Our Olive Harvest

Every October, our family and friends gather at Casa Sant’Elia for the olive harvest. It’s a magical time, days often filled with bright blue skies and cool autumnal evenings. We begin our days by laying nets beneath each tree, ready to catch the olives as they fall. We harvest each of our 800 trees by hand, using small rakes or a vibrating comb, powered by Ruby the tractor, to gently shake the olives from the branches. As we finish picking a tree, we carefully collect the olives from the nets, placing them into the green olive crates. At every stage, we take great care to avoid damaging the fruit, ensuring that it remains in peak condition for pressing.

Slowly we work our way up and down the rows, giving each tree the time and attention that it needs. There is always constant chatter, essential coffee and cake breaks and the children and teenagers come and go - some more helpful than others!

Our olives are then pressed at our local Frantoio (the village press) within 24 hours of harvest. They are cold pressed, without any heat or chemicals. Pressing the olives as quickly as possible after the harvest is essential in order to prevent any fermentation occurring, which would be detrimental to the quality of our oil. Our olives are not combined with other local harvests, they are always pressed in batches on their own. This allows us to uphold our organic principles while preserving the true flavour of our olives.  It is then a ritual to taste the freshly pressed oil before leaving the Frantoio.

Harvesting is a labour of love. Long days and multiple trips to the press, but we wouldn’t change it. As dusk begins to fall and the dew settles, the day ends with a with a well-earned beer or glass of red wine, warming food (often a hearty sausage casserole!) and long, lively conversations around the table.