HARVESTING THE OLIVES

Attic black-figure amphora attributed to the Antimenes Painter
520BC.  h. 16" (40cm.)

© Trustees of the British Museum



Today the ways in which olives are harvested range all the way from careful, highly labour-intensive hand-picking to the use of huge mechanical harvesters.

This scene from an Attic amphora shows how the Athenians harvested their olives in the sixth century BC. The painter has depicted four harvesters: two youths and two bearded older men. One youth sits high in the central tree, beating the branches with a stick; another young boy kneels on the ground as he collects the fallen olives and puts them in a basket. The two older men, holding long sticks for knocking the olives from the tree, seem to keep a close watch on  the two younger men; olives that are knocked like this can be damaged, and in particular the man on the right may be watching how carefully the boy sorts and selects the harvest.

These large and beautifully decorated  amphoras, containing the finest oil, were often presented as prizes at the Panathenaic Games. From the olive harvest scene here, it seems likely that this vessel would have served such a purpose.
 
You can read more about this amphora here, on the website of the British Museum.

OLIVE TREES AS ORNAMENTALS

ORIENTAL INFLUENCE

Olives trained as 'clouds'. Known as niwaki, this form of topiary is a Japanese technique, used for bonsai as well as full-sized trees. You can read about it here.

I took this photo at Heyne's Garden Centre, Beulah Park, South Australia.

OLIVE AS A STREET TREE

This may be a feral tree, there are lots in this area of Adelaide. Or perhaps someone planted it; either way, the Council left it alone and it has grown into a beautiful tree which really enhances the street.

When we first moved here, an Italian family would visit each year to harvest the olives from this tree (olives from feral trees are small but delicious to eat; you can buy them in the markets here).

MEDITERRANEAN INFLUENCE IN AN ADELAIDE GARDEN

Three young Corregiola olives in terra cotta pots. Corregiolas are grown for their oil, but, only having these three trees, we have found that they make fine table olives. It's lovely to be able to pick and preserve our own olives!

A HOT SUMMER IN THE GARDEN

Parsley flowerheads

hibiscus 



Eggplants coming along

and so are the chillies, although they're drooping in the heat

this gum tree is shedding its bark

summer and sunflowers go together

baby crabapples - they'll be ripe in the autumn

And I have to say that it's so hot here at the moment that I would welcome a bit of autumn!