Olive Harvest

On Oct 12th we had our annual day for the olives at Xavier & Valerie's.  It was great fun and hard work, as usual. 

 Above:  portable rolling generator powers an electric "gaule" which vibrates to knock down the olives.  Below:  picking out stones.

 Hothouses seen in the background below Mont Chauve.

 Gas powered wheelbarrow used to transport olives up all the terraces.  Moves slowly.  Reminds me of Dad's tiller.

 Time to eat.  This is Polenta.

 Here is the man himself, Xavier!

 Below:  Philippe, to whom I owe my connection with Xavier, Valerie and Thomas & Quentin, their now adult sons.  Without Philippe, I am sure I would not have stayed in France for a second year.

 Valerie!

 Léna happy to eat her spicy sausage.

 My lemon-poppy seed cake.  It was gooo-d.

 So the harvest was in fact very poor this year.  There was an attack by a certain kind of insect.  Xavier tried something organic this year, rather than pesticide, and it didn't work AT ALL.  He was very disappointed.

 If you look closely you can see many of the olives have been gnawed away by the insects, who suck the oil out, rendering the olives at a significantly lower value = much less oil is produced.

 Picking the sticks out of the nets at the end of the day is a tedious process, but necessary to keep them for subsequent use.  Folding the nets is a work of geometry.  But sitting on the piles when it is done is SO fun.

 Different crews worked on different trees up and down the hillsdie

 The girls "cooled off" in the pool at lunch.

 What a motley crew  What fun!