Olive Picking

I was beginning to miss the pumpkin patch and apple picking days in CT, but then I went olive picking! It wasn't the same of course, but we had a lot of fun.

We all went to work.

I climbed up a tree and stuffed my pockets with olives. 

My aunt Lulu came with us to pick. 

Me with olives.

These are some of the olives we collected. The brownish ones are the best, but the green ones are fine too. 

So many olives ready to be made into oil!

Cat + Kitten = Cutest picture I've taken in Rome. Maybe cutest picture I have ever taken. 

Some sheep standing in the middle of the road. Poor little things! 

We had to beep them out of our way. 

Everyone picked olives! It was really fun and we even got to see how olive oil is made. There are two ways - one is old fashioned while the other is much more modern and has plenty of machinery. I like the old style more.

The olives are first cleaned and ground up into a paste. Then they are placed on a sort of circular plate and stacked upon each other like a sandwich. Then they are squeezed for their oil.

Voila - the simplified version of how to make olive oil.