“There is more to life than increasing its speed.”
– Gandhi
The rains arrived, as predicted on the 29th of October. After a couple of days taking care of some chores on the land, I was grateful to slow down, huddle up inside, and catching up with friends. By the Sunday the sharka (pond or small dam) was full, and the brown palette of summer surrendered to the green of winter.
Courtesy of my generous husband, I managed to escape for three days over my birthday to the fairy tale setting of Bussaco Forest, wich was the perfect place to pause, reflect, and re-energise. (More about that in a later post.)
The first snow of the season fell on the Serra de Estrela on my birthday, which means the wind now has an icy breath. It also brought a sprinkle of frost on Thursday, the 4th of November, which caught me by surprise, as the first frost last year came much later in November, and it made me scramble to make a make-shift plan to protect the two macadamia nut and two mango trees I purchased in summer from subsequent frost damage.
I was caught off-guard, but at the same time delighted, when I received a phone call on Friday afternoon to say Matthias and a team of four lovely women will be on the quinta on Saturday morning (6 Nov) to harvest our olives. I had to cancel my spot on a mushroom hunt I was supposed to join on Saturday morning, but as I still have to rely on the help of Matthias, it didn’t leave me with much of a choice. I spent the rest of the day preparing lunch for the next day, and getting everything ready for baking a date loaf early in the morning.
Things didn’t quite go as expected on Saturday, as the battery of the harvesting machine ran out of power shortly after we started, which meant we had to hang around waiting for more than an hour to give it a bit of a charge to be able to do at least some harvesting before lunch. As a result, we only managed a total of four and a half hours of work, before we ran out of daylight, which meant the harvest had to be resumed on Sunday morning.
This meant an extra day of cooking I didn’t prepare for, but after a quick glance at the ingredients I had on hand, I decided on a vegetable soup for lunch, and thanks to a trusted scone recipe from my mother-in-law, warm scones greeted the team when they arrived the next morning. It took us another three hours to bring in the rest of the harvest, before we could relax and celebrate over lunch with a glass of sparkling wine.
Portuguese Words:
azeitonas – olives
azeite – olive oil
geada – frost
neve – snow
chuva – rain
vento – wind
Notes:
# We harvested 29 of our 40 trees, which yielded 472 kg. From that we received 54.5 litres of oil, which means it took 8,6 kilograms of olives for each litre of oil.
# The word for olive oil in Portuguese, azeite, is derived from the Arabic al-zait and az-zait, literally translating as ‘olive juice’.
That sounds like an incredible rate of working.
4 trees or 60kg an hour.
Also works out about 8 euros per litre?
We have escaped the frost in Spain for a few days in the Algarve!
It was actually a very leisurely pace, Trevor. On a Matthias’ farm we harvested between 125 and 150kg per hour. I’m curious as to how you get to 8 euros per litre? I haven’t made any calculations as to how much a litre of oil actually costs us . . . Enjoy the Algarve. I hope the weather is glorious. – Jolandi
Excellent! The harvest is done. Interesting statistics, 8.6 kg of olives for one liter of oil! I’m really glad that you had a lovely birthday outing and can’t wait to see the pictures. Over here we are much removed from any frost. It’s still over 20 in the day which means our stufa (furnace) is on only in the night. But the muddy paw season is ripe here too. 😀
It is such a relief, Manja. I was told that depending the type of olives one has, the time one harvests and the weather conditions all play a roll in how much oil one gets, which can vary between around 6-10 kg per litre of oil. Last year was 9kg per litre, so this year is certainly better.
Wow, you are certainly blessed with lovely warm days. We’ve had a good couple of days around 14C, although the last three at least reached 18C. Ah, muddy paw season! It will definitely bring more cleaning, as I haven’t yet managed to teach the cats to wipe their feet. 😆 Enjoy your gorgeous weather. I hope it lasts a little longer. – Jolandi
I am glad you had enough ingredients at home to cook for your helpers for an extra day.
Everything changes after the first frost doesn’t it? All of a sudden the land looks different and we have a whole load of new jobs to do, with not much time to do them in! It is good to know that most of your olive trees have been harvested and have yielded a decent amount of oil.
A belated happy birthday, Jolandi!
Thanks, Clare. Yes, I’m really very happy with the amount of oil. Also very glad we have not hundreds of trees like so many people do, especially now that I know exactly how much work it is. Ironically, unless one builds a very specific market in which to sell one’s oil, there isn’t much money in it. I’m amazed at how lovely the weather is again after that first bit of frost. Fingers crossed this year isn’t as cold as last year. – Jolandi
Harvesting what we have planted and enjoying what the trees have given us is probably one of the best feelings. Sounds like you managed to get a decent amount of olive oil! Happy belated birthday, Jolandi, and like Manja I can’t wait for more photos from Bussaco Forest. PS: Your white cat doesn’t look guilty for those muddy paws — “You can’t be mad at me, I’m too cute” was probably what it would have said to you if it could talk.
Thanks, Bama.It definitely is one of the very best feelings. I marvel at that every time I pick the fruit of my labour to consume. It is so different from other kinds of work. I love the subtitle for Lily’s picture. She definitely knows that she is cute and adorable and that I cannot stay angry with her. – Jolandi
Jolandi what a wonderful heartfelt and am sure exhilarating and rewarding experience. Am interested to know is the olive oil tasting any difference or is it once something is “added”.
overall cheers to your health as olive oil has loads of beneficial attributes as you know.
