Olive Picking

We too have collected some big fat olives from our very own trees, and have prepared them for eating during 2009. Over the Christmas holidays, one of our sons decided to collect some for himself and take them back to London for the month-long period of preparation (soaking in water, which must be changed every day). Some of them were marked with the familiar little black spot which means there is probably a Dacus grub inside, so in the interests of research they cut the olives open to investigate and lo, indeed, there was a white maggoty looking grub. After that they cut open some of the other olives that didn't have any outward signs, and every single one had a grub inside! Needless to say, the attraction of eating olives - ever again - has lessened considerably!

Now that the olive trees in Corfu are no longer sprayed from the air (thank goodness), there is a much higher incidence of the Dacus. Early olives are not normally affected, but it is worth bearing in mind that from December onwards, the grubs may be inside your otherwise perfect-looking shiny black olives.

I also found another use for olives this year. I picked some of the biggest, threaded them, sprayed them gold and used them to decorate a tiny cypress tree!
Susan

Welcome to 2009

Sincerely wishing everyone a happy and healthy New Year.

In our family the winter months are more than top-heavy with celebrations. Starting with one son's birthday on 14th December, we move on to Christmas, which is then followed by our wedding anniversary on the 30th, New Year's Eve, another son's birthday today (1st January), daughter's birthday on 9th January, and then a get-your-breath back gap before the next son's birthday on 23rd February. So whilst most people are beginning to relax, we are still buying and wrapping presents. Today's gifts were all wrapped in newspaper at the special request of our eco-friendly son, who had also asked for second-hand presents, if at all possible!

The fact that two of the birthdays fall at Christmas time made it comparatively easy for us to ensure that our sons were born in the United Kingdom. Strange to think that in those days, although Greece was part of the European Union, British nationality could not be guaranteed to a child born outside the United Kingdom. In 1980, when our third child was expected, the only way to make sure of British nationality for a child of dual nationality parentage was for that child to be born on British soil. Since we already had two children who were born whilst we were living in the UK, it seemed only right to do the same by number three, so we spent a happy two months in Yorkshire over Christmas 1980.

When number four was expected, again at Christmas time, we again felt a responsibility to give the same guarantee of British nationality to him or her. By this time we had been living in Greece for about 10 years, and I felt slightly guilty about using the facilities of the National Health system even though I was still registered with a GP, who assured me that it was perfectly all right so to do. Anyway, we decided to keep the whole birth low-key, and spend as little time as possible in hospital and return to Corfu as soon as possible after the birth. Baby, however, had other plans for us, and with masterly timing allowed us to complete our New Year's Eve celebrations before coming into the world in a blaze of publicity as the first 1989 baby to be born in Airedale General Hospital!
Susan

Collecting olives - the British way

Despite the fact that I have lived in Corfu for more than twenty years, one activity I have never been involved in is picking olives - until yesterday! But as my loved-one was keen to point out, we did it the British way.

Not for us the laying of nets under the trees and waiting for the olives to drop off. This way takes months and involves going to the nets regularly to collect the olives. We decided to go for it in one shot, wanting just enough good olive oil for our house and to give some away to selected lucky friends. So we wandered around to choose which trees had the most fruit, then laid the nets underneath and used rakes on the end of broomsticks to drag the olives off. Sounds easy but we really needed the regular coffee and mince pie stops to keep us going.

A whole day's labour yielded four sacks and this should give us about twenty litres of oil - more than enough for our summer salads.
Sarah