In Calamonaci, Sicily, Ling Poh Lean joins olive farmer Pietro at his farm
EVERY now and then, friends tell me that they are taking a year off to work abroad at a farm or orchard, just to gain different experiences and to get back to nature.
I wish I can do the same, but I simply cannot afford to take such a long time off, so a day working in an olive farm sounds irresistible.
I am at an olive farm in a little Italian village called Calamonaci — a 45-minute drive from Agrigento in Sicily — all ready to be an olive farmer for a day.
I step into the farm with my gear at 10am, thinking I am early, but the shy farm owner, 55-year-old Pietro, has already started work, with another worker since 7am!
As November usually brings rain to south Italy, Pietro says he can only pick olives when the land is not wet, which is why he has to start as early as he can.
Born and raised in a family that not only grows olive trees, but also grapes and oranges, Pietro has been working the farm for more than 40 years now.
He says olive farmers in Sicily collect the fruit from mid-October up to January, depending on the trees’ production.
Olive trees, he adds, are not hard to maintain as they require little water and just an annual trimming. Farmers will water them in summer, usually in August when Sicily is hot and dry.
Olive trees can live for centuries, but they only bear fruit once a year. The 160 trees that Pietro owns were planted in 1975.
TO PICK OR TO COMB?
Knowing nothing about olives picking, I thought I may need to cut my nails to avoid the sand or unwanted materials when I pick the fruit with bare hands.
But I am wrong. No bare hands are used. Picking olives requires a special tool called a “comb”.
Pickers simply “comb” the olive-laden branches. However, before the combing starts, the ground under the tree is covered with fishing net-like mats to catch the olives. The olives will then be transferred to a big container and sent to a factory.
The “combing” process sounds simple, but you can get hurt if it’s not done properly. My first few attempts to “comb” the branches were not good.
The fruit fell on my face and shoulders like stones. However, after a few painful experiences, I learn quickly to avoid the falling fruit.
On a normal day, Pietro and his helper are able to comb about 800kg olives. He says, usually two workers can “comb” 10 trees full of olives in a day and up to 20 trees if there are fewer fruit.
Today, Pietro has three additional workers (including me) and we successfully comb more than 20 heavily laden trees. But the few productive hours fail to indicate the pain I will expect on my hands and neck!
At lunch break, all of us take out lunch boxes. Mine has sandwiches and pizza. Farm workers bring their own lunch as farms are usually located far from shops and restaurants. And the lunch break is a short one as it is crucial to make the most of the time since picking season is short.
We take 45 minutes to finish and mind you, this is considered a long break!
As the farm is located outside the centre of Calamonasi, the harvest is transported to the factory in a small, rickety truck.
I sit in the back of the truck with the other workers while Pietro drives us to the village centre. The truck moves at a snail pace of 20km per hour and we only reach the centre some 20 minutes later.
However, the slow journey gives me a chance to take in the beautiful hilly landscapes — all covered with grapes, olives trees, orange trees and almond trees.
MILLING THE OLIVE
After a hard day’s work at the farm, Pietro takes me to a nearby factory to show me how oil is extracted from the olives that I have just picked.
Small farmers such as Pietro send their olives to “frantoio” (oil mill) such as this factory. Many sell the olives to frantoio, but Pietro prefers to have his own machines and produce his own olive oil. He tells me one kg of olives can produce about 1.08 litres of oil.
Basically there are four main steps to extract olives’ oil — washing, grinding, mixing and separating.
Fresh olives will first be washed and alien objects such as stems, leaves and twigs removed. Then, the clean olives are crushed into paste that will be mixed for 20-45 minutes to allow tiny oil droplets to combine with bigger ones.
Finally, a machine separates the oil from the paste. The special machine, Pietro says, is able to separate the oil, water and solids. The solids, he adds, will sometimes be further extracted at another factory to produce a lower quality olive oil.
Fresh olive oil, to my surprise, does not smell or taste like the one we buy from the supermarket. We get the strong aroma of green grass from a hundred metres away.
Fresh olive oil also tastes a little spicy. Pietro says most people will only use the oil after four to six months, during which time the spicy taste will slowly disappear.
LOOKING FOR A JOB
Looking for a day working tour in an olive farm in Italy is not as easy as those to vineyards since wine production is far more popular than olive oil.
Good thing about this unpopular demand is that you may not have to pay high price for the experience.
Pietro picking unwanted leaves from the olives.
In Italy, the top three regions that produce olive oil are Apulia, Sicily (both are in the south) and Tuscany in the north.
When planning for a trip to these regions, requests and inquiries should be made directly to travel agencies as most do not have the tour promotion in their brochures or websites.
In Agrigento, an olive picking day tour cost around 250 euros (RM990) for a group of four, which includes transport to the farm, olive picking with the farm owner, lunch and a trip to a nearby oil mill. This tour can easily be arranged with lodgings.
But those who wish to have a total experience living in an olive farm should opt for a stay in holiday farms producing grape, orange or olive.
You will be staying in a village-type lodging while farm owners will be your host. They will organise activities such as cooking classes, which usually include using fresh produce from the farm and other cultural exchange courses.
But for those who only wish to visit the oil mill, the three regions offer extensive choices of oil mill tours, which are mostly organised by hotels in the cities.
Apart from tours organised by agents or bed-and-breakfast owners, many farmers do welcome tourists to their farms.
Some even offer short-term accommodation (up to several months) and food in exchange for labour.
This exchange of work experience is growing rapidly in recent years with the increasing interest in agriculture among city dwellers. One of the websites that provides this exchange opportunity is www.workaway.info.
High quality extra virgin olive oil
THERE are various factors why Village Calamonaci only produces extra virgin olive oil. One of them is the fact that the olives are traditionally hand-picked.
Freshly picked olives under its tree.
Sicily region cultivates mostly biancolilla, carolea and nocellara olive trees, which generally don’t grow taller than three metres, making it easier for farmers to manually pick olives without using machines that may damage the fruit before the oil milling process. All the hand-picked olives are washed and ground within 48 hours in order to maintain its freshness.
Sicily’s hot and dry weather during summer with heavy rainfalls just before the start of the olive picking season, is also one of the contributing factors for farmers such as Pietro to get high quality fruit.
The oil must meet the strict chemical, taste and smell standards set by the International Olive Council which defines extra virgin olive oil as free from acidity, expressed as oleic acid of not more than 0.8g per 100g.
Fast Facts
• Italy is the second biggest olive oil producer in the world after Spain.
• About 10-14 per cent of Italy’s olive oil is produced in Sicily.
• Sicily is the third biggest olive oil producing region in Italy following Tuscany and Apulia.
• Calamonaci, a little village in Agrigento, Sicily, produces only extra virgin olive oil.
[Source: New Straits Times]
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