The second pass through our trees to pick the later ripening olives. Over the last few years various friends have come out from the UK to help with the harvest. This year it was a full set of friends plus one mum.
Planning session in the local Cisternino pub, Diaulicchie.
The harvest went much as Part 01 but yielded more per tree: 60 kg from four trees as opposed to 26 kg from five.
When we were done we went and harvested our nearest neighbours' trees and reaped another 20 kg. Olives of all different sizes and ripeness.
The happy pickers: Mark (me), Tony, Terri, Gavin, Tania, Kate, Christine, Nigel, Mary (photographer).
We delivered the olives round to our friend Mino in the nick of time just as his first batch was on its way to the press. That meant we were able to collect our own oil in time for the return drive to the UK. The yield from our batch was 14% so that's 11 litres. Excellent.
Harvest over, we took our friends for a trip to see some gnarly trees down on the coast. These are truly extraordinary, ancient looking trees.
Then a dip in the Adriatic has become a tradition with the hardier members of the party - which does not include me.
"It's lovely once you're in" they claim. I'll not put that to the test.
One final harvest before we set off: lemons from our tree on the apartment terrace. Still a little green but they may ripen some more off the tree.
That's it apart from close down of the properties and packing up ready for the long drive home and our return next year.
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