Olive Harvest Spain

I apologise for the break in communication. I am pleased to say that I have been too busy. It has been a real burst of farming shoots. I think the peak, being a three day trip to Sevilla to document the olive harvest.

We were working about an hour south next to a town that their whole existance is determined by the small green fruit, the Olive. Every job, factory, workshop , cafe, has a connection to the humble olive. The landscape for many miles surrounding the town is olive groves. Some ancient and some prototype. We were on the land of Eduardo and Eduardo junior. They are a very traditional grower. A mix of old groves, over a 100 years and still producing a good crop. To trees planted 3 years ago and about to start cropping for the first time. He is a director for the largest olive processing plants in Europe if not the world. Based on the edge of town, all modern and shiny. Inside you can find rows and rows of machines that can pit 36 olives a second over 2000 a minute. So you can imagine the numbers involved.

The harvest starts mid September and goes on for about 8 weeks. Currently all olives are picked by hand, but they are looking to grow trees that can be picked by machine in the future. The harvest is a traditional time of celebration, the same familys return to the same farm and Eduardo says that it is like an annual reunion, where good friends get together and celebrate. I fear this way may eventually be replaced by technology and another important part of Spain’s culture is lost..

A few facts that I found out.

Olives were being pressed in BC and are still happy to grow to over 200 years old and produce viable crops.

You can have many different varieties growing off the one tree, they simply stick the branch of the mother tree and it grows happily.

If you were to eat one straight from the tree (which I did) it is horrible, they need to be fermented for 3 months before being processed.

They bruise very easily which is why they are being picked by hand. Depending on the quality they either go for oil or are processed for table olives.