La Raccolta or Olive Harvest

In early November , before the feast of San Martino on November 11^th, olive trees are harvested for the first press of oil.  Throughout the hilly valleys of Campagna, Umbria, Tuscany, and Liguria one will see the tidy groves of silver-leaved olive trees, suddenly laced with nets and populated by men,  women and children in their felpe (sweatshirts) or fleeces, climbing up ladders tilted against the gnarly trunks to shake the  season’s olives into the nets suspended beneath the branches.  With government subsidy of small family farms and agriturismi, many olive groves are still operated by small groups of artisans and the olive harvest is usually accomplished by proprietary families and their friends.  Depending on the number of trees, it’s a weekend or weeklong olive-picking party that heralds the beginning of the winter season of feste or festivals.   

La Raccolta is still done by hand, even on the larger fattorie/or farms, which tend to have their own olive presses or frantaio for making oil.  Smaller artisan producers generally harvest their home crops and then take their bushels to a neighboring frantaio to bottle oil for personal use or, when more abundant, for modest sale through small shops that boast “prodotti tipici” or typical local products.  The first press of oil each season is considered the most delicious.  All those who have helped gather olives with the family (a task that gets onerous after awhile) are invited to celebrate the end of labors with wine (also decanted this time of year) and bruschetta toasted over an open fire and soaked in the new oil.  The wonder of the harvest is that no year’s oil ever tastes quite the same—and those first moments savoring the olive-juice of a new season is a time of  breath-taking suspense, awe and—inevitably—wild celebration, because certainly each year is the best ever-- never has the oil tasted so good.

Italian olive oil is exported all over the world in various grades from the fruity, green, sometimes even cloudy cold press oils used mostly in salads and with bruschetta, to the limpid golden, milder tasting oils used for frying and sautéing and in breads.  Though tradionally associated with the cuisine of Southern Italy (Northern Italy, with its lush pastures, features more dairy, hence butter fat), olive oil has become a staple in kitchens and cooking worldwide especially since being acknowledged as a heart-healthy fat.  It’s a rare Italian piatto /dish that does not call for some variety of olive oil. And with each season, each bottle yielding its own special sapore/flavor—olive oil is certainly prominent among the fresh ingredients that keep the Italian palette sensitive to new taste sensations.