Olive time
Conversations in Mogliano and most of Central Italy will keep returning to the same subject for the next six weeks - olives. Everyone in our local town has trees, or shares in trees, and the harvest is of intense interest to us all. Olive trees add to the sense of drama by being delightfully inconsistent - their crop is on a two year cycle, which meant that our oil production for 2007 was 15 litres, and for 2008 120 litres. But not all olive trees are on the same two year cycle, so some of our trees, just a select few, boast great thick bunches of fruit, whereas others are enthusiastically leafy, without an olive to be seen. Producing olive oil is a process filled with indecision and discussion, so every year we all return to the same questions, when shall we start the harvest being the first. I insist that our hard work is rewarded with a delicious dinner at the end of the process so I’ll let Aldo decide the important things whilst I focus on searching for the right restaurant.