Olive Harvest The Final Tally
We always feel a little under pressure during the harvest. There is often an underlying worry that the Cooperative will stop taking in olives and we won't be finished. In reality they continue until the last man has brought in the last olive. But we don't want to be the last man.
This year most of our neighbours were using mechanical shakers and petrol driven leaf blowers to gather up the harvest. In previous years the countryside resounded with the sounds of wood on wood as sticks hit branches laden with olives. Sometimes we could even hear the satisfying thuds as the olives hit the ground. And there were always voices calling, shouting, greeting.. and laughter. That was all missing this year. At times we felt we were the only ones using sticks.
Except for one neighbour whose mechanical shaker broke and so he turned up the next day with some friends armed with sticks. We were able to call out greetings across the fence and shout encouragement. They finished well before us and…
This year most of our neighbours were using mechanical shakers and petrol driven leaf blowers to gather up the harvest. In previous years the countryside resounded with the sounds of wood on wood as sticks hit branches laden with olives. Sometimes we could even hear the satisfying thuds as the olives hit the ground. And there were always voices calling, shouting, greeting.. and laughter. That was all missing this year. At times we felt we were the only ones using sticks.
Except for one neighbour whose mechanical shaker broke and so he turned up the next day with some friends armed with sticks. We were able to call out greetings across the fence and shout encouragement. They finished well before us and…