Olives

Butter is usually our choice of bread-spread, or coconut oil when it seems healthier. Olive oil was reserved for fancy restaurants or to use for salad dressings. Now that we are a little more “Spanish”, olive oil is probably in even quantity with blood coursing through our veins. We pour it on salads, drizzle it on breads, sauté our veggies in it, and only rarely wish for butter.

After spending a month climbing among the ancient olive trees on the property, our host, Luna, invited us to help gather the olives in the traditional way. When we had gone to the river with her a while ago (read the story Horses), we had picked up some 15 foot canes that grew along the river to bring back with us. The long “poles” were used to help beat down the olives from the tree, as a net was spread underneath to catch them. Noah and Natalie did their best to thrash at the tiny black dots, then Luna and I came behind to try our best. It was a lot harder than it looks to get them to release, and we ended up doing better by collecting the olives from the ground. Luna had already gotten about 7 kilos, and we helped double her load. (She is also an amazing photographer and captured the process with beautiful photos!)

Later, Luna sent me pictures of the pressing process. She brought the olives to a neighbor who had a small press. After adding in an extra 5 kilos for her, he pressed out a good 5 liters of pure organic extra virgin cold pressed olive oil.

Luna brought over a bottle of the greenish-gold oil for us as a gift, which was very kind of her. We poured some on bread and marveled at the smooth, golden taste.

A dear friend recently wrote to us after seeing our olive grove. It is poignant and significant for us:

“I read once about the Garden of Gethsemane being a place of olive trees and how that was significant because of the surrender/crushing that went on there for Jesus.. The devotion spoke on these lessons from the Olive: * For fruitfulness, olives need both East and West winds (signified both blessing and trial) * They need processing… Only proper time and process make them useful. Can’t hurry or override. * For preservation they need crushing… When Olive has been crushed it is in a state that will last longer than original.

All our surrender, crushing, trial, blessing, waiting, processing… To be labeled in one moment, among the olives, as His eternal victory… The place where all of this will be worth all of that. Hope you get a chance to sit underneath that tree of Biblical significance and take in what He’s speaking to you in your journey.”