Uncharacteristic weather (late frost in the spring of 2020 and scant rainfall since) cut our typical volume of 500-600 kilos of olives to around one-third that amount yesterday.
I had planned to document this year’s harvest extensively in pictures, but my dad’s passing had me focus on gathering our family around my mom instead. And yesterday we had nine (!) check-ins, so what time was devoted to Poggiosole went towards seeing to details in Begonia and Le Rose and giving our guests a proper welcome. As I watched our farm hands work, the old Neil Young song kept playing in my head. A couple of stanzas seemed especially fitting to this moment:
Will I see you give more than I can take
Will I only harvest some
As the days fly past will we lose our grasp
Or fuse it in the sun
Did she wake you up to tell you that
It was only a change of plan
Dream up, dream up, let me fill your cup
With the promise of a man
We pressed and extracted 2021’s harvest earlier today. That color is always a joy.
