Olive Picking in Tuscany

 I would like to introduce Heather Melhem and Megan Venere, FIT students and Merchandising Society  memebers studying in Florence.  We are glad to announce that Heather and Megan will be guest editors on The Society during their time spent abroad!  We hope you enjoy their posts about their adventures in Florence.

- Erin Trabold

Social Media Manager

Merchandising Society at FIT

In U.S., one brings in the fall season by heading to the nearest apple orchard and picking as many apples as you can possibly carry back home. In Tuscany, Italians ring in fall a different way, with olive picking. This past weekend, a group of us went to Grace’s house to take part in this Tuscan tradition (Grace is our FITSA advisor). Around 25 of us went out to Grace’s home, where she has a modest amount of trees in her backyard….only around 400! We had perfect weather that day, and the orchard was set up on a hill, which provided us with amazing views of the Florence countryside Although we were all anxious to get to taste the olives, these ones are more commonly used to make olive oil. The trees had both green and black olives to pick.

When most people think of olive picking, they think you place the olives in a large barrel or bucket (that’s picking grapes a la I Love Lucy). Instead, you lay large nets out underneath each of the trees. When you pick the olives, you throw them down onto the nets. Once we were done picking the olives, you fold up the net up to keep the olives from falling out. We also learned about the best kinds of olive oil to buy-make sure to look out for the “cold press” label.

We spent an afternoon out in the orchards picking olives. When we were done, we went inside and had an “aperitivo” and socialized. It was nice being all together again, since Design and Merchandising are split into blocks. It was a fun and relaxing weekend- check out our pictures below! (especially of our own resident MS “flower child” and Florence Manager Heather)