The Olive harvest

                                                            Video of EVGE harvest

The olive harvest is taking place right now all over Greece. The harvest happens every year in  November and December when the olives start changing from green to purplish black. It is so important that time off for civil servants is granted so that they can harvest and press their olives.  The word for oil in Greek is “ladi” and this connotates first pressed extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) because traditionally, there was never any other kind of culinary oil! In fact, 80% of the olive oil produced in Greece is extra virgin. The subsequent presses make oil for burning or “lamp oil”.
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The olive is indigenous to Greece and has been cultivated for over 5000 years (see more on the history below) and EVOO is the most important culinary product for Greeks. The first question Greeks ask about olive oil is what the acidity level is–the lower, the better. According to international regulations, no olive oil can carry the label of extra virgin unless its acidity is below 0.8%.  (EVGE is always below 0.3%). Lower acidity means it is higher in antioxidant polyphenols and has a more peppery afterbite.  Every part of the tree is used. The fruit for oil –or table olives (which come from a different tree than those used for oil). The leaves for tea or extract, which has many medicinal uses. And olive wood is hardy and exceptional for making anything from crafts, utensils to furniture and the branches make excellent firewood. It is truly a sacred tree, and along with the vine and wheat, has been a vital part of Greek life since the Neolithic age.

Traditional harvest process begins with placing large nets on the ground around the trees. Then long poles or more recently hand-held “tickling” machines are used to knock the olives off the trees onto the nets below.  Then olives are collected and put into open crates and transported to an olive press where they are laid on a conveyer belt, washed and separated from the leaves. In ancient and old times, the olive oil press consisted of two millstones, put in motion by large wooden handles pushed by men or donkeys, pressing the olives and turning them into paste and then into oil. Today the millstones have been replaced by modern mechanized presses, although some olive presses still use the stone-grinding method with the only difference that movement of the mills is now electricity powered. 

Below an article about the importance of the olive in Ancient Greece–here is the source
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“​Atop the Acropolis of Athens stands an olive tree that is a symbol of hundreds of years of dedication and reverence. Although this is not the ‘original’ tree honoured by pious Athenians over 2,500 years ago, it nonetheless stands in roughly the same spot as the original. The tree was an important foundation myth for Athens as it established the primacy of the goddess Athena within the city that would take her name.

Legend has it that Zeus offered a contest between Athena and Poseidon for the possession of Athens. Poseidon raised up his three-pronged trident, smashed it upon the hard rock of the Acropolis and out a salt spring sprang. Athena on the other hand
produced an olive tree, its rich fruits bountifully dangling from the branches. This dramatic showdown between the two powerful Olympians was immortalized in stone, depicted on the West pediment sculptures of the Parthenon.

The Athenians chose Athena’s gift and the olive tree has remained a central part of Greek life ever since for all of its profound qualities. The leaves have been used to crown the heads of victorious athletes, generals and kings, the wood used to construct houses and boats, the oil used to give fuel to lamps, rubbed into the toned, muscled bodies of lithe athletes, added to all food dishes and the olives themselves — a staple in the Mediterranean diet and a valuable export throughout antiquity and today. Even the iconic Athenian tetradrachm coins had the leaves of the olive branch peeping to the left of Athena’s owl.”

​”But the olive tree on the Athenian Acropolis held extra importance compared to all others due to its divine provenance. A Temple to Athena Polias (‘of the city’) was built c.525BC housing a xoanon cult statue inside — itself made from olive wood — and a precinct created for Athena’s sacred olive tree. When the Great King Xerxes’ Persian armies swept through Greece and sacked Athens in 480BC, the buildings on the Acropolis were set on fire and destroyed. Yet Herodotus tells us that the olive tree ‘sprouted the same day to a height of two cubits’ (3 ft.). Seeds from the remnants of this tree were replanted across Attica and in this way, all the olive groves surrounding Athens have a touch of Athena’s original tree in them.

Later in 421BC, when the Oath of Platea which had been sworn in 479BC to leave the ruins of the Persian destruction as memorials to the war had lapsed, the Erechtheion was built on the most sacred areas of the Acropolis. Not only were tombs to the mythical kings Kekrops and Erechtheus here but also the spot where Poseidon’s trident struck the ground and of course Athena’s sacred olive tree. Once again, the olive tree regained grand monuments in its vicinity and continued to be honoured and remain a central part of the Athenian religious and cultural landscape for centuries to come.”