OLIVE SEASON

 

The countries surrounding the Mediterranean dominate the worldwide production of olives and consequently, olive oil. Despite its small size, Portugal manages to rank as the world’s 8th largest producer of olive oil. It’s somewhat overshadowed by its neighbour Spain which enjoys the number one position.

I have been living in one of the seven regions of Portugal where olive trees dot an important part of the local landscape. November through January is the time for picking olives from productive trees.

Not until the other day, did I have my camera with me and happened to pass a group of people collecting olives. I stopped and watched their action: some climbed the trees and bashed the higher branches with sticks allowing the olives to fall onto tarpaulins - guess this is the right word -  arranged around the base of the trunk, others, cut the upper branches and let them fall to the ground before hand-stripping the olives onto the tarpaulins or straight into buckets while others still used sticks to beat the fallen branches or used a special tool rather like a wooden claw or rake to rip the olives off the branches.

Once they are collected, all the leaves and twigs have to be removed. 

There are seven varieties of olives in Portugal but the most prolific is the small dark brownish black olive. Galega olive trees are mainly grown for their oil however they also make delicious table olives. 

The darker the olive the higher the oil content but also the higher the acidity. 

Even if not going to the oil press for the production of olive oil, when we see olives either on sale or served as a side dish or whatever like, hardly can we imagine the processing steps they have to go through from the tree up to the preservation in glass jars that are placed on the supermarket shelves.

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