P.S.
i am not often on fb and missed wishing you a happy birthday, did send a whatsapp but think you have changed that number. Best wonderful wishes for a enticing year ahead.
While we shed into barefoot strolls this side of the equator sending you big hug xx
Nothing ever gets added to the oil, Nanette. It now sits for about two months for the water that is still in it (the olive fruit contains both juice/water and oil) to seperate out of the oil. Then we decant and store it. Each year, depending on the weather conditions when it flowers and ripens, as well as the exact time of harvest has an influence on the oil, so it is really exciting that no year is ever the same. – Jolandi (Will email you my new number)
I love the image at the top. Your olive trees look so good and strong and healthy. They are happy to be taken care of again. I think it is wonderful that you were surprised by a phone call from Matthias that he and a crew were coming to help you harvest. That’s the kind of thing you dream of on a farm, in a community, but I am a little mystified about how it functions. I know you have cultivated a good relationship with Matthias, so it comes from that, but it just seems so special to be taken care of in that way. Am I making any sense? You must feel so warm toward them all, and they appreciated your baking, I am sure!
Love the kitty photos of your two felines investigating the newly full sharka, and the inevitable muddy paw prints. And Happy Birthday! It’s lovely that you were able to do something fun to celebrate.
It is amazing how well olive trees respond to love and care, Crystal. As for the phone call – the surprise was the short notice, as I made other plans and had to cook. I gave 32 hours of my time working on his and another farmer’s land to harvest olives, so that I would receive help with ours. Eight hours of back breaking work a day. So really an exchange of labour. For four days I left at 7am in the morning while it was still dark, and only got back at 6pm at night. So although I am obviously grateful, it is perhaps not quite the gratitude you think of, as I have paid in physical labour, and will still receive a bill from him for taking the oil to the mill for me. – Jolandi
Everything looks so fresh and clean after rain. I could sit with a cup of warm something and stare out at the beauty for hours.
Glad you were able to get the olives harvested, but sorry you missed the mushroom hunt.
Happy belated birthday, sounds like it was a good one.
Take care,
Terri
Thanks, Terri. It really was a pity about the mushroom hunt, as these opportunities don’t often come around. I try to make time every day to just enjoy the beauty of the land, even if it is just for 15 minutes. – Jolandi
Love the quote from Gandhi, timeless wisdom. It fits well with your first harvest and the rich photos you have of your ‘life’ 🙂 How delicious the olive oil you created must taste ~ brilliant. Wishing you a great weekend ahead.
Yip, I think we share a love of quotes, Randall. I always marvel at the ones you find and pick. They can be so powerful in reminding us of what is important. The oil this year has a spicy edge to it. Not too much, as it is still very buttery and smooth, but just enough spice to make it a bit more interesting than last year. Very exciting. – Jolandi
Do you press the olives for oil yourself, or did you send them to a professional oil presser? I’ve always been interested in the production end of farming, even if it’s just canning a few jars of tomatoes or making jam from the remaining berries of the summer. (Because of the drought and several weeks of unending high heat, my tomato vines hardly produced anything worth keeping.) It’s good that you had help and a motorized harvester, even if it didn’t have power at the start. Those sort of tasks can take days, which can be exhausting, no matter how rewarding the results are.
Your region’s weather is very much like where I live in northern California. We haven’t gotten frost yet, but we did get rain, and the landscape has greened up almost overnight. Unfortunately it’s going to take a lot more rain out here to fill the near empty reservoirs and rivers here. I wish the state would invest money in building more water storage facilities so we don’t have all that free rainwater just flooding the roads and sewer system.
It was pressed by a local olive press, Hangaku. We’ve looked into the cost and capacity of a small press, thinking it could be a good alternative, but it isn’t. Every small town has a press. Most have a minimum amount of olives one should have to get one’s own oil back. The alternative is to press it with others, either someone you know or as part of the mill’s co-op. You are quite right in that it can be exhausting work no matter how rewarding the results. Farming is hard work.
Part of the learning curve and fun for me is in the end product of whatever we can grow here. It was a huge learning curve in processing the extra veggies I had, especially tomatoes, so it is a pity to hear that your tomatoes didn’t fare well this year. Part of why my days are so filled and why I at times feel a bit overwhelmed is because every single thing I turn my attention to has its own demands, which means I have SO much to learn. And that takes time. First by educating oneself in order to understand the basics, and then by actually doing whatever it is. And then of course the real learning is only starting. Living on the land, like you’ve pointed out before so well, is definitely not an easy life.
Fingers crossed you will have a good rainy season. Water is so precious, and like you point out, more should be done in areas like where you live to harvest rain water better. – Jolandi
Happy Birthday, Jolandi! and Happy harvesting, xo
Thank you, Lani. It was a good harvest. So happy it is done though, as it is really hard work. – Jolandi
Hello dear Jolandi,
I have been catching up on my favorite blog posts, and double congratulations on your birthday, and your first harvest. Just a few years ago, your home was a plot of land, and now you are harvesting olives, pressing your olive oil…a real peace of heaven indeed! I love the sense of community too.
All best to you and Michael from your friends in Japan.
Ah, Takami, you are just too sweet.I wish I could send you a bottle of olive oil. – Jolandi
Sounds like exhausting work, even with a machine to help, but the results must be so gratifying. The photo of the frost rimming the green plants is so beautiful!
It really is exhausting work, Lex. Thank goodness it only happens once a year! – Jolandi
Congratulations on your first olive oil harvest. How exciting to be able to make your own!
Thanks, Tanja.