Picking Olives in Provence

Ah, the quiet sunny days picking olives- can't beat them.  But what do I know about picking olives?  Just about three hours worth so far, but it sure is addictive.  We've taken on the pleasurable task of collecting olives from about 13 trees outside the village of Seillans at my in-laws'.  In three hours, my husband, little boy who's almost three, and I, have only just dented one tree!  I think this is going to take a while, but I sure am looking forward to it.  You see, I have just finished reading the second book by Carol Drinkwater, who writes about life in Cannes at her Olive Farm "Appassionata".   When I put that book down and heard my husband's question, "Want to gather my parent's olives this year?", a tingle of joy went through me and I couldn't resist!  What timing! 

This morning I put on two long sleeve shirts, both I didn't mind getting dirty, an old jacket and some gardening gloves, and wore my jeans with the hole in the knee along with my trusty old sneakers that I can stand on for hours.  Then I made a thermos of hot mint tea and put three bananas near our keys so I wouldn't forget to take them.  It's not everyday I'm this well planned, but thanks to Carol Drinkwater, I knew not to wear nice clothes and knew the task at hand wouldn't be that simple and we'd end up needing a snack here and there.

We threw the green nets around the bottom of the trees, got our new olive rakes ready, I put my gloves on, took the buckets out and we began to fill them....without the rakes.  It's so far much more satisfying to us just using our hands.  We'll see how long this new love of ours lasts.

Bon Appetite!

Comments

[Lacey O'Reilly]

Hi Rand just wanted to comment since you haven't had any yet! It sounded sad. Hey, I think this looks neat. The olive picking picture is lovely. Paxton and I are sitting at the computer together looking at the pictures. We love them. He is still saving his quarters to see Haven... it will take a while! Ha Ha. We love you and miss you. 3, Lacey and Paxton.

[Andi]

Just found your site in a search engine when looking for mine... so we're not the only ones trying to learn the perfect olive picking techniques down here - a friend of mine, his wife and son and me helped my grandpa in Seillans picking olives during the last 4 days. We enjoyed every second!