Families gather for first communal harvest

By MIRIAM BULWAR DAVID-HAY (TRANSLATED)
Ninety families gathered together to pick some 200 kg of olives in Tirat Hacarmel in the first communal olive harvest ever held in the town, reports www.local.co.il. With the olive harvest season having recently begun across Israel, the families spent four hours picking olives from 350 trees in a venture organized by the municipality in conjunction with local community and youth centers. According to the report, the city normally allocates the annual olive harvest to private contractors, but this year, at the request of a local community fund, it decided to encourage residents to carry out the harvest themselves. The families were given bags and equipment and were instructed in how to pick olives properly. At the end of the day, they were each allocated a large bottle of olives and were instructed in how to pickle them in salt water, lemon, garlic and hot peppers. About 50 kg of olives that remained from the harvest were taken to a neighborhood olive press and were converted to 15 liters of olive oil, which will be distributed to the participating families before the Hanukka holiday in December.