Olive picking

Not long ago , every house hold here used to make there own local delicacies, Yogurt (Laban), soft cheese (Labaneh), hard cheese, Zaa'tar, Arabic bread, and more. But in the era of modernization, and mass production, most people stopped do it themselves, they just buy it at the supermarket. Olives and olive oil, remain the exception, a tradition that so far survived modernization, families that have olive grooves, or just a few trees around the house, go out at the end of October to collect there olives, and produce oil from it.


Olive oil is an essential part of peoples diet in this land, you can just eat it with bread, or use it as an ingredient in many many dishes, our family of three usually consumes 2-3 gallons of olive oil, we have enough trees to produce that amount. Usually the whole family takes part in the picking of the olives, some people even take vacations from their regular jobs to do it, I heard of a lawyer taking a week of to join his family in picking the olives from their large groove. We have 14 trees around our house, a few of them grow no or little olives, which means we were left with 8-9 olive bearing trees, which we managed pick in two days. There are several ways to pick olives, I prefer hand picking them, my brother prefers beating them with the stick, and then collecting them from the ground, a more efficient method , but not so kind to the trees, though it is doubtful whether it does any harm to the olive tree, the trees just spring up new branches instead of the old ones, but still I like the less violent approach, and limit the use of the stick to those out of reach branches.

Some of the olives get pickled, those are hand picked, large and in good shape, olives come in two main types, black ones and green ones, each is pickled in a different way, the black ones are pickled in olive oil and salt, the green ones are pickled in salt and limes, red hot chili peppers are added to give the olives some spice. The rest of the olive go to the olive mill.


This time around I was put in charge of taking the olives to the mill, a time consuming chore, since everybody pick their olives at about the same time, long lines are created at the mill, after an unsuccessful attempt last night, I decided to go early today, I was at the mill at 12 before it even opened, I got my fresh olive oil at 18:30 in the afternoon, the mill is an old style semi automated workshop, equipped with Italian machinery, two heavy wheels grind the olives, then the result paste is put into a presser to squeeze the fluid out, this fluid is then distilled to get the pure oil. The mill wait is quite a social experience, I met quite a few people, most of them I did not recognize but they recognized me, a young man telling me we were playing pals at the neighborhood, another one told me we studied at the same school. There was a lack of order at the mills, as some people were waiting in the line, while other arrived claiming they made an appointment at a certain hour, and at some point things got heated up, and arguments broke, the mill waiting experience just requires some patience and social common sense, and some people lack those traits.

After finishing the process it is the tradition to taste the oil fresh oil immediately, as the taste of fresh oil is different from the old oil, the fresh oil looks murky , and has a spicy rich taste to it, once the murky stuff settles at the bottom , the oil looses its spiciness and some of richness of the taste, this is done by dipping bread in the fresh oil mixed with some salt.


The more modernized our society becomes the less economical justification remains for growing and picking ones own olives, but I hope the olive picking traditions continues to be, since I was a kid I took part in the olive picking, and the trip to the mill with my father once year, was something that got us very excited, and we would stay late at night at the mill until we got our olive oil. I just hope this tradition lives on.