Travellers looking for an interactive holiday and a true taste of rural living must visit Greece during the olive harvesting season of October to December and enjoy a unique immersive experience
Greece has a long history of harvesting olives and is an olive producing country par excellence. The Mediterranean sun and the Aegean winds lend the fruit its unique taste. As the world’s third largest producer of edible olives and olive oil, Greece produces approximately 120 tons of table olives, being one of the country’s most important agricultural exports. As many as 120 million olive trees are spread around the country and 450,000 families depend on olive oil production as a primary or secondary source of income.
Special agro-tourism accommodation units have opened up in Evia, lesvos, Crete, Kalymnos, Paros, Kefalonia, Kalamata, Kythira and other regions that allow tourists to help with olive harvest and experience the way of life in the region. The accommodation is simple but comfortable and matches the local style. The courtyards are endless olive groves, where visitors can get back in touch with nature and experience every stage of the harvest.
Visitors can pick the olives using any of the age-old harvesting techniques, working for just one day or for a number of weeks in a row. Guests can also help transfer the harvested olives to a traditional olive press, learn the traditional art of extracting precious oil and watch how the golden oil begins to flow and fills up the air with its aromatic fragrance. Once the olives have been pressed, anyone who has helped is welcome to take some oil home or fill up a couple of bottles bearing their very own personalised label.
This acquaintanceship with the olive and its oil does not stop here as visitors can adopt olive trees as well. In return, they get a certificate with information about the olives the trees produce along with a sample of the olive oil made from the adopted trees every year thereafter. At the end of the harvest, there is a huge feast and a celebration to reward the efforts of all those who have helped.
One can also visit Olive Museums that are located across the country to get acquainted with the history of olive tree, its widespread cultivation in the Mediterranean basin, learn about the paramount importance of the olive oil in a healthy diet and its connection to the Greek culture. Museum exhibits refer to cultivation, harvesting and olive oil production, picking of table olives and there is also a display of olive-based cosmetic products.
Offering unbeatably beautiful landscapes and rich palette of colours, the Greek countryside is waiting to reveal its secrets to the ever exploring nature lovers.