Is it worth it?

When we moved to the hills of Portugal we thought we'd be growing all our own vegetables, picking grapes, harvesting olives and being just a little more self-sufficient.  But over the last 8 years we've not really embraced this way of life.  The veg patch is more of a place where veg goes to die, we've never picked the grapes and up until this month we've never bothered with the olives.

We have about 13 olive trees in our garden.  Each year we watch the olives grow, fall on the ground and rot.  

I hack back the grapevines so hard the neighbours come out to laugh at my poor pruning skills.  They tell me each year 'you'll never get grapes if you do that' I reply 'I don't want grapes, I just want leaves'....they shrug and laugh to themselves as the walk away.

And as for that poor veg patch...well aphids, rot, bad soil and a whole host of problems mean we only plant peas (which we often forget to harvest until they've gone hard), tomatoes (you cannot beat a home grown tomato fresh off the vine) and raspberries (which for some reason don't seem to grow as well as everyone else's).  You see it is just much cheaper to go to the local market and buy your veg from one of the old ladies selling their in-season and home-grown stuff.  Except for those berries.....I must say a prayer to the patron saint in charge of gardening, Saint Fiacre, about these.

We seem to have a bumper crop of olives this year (despite many areas having a shortage). So while I was in England, poor bored Peter decided to harvest the olives.   He tells me he spent four days working in the garden, cutting the olive branches to get to the olives and thin the trees.  Locals say you must 'thin the trees so a bird can fly through them'.   

He ended up with four large tubs of olives...

Our local press is the Lagar de Azeite do Bolo and seems to be well respected in the area as a cold press specialist.  The difference between cold pressed and hot pressed olive oil is explained here.

The process begins with a weighing...113kg of olives should give us about 10 litres of oil.  

Next the olives go through a leaf removing machine as the leaves make the final oil too bitter.

Then the process begins, from washing the olives through to pressing through the wicker mats in the compressing machine.

A small amount of olives means that your olives are thrown in with a larger batch.  Peter was the second customer of the season, our olives went in with the first of the season...a much bigger batch from down the road.

A few days later we went to collect our olive oil.  10 litres of oil as agreed and a price of just 1 euro a litre.  Chances are, the shortage in olives this year will mean a price rise on olive oil bought direct from the lagar (olive press) so our hand-picked, cold-pressed olive oil was a bargain….if you don't count the 4 days manual labour, the burning of the cut branches, the lifting of four large containers to the olive press, the labour at the press itself and the electricity and water used to press the olives.

Is it all worth it?  Some would instantly say 'yes' the satisfaction of the process, the lack of food miles, the knowledge that you are using the land to support yourself and the fact that you are eating something you've grown.  But in the end, it comes down to flavour....the olive oil needs three months to mature in the container before it'll be ready....so I'll have to just let you know!