In Portugal we use olive oil a lot for cooking, so the olive tree has always been a tree very much planted here and during this season of the year it's time to pick the olives, to have a good and organic olive oil during most of the year.

For the past few weeks I've been picking olives for some people here on countryside, I've never picked so many for so long, I usually pick only my family's, but lately older and wise people are starting to get sick, and the young people are not interested in this ... so I'm in the middle of this age group and it's a good way to earn some extra money! 😄

For those who have never picked olives in their life, I will show you how it works!

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We always start by placing a "blanket" under the tree

in this case, the tree is small (still young) so we can pick the olives by hand or use this tool

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In this second case, we have the same type of olive trees, but as there were many, we used this fantastic machine!

are electric, it works connected to the tractor battery, in this case, there were three machines so each machine was connected to a car battery, which we had to carry while we were walking

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In this third case, we had old olive trees that usually have many large branches in the middle, so this is where a person with the proper knowledge comes in to cut the branches in the right way so that they don't spoil the growth of the tree.

After removing all the olives from the branches, we gathered them on the blanket and removed most of the leaves, then we put the olives in a bucket.

in the end we take the buckets to a place to be cleaned and put in bags

And how we clean them? with this great machine!!

Inside the machine, next to the orange part, some rotating blades work as a fan.
with the machine running, the olives come out of an opening and the wind from the blades drives out the leaves, separating them from the olives

this machine is already old, it was supposed to have a grid that shook and helped the separation, instead of me with a stick

however still doing a good job!

then just put them in bags, (as you can see in the back) clean the space, wash the buckets and it's done !!

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It was interesting to see new tools being used and at the same time it was frustrating by the weather changes, at first they were hot sunny days, then it went to hot days with light rain until at the end the cold and wet days came!!

And that's it guys!

Who here also picks olives?