Extra virgin olive oil of Puglia is one of the most famous products in the world for its taste, its quality. It has always been defined “Gold of Puglia” because this product deeps its roots in the history of this region, rich of culture, tradition and sceneries. Olive threes thousand years old fill the territory and the apulian country side, with their rich and green crown, and their ancient and powerful trunk. From these threes, that in the past was considered natural gods, is squeezed the famous “Gold of Puglia”.
This incredible product comes from one of the most rich of tradition moments in Puglia, the olive harvest. Since the past this activity was really important for the inhabitants of Puglia, because extra virgin olive oil is an essential ingredient of the apulian cousin. It is used as dressing, for frying and to conserve most of the characteristic food.
In this post we will discover together how olive harvest works.
Discover here how to partecipate at the harvest.
As we wrote before, the olive harvest has always represent an essential activity in which hard work and sharing were mixed together for an intense life moment. Today it is still important and it is one of the activity we recommend to join. A rich experience that will bring you trough the finest ancient traditions of Puglia.
The history taught us that since the Roman period the best technique was the “brucatura”, the one conducted picking every singular olive manually from the olive branches. This technique is the finest one, because it allows to pick and select the best olives since the branch, making a best quality extra virgin olive oil. Furthermore this technique is the one which respect the plant the most.
Another common technique in Puglia in “Scuotitura”. The olive three is shook by light mechanical tools that make the olives falling down on the ground where some web for the harvest were set before. This technique is really good because does not stress too much the plant.
In Salento, south of Puglia, the farmers use another technique waiting the fill of the olives when they reach the aging and they pick up the olives from the webs they already set on the ground. This technique makes the olives aging too much and the quality of the olive oil is lower.
Olive harvest is a practice in which history, tradition and culture merge together in a typical apulian moment. We will harvest at Masseria Il Frantoio since October to December and we will be glad of host people from all over the world to watch and partecipate at this traditional activity. We made a special proposal for who want to live this moment with us.