It's Over and Olive Picking

I know it's been a while, but I'm trying to catch up with my life right now. Starting to get ahead of myself, but I promise, no, commit to you, that I'll be completely updated by the end of the week.

It’s Over and Olive Picking
12-11-2005
12:54AM

I am officially done. With the pilot that is. I should know about the full time offer by the time I get back to the states.

I know it’s been over a week since I wrote any with substance. That’s how ridiculously busy I was. Averaging 5 hours of sleep a night, worked 20 hours on Wed, and this week has gone by in a blink of the eye. I’m glad it’s over. I’m glad I did it. Now it’s up to fate.

I lay in bed with a Johnnie Walker red on the rocks. Everyone else bailed on plans for tonight and I wanted to treat myself to something nice. So I grabbed the best thing out of the mini bar. Plus I have to get up early tomorrow and pick up Tasia from the airport. I’m so excited.

I think I left off with how toxic I felt Friday morning. We went to dinner at a sushi restaurant on Friday. Then another episode at the Old Stove. And Rohan, my bookie, just interrupted me to place some sports bets. Good times. I miss 75 Avery and the satellite dish.

Anyway, went olive picking in this mountainous region about an hour south of Firenze. You can see the mountain from my office. I always wondered what was up there and so here was my chance. And when the hell am I ever going to go olive picking again?

Jimmy Gets High

The drive was crazy. Winding roads up the mountain, very green up there. Almost like we were in commercial where you see the car driving on a closed course. Finally arrived and got straight to work at around 10:30am.

Olive picking is very different than say apple or strawberry picking. We first had to lay a huge net at the base of the tree. It covered a good 6-8 foot radius on the ground. I think the tallest tree was 12-15 feet high. We got these hand held rakes that you strip the branches of the olives with. They were small and made of plastic. Then you go and start combing through the branches. Pretty simple.

Don’t Lie

I had fun climbing the trees. Everyone else used the ladders, but I felt safer with my own balance on the tree trunks. The branches at the top of the trees had the most density of olives, and as you comb through, you just let it fall to the ground on the net. Had to be careful of where you stepped; didn’t want to crush any of the olives. The best olives were the big, black ones. They were hard and about the size of the top part of your thumb.

Big City Love

We stopped around 2 or 3 for lunch. By far the best meal I’ve had in Italy. It was fresh, home cooked Italian food. Nothing like it. Started off with the typical appetizers: cheese, meat, bread and wine. The difference was these were all home prepared, including the wine. The cheese with fig was amazing. I first tried it without the homemade fig and it was super strong. But a small dip of the fig and it was like candy. The wine was decent. I will only drink red wine for the rest of my life. There were these little hand made, palm sized pizzas. The best part of the anti-pasto was the vegetables: sun dried tomatoes, grilled zucchini, and mushrooms. We had a salad and then came the courses – LASAGNA!

All Because of You

The guy who we were doing the olive picking for had his mother prepare the lasagna. At first glance, it looked odd since it was green. But he explained that she mixed spinach in with the homemade noodles. At this point, I was stuffed. Then came secondi. Another lasagna, this time with tons of meat in it. I tried a little bit and thought my stomach was going to explode.

Heard Em Say

We finished up lunch and got back to olive picking. Finally left around 6:30. Got back to Florence at around 7:30 and worked til 2am. I know. You don’t have to say it.

A few notes on the olive picking experience…
The guy who owned the “farm” is the director for the bank of Roma. He actually is a “supplier” to GE. He owns about 100 trees and only had 15 done. Needs to have them all done by the end of the month. Between 7 of us, we finished 12-14 trees. A tree yields about 1.5 basketfuls. A basket is about as big as one of those boxes you use to at the office to clear your desk after you get fired. 2 baskets fill a liter of olive oil. Supposedly, everyone who helped with the picking will get a bottle for Xmas.

After all the trees are picked, they send it to some place where they are pressed for oil. Didn’t get a process breakdown but sounds long and complicated. No wonder why it’s like $15 a bottle back in the states. Good experience overall.

I’m getting tired. Will catch up sometime this week. Really not much to report.

When I was little, I always wanted to be able to dunk a basketball on a regulation hoop. I used to be able to grab the rim one handed in high school, but I’m getting old and my Chicken Little legs can’t get the flight it used to. I have decided to change that life long goal, until they come out with a 9ft regulation hoop, and I now want to run a marathon before I turn 28. I was always a sprinter, not a long distance runner.

Perfect Love