Olive Growing in the Middle East (1940)

olive trees grow on the slopes of limestone Hills in most of the Mediterranean lands the trees are evergreen and thrive on the hot dry Summers and wet winters of this region the olive is cultivated in all these regions and in these parts its cultivation is most intensive in Spain the south of France and Italy Olive growing is carried out by modern scientific methods in Cyprus Greece and Palestine the cultivation of Olives is fairly well organized and up to date but at the Eastern end of the Mediterranean Beyond Palestine lie ared regions where the method of cultivation is simple and traditional in these parts are many Arab communities whose way of life has changed little over the centuries in the village of ajara for instance the people live largely on the products of these olive trees which were planted Long Ago by the Romans growth is maintained by grafting choots onto the original ancient trunks the villagers do not bother to pick the olives when they're ripe but they beat and shake the trees the Arabs of this Village have been accustomed to harvesting the olives in this way for many centuries and they still continue to do so it is less tedious than picking the fruit a poor family may possess only one tree but most families possess more these women have gathered up the olives which have been shaken from the trees and are taking them up on the roof of their home where they will dry in the sun some of the olives will be eaten whole with other food the rest will be crushed and squeezed so as to get the oil from them which is used for both cooking and washing when the crop is good some of the oil may be sold to people in by towns who appreciate it quite as much as the villagers but usually in this little village they need all the oil and olives for their own use this 10-year-old girl says that she enjoys this work she has no parents and she has to keep herself and her four brothers and sisters so she gleans all the olives that other people leave lying about under the trees crushes them and sells the oil these people have crushed their olives into pulp using the same primitive method as that adopted by the little girl now the oil must be extracted from this crushed pulp it is put into a pot and boiled this makes most of the oil come to the top but there is still some oil left in the pulp in order to get the last possible drop the pulp is put into a fresh pot to cool and then squeeze this woman uses a petrol can as a water container she pours the water on the pulp as oil always floats on water she is now able to skim off the last few few drops of oil which have risen to the top she will add this to the rest of the oil before she puts it away in jars for cooking during the winter some of other villagers are better off than others as they have simple machinery for crushing the olives this is an easier way of working than that used by the little girl these men have made the work easier still by using oxen to pull the mill wheel round now the oil must be squeezed out of the crushed pulp instead of being boiled and skimmed as we saw earlier the pulp is put into Rush baskets ready for the Press here is the press it is simple but effective if you watch closely you can see how the man uses the lever of the press to bring more and more pressure to bear on the pile of baskets the baskets containing the pulp are soft and ye beneath the pressure and so the oil is squeezed out the villagers like all other cultivators begin to think about the next Harvest as soon as this year's crop is gathered the trees must be pruned and at times the soil underneath the trees must be lightly turned owing to the dry Summers there is no grass and therefore there are no cows to provide milk and butter and vegetable oil must be used instead so if you were to go home with these people at the end of the day you would find them eating food cooked in the oil obtained from the olive trees growing on their native hillsides for