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In the regions where it thrives, the olive season can be declared from the first to the last day of harvest. The first harvest starts already at the beginning of October, and the last ones end at the end of November. The whole of October and November can thus be olive season.
Active tourism and olives
Jobs related to olives belong to medium effort activities and can be skillfully combined with active tourism. They come to mind first Lunje olive gardens. A bicycle path leads through the olive groves of Lunje, and you can also run and walk through them. On Krk we have hiking trails through olive groves.
There is no shortage of activities even in the olive groves during the olive season. In our country, we call olive harvesting "bodulska yoga". Boduli are known as "hardworking" people who do not like to spend anything incoherently, so they also engage in recreation in a productive way. Harvesting olives actually has all the elements of yoga: warming up and stretching by setting up nets, stretching by hand picking hard-to-reach branches, flexibility exercises by bending over and collecting fruit in a net, relaxation by cleaning - separating leaves from fruit, meditation at the end of the day when the fire is lit , bakes potatoes and/or sausage on the grill and washes everything down with good bevanda. Some pickers claim that it is pure Zen for them.
Cleaned olives should be put into caskets, the caskets should be taken to the oil mill, wait for the "green gold" to flow in the oil mill, taste it raw, unaged. It's all part of the "bodul yoga" activity.
Excursion tours and olives
Walking through olive groves, visiting an oil mill, tasting oil, buying oil, having lunch/dinner in an olive grove or oil mill in a working environment with a combination of several types of olive oil with an appetizer, main course and dessert - it can be a nice half-day or full-day excursion.
Gastronomy and olives
"Love goes through the stomach", is an old saying that emphasizes the moments of happiness and satisfaction when the expectation and the provided gastronomic experience come together. Olives as a whole fruit and olive oil are considered a true delicacy and superfood. When you take into account all the countries and continents where olives grow, you get an impressive result of over 1.000 different varieties. Each variety has its own characteristic taste and chemical characteristics. Oils, on the other hand, can be very different, which is contributed by the method of harvesting and processing. Olive oils can be made from one or more different varieties, so the possibility of combining them is really great.
All this contributes to the wealth of gastronomic options for combining olive oil and food. Specialization as a sommelier for olive oils is a step towards superior gastronomy based on the application of olive oils. The olive season, October and November, is the ideal time for gastronomic experiences imbued with various variants of the application of different olive oils.
Art and olives
Painting and pottery in the olive season, in addition to giving artists an insight into the incredible spectrum of autumn colors, focuses on a favorite motif - an olive tree with fruits. Painting workshops in olive groves, in nature and of course an unavoidable gastronomic experience at the end of the day, it can be a very attractive way to spend your free time.
Wellness and olives
The finest cosmetic products for body care contain a certain percentage of special, high-quality olive oil. Treatments with such preparations in addition to the benefits of wellness can fulfill the need for complete relaxation in accordance with the rhythm of nature during the olive season. Autumn also has that slowing down effect. After a very intense summer, during autumn we slow down the pace of life, the days are getting shorter, nature and the human body need a good preparation for winter hibernation, i.e. the winter lifestyle.
The overarching theme is important
Tourist entrepreneurs, tourist organizations can achieve optimal results if all activities at this time of the year are conducted under the same denominator - olive season.
The olive tree is a sacred tree, the olive branch symbolizes peace, hope for a better tomorrow. The olive tree teaches us humility. We return to the olive tree several times a year, maintain its crown, take care of the condition of the roots, nurture it, collect and clean the fruits, the yield of oil is relatively small compared to the required amount of fruit. The olive season in our region can start a new life in the "dead season".
Of course, in order to succeed, you first need to have a strong desire, agreement in the community, the ability to work as a team and cooperate with different specialists, and then great patience and even greater persistence.
Opportunities are everywhere around us, just like the various fruits that fall "at our feet" and have incredible nutritional value and can be connected to a series of tourist experiences, as described in the case of olives: mulberries, figs, blackberries, nettles, pomegranates... Even hay can be used to make an excellent tourist product. Just remember the association of a loving embrace in the hayloft...
Tourism offers us numerous opportunities for a qualitative step forward in enriching life in the community if we use it as a tool.
Nedo Pinezić, nedopinezic.com
