Memes and olive harvesting

We've come to see olive oil as the greatest gift of this land. We now understand that there's something magical about the olive tree – the way it thrives with minimal attention and very little water, producing fruit year after year. And the way its tiny fruits turn into the most amazing oil.

The olive harvest is now something we really look forward to. We join forces with some friends who have way more trees than us and spend a leisurely few weeks on their land and ours, working our way with nets and ladders and saws from one old olive tree to another. The work is slow and can be hard – especially on cold, frosty mornings in November. But we usually enjoy plenty of tea breaks and a nice outdoor lunch, so by the end of each day we are generally feeling pretty good.

This was a good year (following last year's disaster, when we didn't harvest a single olive). The weather hasn't been especially kind, with a bout of rain and wind followed by warm sunny days setting the harvest to rot. But we started reasonably early and managed to collect over 500kg before heading for the local oil press.

Dave in climbing mode!

What about the meme of the title?

Well a week or so before we started harvesting, I noticed that some neighbours were already at it. They were using an interesting rake-cum-comb device that I've never seen before to strip olives from the branches. Then, a few days later, Megumi arrived home from her latest stint in Palestine where, for the first time, she's been observing human rights problems during the olive harvest. That meant she'd spent many days harvesting with Palestinian farmers. When she opened her bags, she proudly brought out three rake-cum-combs that she'd brought back, having never seen such a thing in Portugal!

It appears that this little tool is suddenly all the rage everywhere. We hear they are selling them here in all the agri-coops and similar shops, where we've never seen them before. And having used them for a couple of weeks, I can see why. They make the work of stripping olives much quicker and easier; until now we've been doing it with our bare hands.

Palestinian-made olive 'rake'

The story of taking our load of olives to the press is a long one. We struggled to get a 'booking' for our harvest and in the end waited three days to get a place. But, as always, the effort was worth it. Soon after I returned home with our oil at around lunchtime last Thursday, having been up most of the night, I poured a little out into a bowl for dipping chunks of fresh-baked bread... Exquisite... It's a fact that very few people have the privilege of tasting really fresh olive oil. This amazing flavour doesn't last long; weeks at most. We have to enjoy it while we can.

Friends who happened to be at the press just before us watch their oil exit the press

Everyone drains their own oil into containers for transport home...