So it's the time of year to collect olives and produce your own olive oil. Could there be anything more satisfying than harvesting, tasting and using your own olive oil from your own trees picked straight out of your garden? Unfortunately for us and probably due to our trees not having being pruned for many years our own fruit seems to have a lot of the larvae on which attack the olives and most have already fallen so we will wait until next year for our first crop. This didn't stop us helping neighbours and friends collecting theirs on what was a perfect if very tiring Autumn day.

On Skiathos the olives are collected by yourselves by vigorously bashing the trees with sticks to make the fruit fall onto nets placed around the trees and then sifting through and collecting the olives in sacks to transport. The sacks of ripe olives are then taken by truck via boat over to Skopelos where they then press into your own olive oil. This process only takes a couple of days and I have been told that the oil produced on Skiathos is of very good quality.

We are so excited to see and of course try the results. Watch this space!