Notes from the Olive Harvest

Year 2 with New Tools and New Learning

The Sunsets at the Finca © TDWolsey

By Thomas DeVere Wolsey

This year, the effects of climate change are making olive oil a truly precious commodity as high temperatures and lack of rainfall have reduced the size of the harvest in regions around the world and simultaneously made the harvest more difficult. High temperatures mean milling cannot proceed normally and some growers are now harvesting at night thus increasing costs for lighting and so on. In Greece[1], olive oil theft has become a serious problem as low production drives prices ever higher[2] In Spain, the harvest is expected to be half what it was just last year[3]. Here in Catalonia, my finca’s olives seem to be producing as much as ever, probably due in part to readily available irrigation water.

New Tools

Last year, I used a pneumatic harvester or peine that locally is known as an applausa because the way it works is by opening and closing a pair of combs that look like hands clapping. These are efficient, and there are electric versions, too. This year, I tried and then purchased a harvester called a vareador with combs that oscillate from side to side instead of up and down. What I like about it this version is that it functions on small, rechargeable batteries. There are no cords or pneumatic tubes to trip over or get caught in the borrasses…