Tuscan Olives

One afternoon Stacey arranged for our group to go olive picking at Agritourismo Poggio al Sole followed by a cooking lesson and dinner of traditional Tuscan dishes. Benedetta Cano, her mother and uncle run this place and pick olives from their 700 trees with only a little help from tourists like us. Oh yes, 12 year old Peggy helps too. Imagine an Italian dog named Peggy!

We spread nets under the trees then pulled all the olives off the branches with bare hands or little rakes. Tourists were not allowed to climb the ladders which was probably just as well.

In two hours time we managed to strip just two trees of their olives. They do not hire expensive workers but harvest all these olives themselves. Clearly they work faster and take fewer pictures than we tourists.
The olives are gorgeous and we picked them in all shades. The variety in ripeness adds depth to the flavor of the oil. I lugged 3 liters of it back with me to Switzerland. Yummy!
K Q:-)