The ladders are in place. The tarps are on the ground. The mechanical harvesters whir and buzz around the old olive grove. Harvest time connects us not only to our land but also to our past. Not a day goes by when we don’t recall watching our parents and grandparents harvest the olives using only long wooden sticks, with which they used to tap the branches. Those days are long gone, but as we start yet a new harvest, we feel grateful and blessed to continue our long family tradition.
This time of the year we are overwhelmed with emotions. Harvesting is not an exact science. There are some many variables that influence how well our harvest will go.
Early on feelings range from stress, to relief, to hope. Thankfully, they always build up to a crescendo of joy, as we observe those first mounds of olives accumulate in the harvest tarps we lay under our trees. Its pure magic, and each evening we cannot wait to return to our fields the following morning, to resume this incredible harvest of emotions.
