Olive Picking

This Thanksgiving we had a very nontraditional celebration, we were on vacation in Egypt.  That's right, Egypt.  A place I've always dreamt of going, and it was a truly amazing trip.  However, before I start writing about our time there I have one post to catch up on.  The Saturday before we left Patrick and I went on an olive picking excursion.

We headed about 45 minutes northeast of base to an agriturismo.  An agriturismo is a local restaurant that uses fresh and local produce, sometimes grown on site.  They offer some of the best meals you will likely get in Italy.  Some even have rooms, much like a bed and breakfast.  There is a family near the Alcantara gorge who own a few agriturismos in the area.  On their land they cultivate olives, oranges, and grapes.

We paid money to help them do their work (we figured they laughed at us after we left), but it was fun.  We hand picked some olives (though if you had to do them all by hand it might take you months to get it done).  And they also let us try using the machine that they use to get the olives.  I don't know what the official name is, but it basically looks like a huge comb that has compressed air running through it making it vibrate.  The 'combing' gently plucks the olives from the branch and they fall to a net placed below the trees.

After a short time we went next to the Alcantara gorge.  A few thousand years ago Mt. Etna erupted.  When the lava flow met up with the very cold waters of the Alcantara river the lava cooled at a rapid rate and crystallized in the form of columns.  Over the years the river cut a path through the columns and you can now see cross sections of the lava.  It is really quite an impressive site. 

After exploring the gorge we sat down to a typical Sicilian lunch.  For those of you that haven't experienced one of these before it is truly a site to behold.  There are anywhere between 4-10 dishes, usually quite small, so you get a small sample of everything.  There is often caponata (which I never really liked until coming here), grilled vegetables, assorted meats and cheeses, bread, some sort of fried vegetable, mixed grilled meats (definitely not my favorite), and dessert.  You leave the lunches satiated and a little sleepy.