Original article from the archive, published on 15 Nov 2009. We preserve the author's story; References to services, prices and activities are historical.
English translation of the original Spanish article. Read the original
You may have wondered what a farmer does all day..
Well, since I have a certain percentage of being a farmer. Here's a full day at “Can Pepitu” 😛 I don't put photos or videos in this one so as not to make the post longer, but you will see them here soon.
- 7:30 The neighbour's donkey (real) starts braying. Like a man possessed... (at first I thought they were killing him.)
- 7:40 The alarm clock rings.
We clean ourselves and all that stuff
- 8:00 First strong coffee. I love the smell of coffee the kitchen makes in the morning. Meanwhile I look at all the incoming mail in case we have any important emails to answer.
- 8:20 We start the tractor and hitch the trailer, after 2 minutes we are already combing the olive trees.
- 10:00 Breakfast break. My favourite: a pork loin sandwich with peppers from the garden.
- 10:30 Switch on the stereo. At Can Pepitu we harvest olives to music, and it makes us surprisingly productive. The land is so flat that you can probably hear it a kilometre away. 😛
- 12:00 Stop for a moment to make a coffee and to change the radio station. Specifically RAC 1 “ La Competència” Brutal. If music is productive... listening to a comedy programme even more so.
- 14:30 Stop for lunch. For harvest days the meals are high in calories. Some pork feet with almond sauce go in like butter.
- 15:30 Over another strong coffee, we look at the part of the field still to do and plan the afternoon. There are fewer than 3 hours of daylight left, and every minute counts.
- 18:00 End of the collection! After 8 hours looking at the olives and in low light you see paranoia. Hehe and you have to stop, no one is productive at that moment.
- 18:20 On the way to the Mill. Every farmer has his favourite mill to grind the olives. And get the golden liquid so precious in the region! The Oli de Oliva Arbequina Do. Siurana Extra Virgin. Brutal.
- 18:35 There is a huge queue at the mill: everyone has had the same idea! It is a chance to chat with other farmers, catch up on cooperative gossip and sometimes strike a deal, perhaps for a trailer of manure.
- 19:00 My turn: They weigh the tractor with the trailer and the olives. And right to the “Hopper” where we throw the entire harvest and separate the olives from the leaves and branches.
- 19:20 weigh the tractor with the trailer again but without the olives to know the difference in weight. And for home it is already dark night.
- 20:00 Once at home we refill the tractor with diesel and prepare everything for the next day to be able to start without losing a minute of sun.
- 20:30 When showering, keep in mind that olives generate oil and harvesting olives stains you with oil from top to bottom. So soap up to remove the oil from yourself.
- 21:00 We light the wood stove and have dinner.
- 22:00 In my case, I spend some time updating all the websites, answering emails and those things that those of us who edit websites do, while the others watch TV.
- 23:00 Go to sleep, our eyes close. I can't take it anymore... although before I lose consciousness and start dreaming, one thing comes to mind. Will the donkey sing tomorrow or will he forget?
How many of you have gone to a rural house and done all this? I'm not sure what people mean by the label “rural”. After days like this, you can't imagine how much we appreciate what the land produces.
