THE OLIVE HARVEST IN GUÁJAR ALTO

In Guájar Alto, all the olive growers are busy at the moment preparing for the annual harvest. This involves clearing the ground underneath every tree to make sure that it is free of weeds and stones, and raked as smooth as possible. Since most of the olives end up on the ground, this preparation is necessary for efficient collection.

We, ourselves, have a good crop this year and our trees are dripping with fruit. To begin with, we shall harvest only those olives which have turned black; the green ones will be left to ripen. This means that we shall be spending the next two months picking olives and taking them to the mill. The olives of Guájar Alto produce oil of very good flavour and quality. The extra virgin, from the first pressing, is thick and green and has a rich, nutty flavour. For cooking purposes, we use the virgin oil from the second pressing. This, too, is of extremely good quality and is far superior to virgin olive oil purchased from the supermarket. We have so much of it, that I’m afraid we tend to be very extravagant with it.

A couple of years ago, while the ground underneath one of our trees was being dug up, an old coin was unearthed. It was a large coin, and when it was cleaned, we discovered that it was Italian, dated 1866. On one side was engraved its value - 10 centesimi, and on the other was the head of King Vittorio Emanuele II. We were very puzzled as to how an Italian coin could have found its way to our finca, but when I showed it to a historian in Motril, he said its find wasn’t extraordinary at all; in the latter part of that century, many botanists, geologists and archaeologists came to the area because of its outstanding scientific interest. Most of our olives are very old, so perhaps the coin fell out of the pocket of one of the scientists while he was sitting under the shade of that particular tree.

One of the fascinating aspects of Spain is that, unlike Great Britain, where items of historical interest are kept under glass in museums, or fenced off so that they can’t be touched, here many treasures are lying about, for anyone to pick up. I, myself, have found several fragments of Moorish pottery on our land. One is part of an earthenware bowl, glazed with cream and green, eleventh century in origin. The green is typical of that period and was produced from manganese. I have another piece of pottery, 600 years old, with an attractive, blue and white glaze. This, I was told, is typical of ceramic ware from the Nazari period of Moorish occupation.

As with the olives, the grape harvest was also very good this year, and the wine we made from ours has already been sampled. It is rather good. It is very clear, with no trace of sediment or cloudiness, and it has a good colour - a delicate pink. The taste is smooth, clean and sweet, with no hint of the yeasty aftertaste you sometimes get with country wines from our area.