Published on 22 October 2025
It is noticeable during this period that traffic, though generally light, often seems to be moving much slower than usual. This is because everyone is picking their olives and trundling them off in slow-moving tractors to get them pressed. (Try getting any kind of workman – you probably can’t because just about every family has their field of olive trees, and family and friends are all roped in to help pick – and depending on how many trees it might take up to a week or even more.)
Often the huge nets, for catching the dropping olives end up partly spread on the road… that’s another reason for the traffic holdups. My local farm shop also has huge olive pressing facilities, and at this time of year the perfume of the warm olive oil is intoxicating. If you are lucky they will offer you some bread fried in last years left over oil as a snack while you are waiting to pick up your oil for this year. Different years bring different qualities of oil… my hard and fast rule, and I am no expert, is that if its sufficiently peppery to make you choke a bit on first taste, then its good. It should be green and peppery. This year the amounts have been variable… because we had such a lot of rain at just the wrong time, a lot of people got infected with the ‘fly’ - so no oil from infected trees. Other luckier ones, seem to have had a fairly abundant crop – it will be interesting to see the price per litre. There are many different types of olive tree, but the ones I see most often around here are those that produce olives in both green and black - its not a question, (as I originally thought), of ripe and unripe.
Often the huge nets, for catching the dropping olives end up partly spread on the road… that’s another reason for the traffic holdups. My local farm shop also has huge olive pressing facilities, and at this time of year the perfume of the warm olive oil is intoxicating. If you are lucky they will offer you some bread fried in last years left over oil as a snack while you are waiting to pick up your oil for this year. Different years bring different qualities of oil… my hard and fast rule, and I am no expert, is that if its sufficiently peppery to make you choke a bit on first taste, then its good. It should be green and peppery. This year the amounts have been variable… because we had such a lot of rain at just the wrong time, a lot of people got infected with the ‘fly’ - so no oil from infected trees. Other luckier ones, seem to have had a fairly abundant crop – it will be interesting to see the price per litre. There are many different types of olive tree, but the ones I see most often around here are those that produce olives in both green and black - its not a question, (as I originally thought), of ripe and unripe.
At the olive press
Cortona - Santa Maria Nuova in the mist
Most people keep their own oil for themselves, but some have extra to sell. In the past I have picked my own olives – I only have 6 trees – but these days, it’s a bit difficult and I just buy a few litres from the frantoio. And then it is important that it is kept in a cool dark place… and only enough for that day's consumption is brought out into the house. The great thing is that just about any bar or ristorante will be offering bread and olive oil as a little free snack at the moment. As for the mists… I am below Cortona and there is many a November day when I have been stuck in thick mist (fog?), while Cortona revels in the sunshine; but even Cortona sometimes gets stuck in it, and you have to go higher still to escape!
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