Olive picking in Benicarlo

We were very lucky to be invited to join an olive picking and oil making weekend by a co-worker of Matt's, named Africa whose husband's family has olive trees and once a year they get together to pick olives for olive oil. I learned many things, including what an olive tree looked like!

Africa next to some of the olives we picked:

I don't know how much help we were but we were certainly enthusiastic!

We picked enough olives with the family over 1 1/2 days to make 300L of olive oil- enough for a year's supply. Basically, you lay nets along the ground and then comb the trees until all the olives are on the ground, then you gather up the nets and pour the olives into crates for transfer to the mill.

Everyone helped out, although the preteens were less excited about the manual labour than the older folks:

Because we spent the whole day in the field the matriarch made some food on a fire, including some delicious artichokes and oil cooked directly on the hot coals (we were told Benicarlo is famous within Spain for its artichokes).

Africa's mother-in-law cooking

Africa's father-in-law

We delivered the olives (actually, we followed the van that was driven by family members delivering the olives) to a small cooperative mill which cold presses olives in individual batches for farmers.

Our total olive haul:

Starting the olive pressing process:

The small scale olive mill:

Matt learning the details of the pressing machines:

Of course, we are in the community of Valencia still, so at the end of this momentous weekend, a large paella had to be eaten with the family- traditionally made with rabbit and chicken and all the bits, including neck, feet etc.

We also learned about the tomatoes which you spread the slices on bread. These tomatoes have a thick skin but keep for 8 months un-refrigerated and we got a peek at their stores

We stayed in an apartment at the nearby town with a gorgeous view and visited Peniscola, where a pope was briefly stationed.

View from the Benicarlo apartment looking towards Peniscola

View from Peniscola castle

All in all, a wonderful weekend with amazing folks. They also had orange trees so we came home with 5L of amazingly fresh extra virgen olive oil (and a greater appreciation for grades of olive oil) but also about 5kg of oranges we picked ourselves. I never thought we'd have that opportunity and it was wonderful. The conversation with the family was half in Valencian, half in Spanish so I missed much of what was said but they were so patient and friendly. All I can say is that if you ever get the chance to do some olive picking say YES!! And THANK YOU Africa and family!