Olive Harvest Dream Come True

Something about all things olive has been calling me well...all my life I guess.  

And the teacher in me wants to share this olive love affair with others like you.

OK - this photo was taken in Morocco, but soon I'll be in Greece again.

This is the photo I chose for my screen saver.  An orchard in the spring in the southern Peloponnese.

How lovely is a tree that braids itself into a honeycomb of wisdom.  Just think of all those lovers who have mingled underneath.

Baby clusters of olives resemble grapes at the same stage of beingness.

My dear friend Lexy led me here to this wonderland.  Now she and I are partaking of the harvest as naturally as it looks.

Our friend Susan is the proprietor of this gorgeous estate along with her darling companion Mr. Casey.

My sister Amanda rakes like a pro with an attitude of discovery of something so old and yet so new.

And I am in heaven on earth.  

This is all I've been waiting for, the timing perfect to be here now.

These green and red and purple globes of green gold oil are as beautiful as they look.

Peaking out of their gunny sacks ready for the journey to the local mill.

Somehow the aches and pains I experience on any given day are forgotten as I kneel almost in prayer.  The scenery - do you see it?

Nothing, nothing more satisfying than a patio full of olives ready for the pressing.

The mill press is fully booked and Susan's olives are in the queue.  The mill workers load the bags into the conveyor belt that march the olives into the washer that separates the stems and leaves from the prize.

Into the grinder and press and out the other end - the elixir pours into the containers the owner provides.

Here I am, the film maker, getting as up close and personal as I can without swimming in the vat.

Susan, a woman in a man's world, the goddess of olive oil.

See the resemblance?

Each container is weighed and the mill is paid.

With fresh bread from the bakery in the village, the first tasting, right out of the back of the car!  Green, throat coating and the spicy finish that induces the cough that is the sign of excellence.

These trees have been around a long time.  In fact, there is one olive tree in Syria that the locals say has been alive for 3 thousand years.  Aqueducts and rock walls and old olive sentinels.  What have you witnessed?

I'm tempted to call this number to see how much it might cost to purchase this land in the land of olives.  But then - I couldn't cut down a tree to build a house.

So instead, I'll keep returning, often, for long visits - soon!  See you Mr. Casey in a few weeks!  Stay tuned for the olive harvest film documentary.