Some preliminary notes on the olive harvest

It’s the last day of Eid today – since the first day of the holiday fell on a Friday (the weekend), they add the third day on today – so it’s very quiet this morning (no school, no university buses, fewer taxis).

I found out last night that the olive harvest begins on a certain date each year, which depends on the environmental conditions and growth cycle of the olives. This date is chosen by the agricultural committee in each village, which is just one man here, and I don’t know if he’s set a date or what that date is. However, as I was walking around the village this morning I noticed a few people had begun to pick olives. Despite the fact that the village is ‘famous’ for its olives (isn’t every village in Palestine?), and while many villagers own large amounts of land covered with olive trees, few of them actively farm their land these days. They now work in Ramallah and the surrounding area, or live in the US, which begs the question who then picks the olives? A friend whose five brothers live abroad told me that many people pay people from the North to pick their olives now. He is thinking about asking his neighbours to pick some of his olives too and then split the proceeds fifty-fifty. Another interesting tit-bit I found out during the course of this conversation was that the olive press in the village, an old one made of stone, is no longer operational. The owner moved to the US, and it has remained shut since he left. Now villagers have to take their olives to be pressed in a neighbouring village. The disadvantage of this is that they use a newer metallic press, which doesn’t produce the same flavour as olives pressed by stone.