Olive Picking - A Holiday With A Difference

If you are looking for an unusual holiday idea have you considered olive picking? This is a great choice for anyone who is reasonably fit and is a particularly good plan if you are travelling alone or looking for a break with friends. In many Mediterranean countries olives are a major crop and once winter arrives people are getting busy with the harvest. If you fancy joining in there are a wide range of options available to you from volunteering to gourmet choices.

Last year I chose the volunteering option and went olive picking with the British conservation charity BTCV. working at the Villa Pianciani Delizia near to Spoleto in Umbria, Italy. We were a mixed team made up of English, Americans and an Australian and most of us had never picked an olive before. Guided by our team leader it took minutes to discover the basics and we were soon scrambling amonst the olive trees with abandon (in some cases too much abandon) and feeling like children again.

The olive grove we were working in had over a thousand trees growing on a slope down the side of the valley. This was beautiful land full of wild flowers and butterflies. Each morning we woke to find the valley filled with ethereal mist which cleared as the day warmed up. Despite it being November the weather was glorious and we were soon working in our t shirts (we later found out that you can't pick olives in the rain as wet olives don't make good oil). In order to harvest the olives our first task was to spread the nets out under the trees being careful not to leave gaps for the olives to fall through as these Italian olives had minds of their own and did their best to escape and roll down the hillside. Once the nets were in place you have to comb the olives down from the tree and then comes the best bit - sitting on the nets beneath the trees picking out and discarding any leaves that had been removed alongside the crop - this was a great chance to chat and find out more about our fellow olive pickers. It was important to take time over this task as we learned that too many leaves mean more work cleaning the crop prior to milling. Once our olives were leaf free they were gathered up into large plastic crates. Watching the full crates accumulate over the day gave a great sense of achievement and by lunchtime we felt we had certainly earned our break.

We stayed and ate in a glorious old stone house just minutes walk from all those olive trees. Once it would have housed the family who tended the grove. Our delicious lunches were prepared for us each day and in the evening we all worked together taking it in turns to prepare our meals using the great local ingredients - including of course plenty of wine!

Our holiday lasted for a week and on the Tuesday we had a day off to explore the local area. We chose to go to Spoleto - a lovely local town with much to see. Others caught the train to Assisi and used their time visiting the Basilica - a must if you've not been there before. We also ate out that evening in a local resturant - great food, great atmosphere. Travelling in November this part of Umbria was tourist free and by now we were starting to feel like locals. At the end of the week it was time to take our olives to be pressed at the local mill or frantoio. This involved a process of washing, crushing, filtering and at the end there was a constant stream of greeny gold oil emerging.

As a thank you for our hard work we each received three litres of delicious organic cold pressed extra virgain olive oil to take home made from the olives we'd helped to pick. If like us you are flying back on a budget flight you need to allow for this, we didn't and ended up having to post our oil home (the rather expensive option!)

To end our time in Italy we decided to explore Florence before going home. This was an easy train journey from Spoleto and we felt extremely proud as we arrived in our hotel to say - actually we've just spent the last week picking olives - how many tourists can say the same!