Elies = Olives

We are helping with the olive harvest.  It is repetitive work consisting of laying tarps underneath the trees, beating the branches with long rods to stir the olives that then fall into the tarp, extracting the good olives by hand, while discarding the leaves and green olives, towing the olives in buckets, then pouring the contents into large sacks that hold 30 kilos each. These sacks are then driven to a two year old modern press in the port town of Kamares.  There one can pay cash or a portion of the harvest for the miller's fee.  Within a day, the oil is returned either in self-provided containers, or those provided by the miller.

Several times, we have been invited to help with revitalizing the oil trade on the island.  However, to the best of our calculations, and understanding of product quality, the Sifnos oil is not competitive.  Instead, it is best considered as a means for subsistence living; not to be mocked, especially during these economic times.  

Based on a sample set of two orchards in very different locations, three and a half kilos of olives will produce one kilo of oil.  Each tree produces three and a half kilos of oil.  The opinion about quality of the oil on the island ranges from very good to poor.  There is no quality certification program that is trusted.  If priced for sale, it would not be competitive with even the common brands, (that are likely watered down varieties), given that the work is done by hand.  Most orchards are built on terraces, or in small fields, often in a location where trucks simply cannot access the trees.  For example, yesterday we helped friends Klaus and Brigit who live on a tiny homestead reached only by walking along a beach for about a third of a mile, before heading inland to their place, through gated stone walls, a goat and a sheep pen, then climbing over a stone terrace.    

Our efforts were rewarded with kafe und kuchen over a friendly conversation while lounging on their veranda as the sun set into the sea.

In the cafes, the talk is about the olive harvest, the local bird hunting season, and the national political and economic upheavals.  Did you know that Prime Minister Papandreou used to live in Berkeley, CA and speaks better English than Greek? 

Based on cafe talk and my calculations, our olive harvesting labor was worth  4.5 Euros an hour, after costs, if we were to have successfully sold the oil at average market rates.  A more appreciative way of thinking about the effort is that we harvested a year's worth of our own consumption in three hours of shared effort, saving on non-biodegradable packaging, enjoying the physical activity, sunshine, and community building.