Huge sheets, ladders, sticks and… lots of good will! They are the basic ingredients of one of the most fascinating and ancient traditions of our country: the harvesting of olives to prepare oil, which cannot be missing from Italian tables. A true collective ritual, which has been handed down for centuries and which the new generations have not abandoned, on the contrary.
From Umbria to Sicily, in recent weeks there are many young people who are getting together with their friends or families to roll up their sleeves and collect the precious fruits of the olive trees that they received as an inheritance from their grandparents.
In doing so they have become guardians of a fascinating custom, as well as a moment of celebration that unites the elderly, adults and children. But not only that. In many cases they are also helping to save centuries-old olive trees.
Traditional harvesting techniques
This highly anticipated ritual – which generally takes place between October and November – is tiring work but a source of great satisfaction: everyone contributes as much as they can to bring genuine extra virgin olive oil to the table. The harvest can take place through two techniques: bracatura, which consists of picking the olives with the hands without damaging them, and bacchiatura, which involves the use of poles to shake the branches of the olive tree and then make the olives fall onto the nets.
Like the production of tomato sauce and the grape harvest, the harvesting of olives to produce oil at home still involves both the youngest and the oldest and represents a deeply felt tradition in regions such as Puglia, Calabria, Sicily and Tuscany. It is a custom that teaches the art of patience and waiting because to prepare a high quality product you need time and different phases must be respected: washing, cleaning, pressing the olives and finally extracting the oil.
But in the end the effort pays off in a big way!
Oil production increasingly threatened by the changing climate and parasites
Extra virgin olive oil is one of those excellent products that even today Italians prefer to self-produce or buy from friends or trusted people thanks to word of mouth.
There are many young people who are taking care of the olive groves and oil mills left as a legacy by their grandparents, but unfortunately the number of olive trees that have been abandoned – due to the effects of the climate crisis, the proliferation of parasites and price increases – is alarming: in our territory there would be around 30 million that need to be saved, according to estimates by Coldiretti and Unaprol – Consorzio Olivicolo Italiano.
The younger generations cherished a centuries-old legacy
Today many young people are returning to the land, abandoning the frenetic pace of the city. In regions such as Puglia and Tuscany, a new generation of farmers is emerging. They are no longer elderly farmers with chapped hands, but young professionals who have chosen to save a centuries-old heritage that risks being lost.
Young olive growers are introducing modern techniques:
But many continue to keep alive their respect for traditional methods, using some tools handed down from their grandparents and strictly hand-picking the olives from the oldest olive trees.
Centuries-old olive trees are custodians not only of history but also, probably, of elements that could help us deal in the best way with the climate change we are experiencing, for this reason it is absolutely necessary to work to recover and make productive as many of these plants as possible – says David Granieri, president of the Unaprol Italian Olive Consortium – The objective is not only to enrich our knowledge, but also to reduce our dependence on foreign oil imports and therefore, with adequate investments, to relaunch the production of Made in Italy extra virgin olive oil.
The hope is that this precious natural and historical heritage can truly be saved by the younger generations so as not to break a thousand-year-old tradition and continue to bring to the table a product of excellence that smells of authenticity.
