This year, our trip to Portugal coincided with the olive harvest. All around the villages, you could see and hear people gathering their olives.

Not having a clue about olive harvesting, we were keen to offer help to our friend Mark, who was in the throes of harvest. Mark speaks Portuguese and, as such, had got to know his neighbours. They offered their time and skills to help with the harvest. We soon realised that a chainsaw helped to get through the number of trees. However, the whole process still took around five days.

Sorting through the olives in the October sunshine was a lovely, relaxing experience. The olives gave our hands moisture, and the smell of olives filled the air. Although we could not speak Portuguese, we somehow managed to work in companionship with the local people. There is a wonderful expat community in Portugal, but being able to create community with the locals felt especially rewarding.

Once the olives had been sorted, they were bagged up. Mark took them to the local lagar, where olives from across the community are collected and processed into oil. For many smallholders and hobby farmers, taking their harvest to a local or cooperative lagar is a common practice during olive-picking season. In about a month’s time, he will collect a percentage of the oil — not specifically from his own olives, but from the combined community batch.

After this experience, we decided to have a go at harvesting a few of our own trees. We didn’t have time to do them all, so we just collected from two. We pooled these with a friend’s olives to add to their collection.

It has been an excellent year for olives in Portugal. Next year, we plan to return at the same time and, hopefully, harvest all our trees and get our own olive oil.