Colours of Hania: Olive (Eλιά)

This work was inspired by Kalliope's Spectral studies series.

Wherever you look in the town, the presence of the olive tree cannot be ignored. The olive tree is to Crete what the pumpkin is to America during the autumn season. Olives have, for a long time, been the mainstay in both the agricultural and winter economy of Hania, and a good year in the life of the town is often measured by a good olive harvest. The silvery green leaves of the tree make a beautiful backdrop to the once-ripened purple black olive fruits.

(The omnipresent olive tree: at school, peppering a village, near the town's gymnasium, at my workplace, lining a village street.)

Olive trees crop heavily one year, and lightly the next. This year, there are signs of βεντέμα (vendema), a bumper crop; the branches are laden with fruit, weighed down heavily by the drupes. It's still too early to harvest them for olive oil, but it's a perfect time for collecting green olives for curing, to be eaten once they have sweetened; olives are never eaten straight from the tree. In Crete, they have not turned black yet; this process of maturation takes place over a long period of time. If it doesn't rain soon, this year's olive oil yield will be greatly reduced, at the same time, with compromised quality.

(olives - lianes variety - in a range of hues)

(olive trees lining the streets; olives - tsounates variety - for curing)

The small bead-like variety (λιανές - lianes) are used purely for olive oil, while the larger, fatter ones (τσουνάτες - tsounates) make excellent table olives, besides being used for pressing. Tsounates were the most popular variety in Crete for a long time, but in the modern age where there is a desire to produce and harvest quickly and efficiently, lianes are now more common: they are more resilient, staying on the tree without dropping in adverse weather conditions (as do tsounates), and produce olive oil at greater quantities per kilo. This being said, the value of the old-fashioned tsounates must not be forgotten: they produce a higher quality of olive oil, able to be stored for longer periods of time than the oil produced from lianes. For the uninitiated, Kalamata olives are not produced in Crete; they're a product grown out of the Peloponese, where Kalamata is located. Although a variety of different olive species are grown in Crete, the varieties are generally dominated by lianes and tsounates.

Olive harvesting in Crete is still conducted in the old-fashioned way: by hand. Tsounates are allowed to fall off the tree naturally onto black nets, which are then lifted and the olives poured into sacks and transported to the press. Having a stronger stem, lianes do not drop so easily; the branches are beaten with a stick, so that the olives fall off the tree onto the nets. The very young olives trees (μουρέλα - mourela) are hand-picked to protect the young branches.

(Young trees - mourela; ornamental olive trees; mourela intercropped to use up the empty space in the land more efficiently)

(Nets; an olive grove; gnarled trunks; the remains of the roots of a tree that has been dug up)

The main technological addition to gathering the crop is the electric beating rod, a long stick with flexible strips of plastic, which is inserted among the branches of a tree. When turned on, the rod rotates, while the strips fly in the air, slapping anything in their way, causing the olives to be severed from their stem. In more developed countries,the trunks of the olive tree are mechanically shaken by heavy machinery. This can only take place when there is ample space between the trees for the machinery to enter. Olive trees are planted too close together in Crete, mainly to get as many trees as possible on a piece of land; space is always lacking on our small fields.

The photos have been taken in various parts of the town, both in the rural and urban zones. Their omnipresence lends the town a sense of innocence in an ever-growing globalised world.

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In Crete, we cure freshly picked olives in salt or brine for future use as table olives; otherwise, the olives are pressed for oil. Freshly picked olives are far too bitter to eat as they are. But there are other places in the world where they use freshly picked olives in their cooking, albeit in their cooked form. Here is a recipe I found from Saretta, who lives in Italy, Amid the Olive Trees, as her blog is called.

(Kalamata olives, along with other fresh fruit and vegetables that I found at the laiki market)

Freshly picked black Nolca olives are washed, dried and fried in olive oil, with a little tomato, salt and basil. In Hania, fresh black olives are not in season yet (the Nolca variety is not grown here), so I bought some Kalamata olives form the street market to try out the same recipe, with ther exception of basil; I used oregano instead. It made an interesting hors d'oeuvre, served with good-quality bread and cheese, to accompany our fasolada. I can imagine this dish being made in ancient times, as it is simple and nutritious.

For the original recipe, check out Saretta's site.

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