2017 OLIVE HARVEST

“Trees are sanctuaries. Whoever knows how to speak to them, whoever knows how to listen to them, can learn the truth. They do not preach learning and precepts, they preach, undeterred by particulars, the ancient law of life.”

– Herman Hesse, Wandering: Notes and Sketches

The olive harvest began a couple weeks early this year, in mid October, due to a hot, dry summer that caused the olives to ripen early. We harvested 1500 kilos this year, about 1/3 of our really successful 2015 harvest, but following a year of no olives we were thankful. An unexpected surprise was a higher yield than in 2015, averaging about 16% (it was 12% in 2015). The olives were milled into a delicious, fruity and nutty extra-virgin oil with a low acidity level of 0.02%. The olive trees, some of which are over 400 years old, are nestled among almond, walnut, cherry, fig, pear, persimmon and pomegranate trees, on land that has been farmed solely organically for the last 17 years.

We picked 64 trees of the approximately 120 olive trees on our 5 acres. Each tree has it’s own unique character, wisdom, and color pallette and I (obsessively) sketched each one, documenting the process through a daily sketch diary.

We were a core team of three with occasional help from friends locally and visitors from Sicily and Slovenia. I can’t wait to do it all again next year!

I documented the process daily in 2 sketchbooks. The main sketchbook was called “tra gli ulivi col taccuino” (Among the Olive Trees with Sketchbook). The smaller companion sketchbook was split in two – “al frantoio col taccuino” (at the olive press with sketchbook) and “al pranzo col taccuino” (at lunch with sketchbook). The name was inspired by my friend Simo’s project called “in viaggio col taccuino” (travelling with sketchbook) as well as the name of the Moleskine sketchbook I used. I sketched each of the 64 trees we harvested from.