Autumn in Italy! It’s the season for harvesting the olives — and right in our own garden at that! Ah, autumn in Italy! Olives falling from the trees, grapes ripening on the vines, and chestnuts roasting on open fires!
My husband harvests our olives the traditional way. He picks them by hand, one by one. He probably wouldn’t want to try that with a hundred trees, but with just two it’s not too bad.
4 Methods of Olive Harvesting
- One method is to pick the olives by hand and drop them into a basket tied around your waist.
- A second technique is called ‘stripping.’ This involves using a special comb to pull the olives from the branches and let them drop onto special nets that have been spread out on the ground.
- The third method is known as ‘beating.’ In this case, the tree branches are beaten with poles, causing the olives to fall onto the harvest nets.
- Another method that is less traditional is to use a machine to shake the tree and dislodge the fruit, which then falls onto nets spread out on the ground.
As can be seen in the photo below, olive combs or rakes are typically made of plastic to prevent damage or bruising to the olives. Many of them have long handles allowing them to be used while standing on the ground. If you’d like to learn more about olive harvesting, visit this website Alberti Olive Oil.
We get enough olives from our two trees for our own use and plenty to give away. They won’t be ready until Christmas, however, because olives must be cured before they can be eaten. Freshly picked olives are extremely bitter! Once they’ve been cured and seasoned, though, they make tasty Christmas gifts!
Our olives are the purple and green Leccino variety. They’re quite small and are better suited to producing olive oil than to being eaten. But they are also delicious to just eat down!
With proper curing, we end up with tasty, 100% organic olives. We really enjoy them! ,If you can get some freshly harvested olives, you might like to try curing them yourself. Check out this website to learn various ways of curing table olives: Il Circolo.
- Curing black olives with salt
- Curing and pickling green olives with brine
- Curing olives with alkaline solutions
- Olives in quicklime and ash solution
- Curing olives with washing soda (Sodium Carbonate)
I know that hand-picking and home-curing the olives sounds like a lot of work. But it’s a really special experience, and the end result is well worth it! Perhaps you could come and help us sometime!
📷 Image credits: olive harvest net; ladder by Matteo X; others are mine.
8 replies on “Italy’s Autumn Harvest”
Thank you for the interesting lesson about olive harvesting and preserving, Sheila. I admire your husband’s patience, picking them by hand! I love olives. And nothing smells quite so good as onions and garlic simmering in olive oil. I also enjoy olive oil and red wine vinegar on my salads, especially since there’s no sugar or salt to worry about!
Olive harvesting really is a fun experience. But of course, the end product is what we most look forward to! And oh yes, onions and garlic simmering in olive oil. Now you’ve made me hungry!!
This sounds like an experience that ministers to body and soul alike! Grapes and olives–what a wonderful opportunity to see God’s good harvest!
I never thought about that way, Dayle. But you’re right – nature always ministers to the soul!!
Looks fun and sounds wonderful! I have one daughter who will eat the whole jar, once it is opened. She would love this.
Oh Linda, a fellow olive lover! I’m sure your daughter would love Italy’s olives, and if possible, we’d love to share!!
Oh, lovely! wish I were there, Sheila. Just realized I’ve been in Italy in winter, spring and summer, but never autumn.
Then you must come Cynthia! I think autumn is the most special time here. After all, it’s really only in the Med nations where autumn life centers around grape and olive harvests. Sometimes even the hair dressers close as they are out picking those grapes or olives!