Netting is placed under the trees to catch the olives.
Dick Gregory, our neighbor in nearby Piégon, sent us this photo of harvesting olives from the grove of trees at his home. The green netting is spread out under the trees. When the branches are shaken, the olives are collected onto the netting. From our rooftop terrace in Mirabel we can see olive groves on the hillside with the green netting in place for the November olive harvest.
Dick also sent us a photo of the delivery of his olives to the mill for pressing – 400 kilos which should give between 88 and 100 litres of oil. He says it was a very poor year for the olives this year, too much rain (which we witnessed) followed by too much warm weather according to the farmers. More than half of the olives fell off the trees.
–Dory
Dick's olive harvest