Rolandos Farms

We have found a second olive place through our first olive farm owner- Luigi. Although we got paid next to nothing at Luigis, we got some free oil, some wine and enough money to pay for flights back to the UK, so its not all bad. Rolando makes and sells porchetta - and apparently gets 3000 euros a pig- although I find this hard to believe- its only roast pork sandwiches!

Some views of Rolandos trees

Some of the trees are hanging over the main road, so Amy is having to negotiate traffic whilst I am wearing my having jacket courtesy Amys dad Ernie. Some trees are hanging over a garage, some are surrounded by vegetables or nettles, but thankfully the fnal batch of trees are on nice flat land that have been recently mowed. We are not 100% certain that we are meant to be picking these olives, but are avoiding any possible eyes or just smiling politely as if we are sure we are allowed to be here.
Anyway its beautiful scenery, as some of the shots below show

Except the crane in the background- a beautiful scene

Visit to the first frantorio

We have just been to our first frantorio- the olives pressing mill. There are little trucks passing us all the time carrying olives from their own places. Luigi is going to the Selci one- which looks very good, but there the olives are modern hydraulic pressing- and we are after a more traditional technique, whether ths effects the flavour we are not sure (both ways are cold-presssing- heat removes flavour but squeezes out more oil).

Luigis Farm

This is proving more difficult than imagined! The land we are picking is horrendous- very steep, and covered with building materials- we occasionally have to jump out of the way because a bulding block is heading our way!
We are a team of 4 picking with olive combs and nets and stakes to prevent the olives running down the hill. The quantity seems to be good, although it vares widely from tree to tree- some have thousands of olives, some just a few, and there are around 200 trees to pick. We began on the most awkward tree- being instructed by a very elderly woman (Luigis mother) in Italian, I was tying the ladder to the tree with string on her instruction.

Paolo making picking olives look easy

Arrival in Italy

We have arrived back in Italy after a month or so out of the country. We are staying in Lazio, and are tomorrow picking olives at a local olive grove. The landscape is beautiful, there are mountains and olive groves scattered everywhere- litterally almost every bit of green is occupied by olive trees in either peoples gardens or peoples own groves or professional sellers. The olives are a whole mix of colours, sizes and ripenesses.

The local trees, just round the corner from where we are staying