Richard Goodwin continues his adventure across France and continues his diary: This episode is about the winter harvests of France. Olive trees grow best between 300 and 600 metres over sea level and there is no truth in the rumour that they are immortal. Actually they are very fragile and don't like the extreme cold and rain. The olive harvest starts on November 25 and finishes at the end of January. My first big surprise was that if you pick an olive and pop it in your mouth, it is quite disgusting. A delicious olive has been through a good deal of preparation and the methods are clearly explained. Making olive oil is quite different and we see how it is done in the old fashioned way with huge milling stones. Olive oil is one of the few products that is ready immediately. All you have to do is to take your olives to the mill and at the end of the process you have a bottle or two of delicious olive. There is a lady who says that it is a really good medicine and you should drink a small glass of oil every morning. But then she sells the stuff! We see how they used to make scrotins which can be loosely described like a tam o'shanter hat that the Scots would wear years ago. The olives would be pushed into the rim of the hat then the whole thing would be put into the press. The oil would ooze out of the scrotin under the pressure of the press. Nowadays they use a plastic substitute and the old factory makes doormats. In the village of Coucoran, I went to see the repairs to ...
Keywords: Travel, France, french, Francais, tourism, olive, growing, farms, methods, old, fashioned, milling, stones, oil, scrotins, tam, o'shanter, village, of, Courcoran, church, cement, roman, Portland, truffles, truffle, farming, Roveranche, market, Carpenteras, scallops, eating, food, recepies, cooking, bargingthroughfrance
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