot together and get them pressed at the same time at an “almácera” in Gata. Normally they would use the press they have at the casita, but because of the small amount of oil they’ll produce this year there would be no point in getting it all mucky. It’s a right royal pain to clean.

Off Pep goes to lay down the “velas” (sheets that are used for collecting almonds, olives, etc) under the trees that have the most amount of olives. I didn’t go with him for some reason, can’t remember why now (my memory is atrocious) but I was no doubt busy doing other things. I do have to accompany him when the olives need collecting, it’s a job that’s best done by two people.

We started collecting them last Wednesday morning and I was rather shocked at how few there were compared to previous years. It was hard to persuade them to fall off the trees too, even with the help of the canes and despite them being very ripe.

With a bit of perseverance the olives finally fell onto the nets and we were able to harvest about a third of the trees that were worth harvesting. Some we didn’t put nets under because they had so few, Pep just knocked them onto the ground and I crouched down to pick them up while he moved on to the next tree.

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I much prefer using the nets, kneeling down to pick them all up from the ground is not my ideal pastime, but Pep says it’s not worth putting them down when there are so few olives on the tree. I beg to differ, and so do my knees.

After we’ve emptied the olives from the “velas” into a capazo we fold the nets up and put them into piles of six to be tied up and stored away until they’re needed next. The dogs prefer them to their beds!

We also collected the olives that had fallen before Pep put the nets down. These look more like small prunes than olives, a lot of their water content has disappeared. If it wasn’t for the fact that this year’s harvest isn’t too plentiful, we probably wouldn’t bother with them. They still have oil in though so waste not want not.

Before we left, the olives we had collected were tipped out onto “velas” that were under a couple of the trees which remained unharvested. They will stay “healthier” this way, the less time they’re in “capazos”, the better.

Pep returned to his land the following day and continued knocking more olives on to the “velas”. With the appointment at the almácera just around the corner, time is of the essence and the more he can get done in his (very few) spare hours, the better.

On Friday I accompanied him to finish off the job. The day’s olives were also spread out on 2 or 3 “velas” ready for us to collect on Sunday morning. That way they would only be in crates for 24 hours. It’s important not to leave them in “capazos” as they need to “breathe”, they would go bad very quickly otherwise.

Sunday morning came round and we went back to Pep’s land to collect all the olives to take back to the casita. There were approximately 6 “capazos” full. That’s before they slide through the contraption to remove all the leaves though.

Back at the casita we proceeded to tip the olives into the metal apparatus (“criba” in Castillian Spanish, “garbell” in the Pinos dialect!!) that separates the olives from the leaves, stones and whatever else has ended up in the “capazos”. They go through the device two times to give them a thorough “clean”.

After the “cleaning” we had a total of just under 4 “capazos” of olives. Terrible. There have been years when there were over 50. But, I’m not moaning, as long as the oil is good that’s all that matters. We would have to wait till Monday to find out.

We tipped the olives into crates ready to be taken to the “almácera” the following day. Juan had had more joy with his “cosecha”, he’d managed to gather enough olives to fill 9 “capazos”. Still not brilliant but better than nowt.

It was time for lunch and Pep’s sister Anna was making a paella. Wonderful!! She’s getting pretty good at it (she’ll laugh when she reads this). This time all the turmeric didn’t fall out the jar into the pan, a definite improvement!

After the usual long “sobremesa” (sitting around the table talking after lunch) we picked a few pomegranates and “caquis” (persimmons), walked the dogs and tootled back home.

The following day Juan took all the olives to be pressed into (what we were hoping would be) delicious, ecological, extra virgin olive oil. Pep collected his share that evening and we tipped a little bit onto a plate to test. We nervously dipped our finger in and tasted it. Pure nectar!! All the work and effort had been worth it. From 4 “capazos” of olives we’d ended up with 27 litres of gorgeous olive oil. Although we get through copious amounts, it will keep us going a little while longer.

Right, that’s my lot for today. As usual, this Saturday I’ll be back on Valley FM between 12pm and 2pm. You can listen online here if you so desire. Here’s the link to last week’s show.

Thanks for reading. If you have any questions or suggestions or just want to say hi, we’d love to hear from you. Take care. Lots of love, Georgie and Pep xxx