The olive harvest in times past meant the effort of the extended family and work was done exclusively by hand. This meant long days in the grove. The harvest now is finished before Christmas and the mills are all shut. Previously the harvest would have continued on into February and March. Hard work indeed but it was the vital cash crop for many families.
I am lucky in that my grove is outside my front door and so I can easily return home for lunch. This would have been out of the question for most pickers and so lunch was provided for in the grove. There would have been a fire and any food that could be found to hand, such as these mushrooms I found in the grove this morning, would have been a welcome addition to the menu. You can imagine someone would have gone hunting to see if they could quickly kill something for the pot.
Time for my lunch...
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