Last year, we got to pick our own olives for the very first time. Most of the olives got stung by the olive fly but nevertheless we had a thrill by picking the olives with the 4 of us.
This year, Provence suffered a lot from drought. It did not rain decently since the month of May and all of our olive trees are really, really dry... Temperatures are still quite high for this time of year and with all waterbassins empty. You can clearly see the difference in the pictures of this year and last year (here).
We did not water them, nor gave them any extra's. We just cherished them and tried the all natural approach this year. We only mowed the lawn underneath to keep them clean and to give less chances for the olive flies to breed.
We started on the 'highest' level only, on our 'parkinglot' and today was the first day of picking. Olive harvest in all of Provence as advanced by at least 10 days. Last year we picked the very first olives on november 18th (see here), so we have advanced by almost a month! We do hope our olive oil will be even better than last year's (here).
And we must say, the olives look good. Oily fat and none of them have been eaten by the fly. Today we picked the same quantity as we did last year in total! So this looks quite promising. Let's hope for another 2 days of prosperous picking.
At every other angle, I could take a picture. The colours and Provençal light are even more magical at this time of year!
Clarice helped all day, whereas Maxime played with Lucky, the donkey on the other side of our small road.
We were so happy about this day that we decided to memorize it in black & white.
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