Trouble at Mill once more

Saturday morning MrFF opened the bedroom shutters and announced we would start our olive harvest.  Quick cup of Yorkshire tea with a bowl of muesli and we were picking by 8.30 am.  We stopped mid morning for cappuccini and croissant then worked on till 6.30 pm,  we had more than 80 kilos with 10 more trees still to pick so that was great.  Sunday we had the same early start with rather less enthusiasm as we were quite tired from the previous days efforts.

We finished early afternoon, tidied up, had some lunch then MrFF packed the crates of olives into the car and went off to the mill.  Unfortunately so did many others and he was queued for a good two hours before he could unload.  He phoned to let me know he was waiting then started shouting and sounding the car horn as an Italian with a trailer full of olives had jumped the queue when MrFF was slow to move.  Then I heard an Italian voice and suggested he phone me back when he’d sorted the situation.  He got his place back, it was fine. Tranquillo.

 

He weighed in 119 kilos of olives, not a bad result and the mill would phone us when the oil was ready.

Late Monday afternoon we got the call collect our oil at 7.30 pm.  We were there on time and waited until 8.50.  We received 15.3 litres of oil which we were told by other customers was very good quality, it was clean without the foamy scum and dark green. But last year we picked around 80 kg and received 15 litres, it doesn’t make sense to produce so much more and receive the same amount of oil. Even the taste of our delicious new oil didn’t take away our disappointment and confusion.  

Of course 15 litres of oil is more than enough for our needs, if we had more we’d give it away or use it for cooking as it got older, it doesn’t matter that we don’t have more. But we had expectations that we’d done well, we’d worked hard and spent a lot of hours waiting at mill.  Tomorrow it’s my birthday and I’ll be 75, I could say I’m getting too old for this oil business but our lovely 92 year old neighbour Giovanni is here picking so I guess I have no excuse but to keep on and since he’s working on his own and has 200 trees, we have 30, we will probably offer his some help if he doesn’t think we might jinx his harvest too.

Another year

Saturday afternoon we had a phone call from the mill to say they were about to start our olives.  MrFF went over to watch the process while I stayed at home to mend the nets so they could be packed away for another year.  He returned with 33 litres of really good oil, you don’t need to take my word for this as our resa, the yield, was exceptionally high indicating excellent quality.  We made bruschetta as usual, the taste of the newly milled oil was almost too strong but it will settle and be perfect.  We also have about 15 litres from last year, that’s still fine but we prefer to use the newest oil without heating it, eg for salads, and last years can be used for cooking in sauces etc. 

We were exhausted on Saturday, still tired yesterday and today we are taking it easy as it’s raining, it’s All Saints day which is an Italian national holiday and it’s my birthday, 73 if you just know, where does the time go.

Trouble at mill

The olive harvest has started but this year it is complete chaos because of lack of capacity at the mills.    We heard from our friends that they delivered their crop with a reservation just before midnight and returned home with their oil at 3 in the morning. Another friend has an appointment to deliver at 2.20 am.  When we tried to get a booking at that mill the first available appointment was 10 December.

Our nearest mill, not in our village as both those mills are closed, isn’t taking bookings. It was the same last year, we queued 3 hours to deliver the olives and didn’t get our oil for another 3 days.  When I contacted them this year they again said no bookings, I expected they will only allow as many people as they can process to queue and turn the rest away.  We spoke to someone recently who said it’s the same everywhere and it’s so sad. Producing your own pure oil locally is totally sustainable.  One of the mills in our village was a co operative run for the members, and the oil was processed in the traditional cold press way.  They closed several years ago.  The other was a modern centrifugal system, we were processed in a few hours.  Its short sighted to close these places, particularly the co operative. They say people just want to buy their oil at the supermarket, the waiting lists and queues contradict that and everyone knows the stuff on the shelves is rubbish no matter what it says on the label.

It’s a desperate situation, our area is covered in olive groves, every family has land with trees yet it’s impossible to process the harvest.  We didn’t  know what to do, though MrFF insisted we keep picking, after three days of hard work we could do no more.

This morning MrFF was up before 6 to go to queue at the mill, not knowing what time they would open as the refused to respond to our enquiries.  He arrived before 6.30, the gates locked and no queue, however a notice said they would open at 8.30, by which time one other person had joined him to wait.  He delivered 159 kilos of olives, beautifully cleaned by me, the oil should be ready tonight or tomorrow.

We could hardly believe it was that simple, how can one mill have a 6 week wait yet MrFF only waited two hours.  Admittedly he wasn’t able to watch the process, we shall have to chance getting our own oil back, but he was home in time for breakfast.