After much excitement, preparation and fan fair, it was finally game time. The night before the competition we had a large group dinner where we were greeted by the organizers, the other teams, feasted on a fantastic meal and Mor Mor and Far Far got their groove on. Part of the requirements for the participants was to make a slideshow to share a bit about where you are from and why your team came to this competition. We were the only multigenerational team, with both a grandpa and granddaughter and we were counting on years of berry picking to pull us through.
On game day, we had breakfast and got the final announcements and headed up to the olive picking field at the local church grove. Part of the community tradition is anyone can pick the olives from the church, you just need to give back 15%. This competition was held on their beautiful grounds, and it made for a spectacular place to host the days' events.
Part of this year's competition was that each team got to choose their trees to harvest. After a quick look around, the teams were set up as a relay race to mark the trees they would use. I loved seeing Lily, feet shorter, but no less determined, sprint off ahead of these other teams to score the first tree.
When picking time came, it was intense. Everything else faded away beside the olives directly in front of you. The other teams, our own team, even the rest of the tree was a blur and hands raced for the next set of green, purple and black. The event was set up as traditional hand picking, so the olives had to go from your hand into the apron with no assistance and nothing underneath to collect the fallen olives. As I was still working on our first tree and part of the team had recently moved to tree two they announced Slovenia had requested a fourth tree! I couldn’t imagine going any faster, but clearly, we were up against the best.
The whole competition was only 45 minutes of picking, and then a strict stop, just olives in your bucket, not the apron would be counted. As the buckets were lined up, everyone started to size each other up, three teams had three buckets, the rest of us had two, but we would have to wait a day for the final results.
The last part of the competition was a test about olives and olive oil. We were still in race mode and raced through the test. As we turned it in and our answers were reviewed, it was the first time I really paused and reflected. As we sat together under the shade of an ancient olive tree - I was amazed at how we had become a team; a team that knew the pH of extra virgin oil and the differences in weighs between green and black olives. It made me so grateful for this world schooling experience. Win or lose, we had learned a tremendous amount.
Our coach getting the last minute details before the race started.
Getting a demonstration of the correct way to wear our aprons by the amazing head of truism in Postira. (picture curtesy of the Postira tourism board)
This is the view from the olive grove we picked at with the town of Postira bellow on the Adriatic sea and our home for the last month. (picture curtesy of the Postira tourism board)
This is one of my favorite pictures form the day. Everyone is lined up to run for the first tree. Little one is not deterred by the four big guys on her heals! (picture curtesy of the Postira tourism board)
Hard at work with my coach cheering me on in the background. (picture curtesy of the Postira tourism board)
Far-Far hard at work filling up his bag! (picture curtesy of the Postira tourism board)
Our team of four working on our first tree. It looks so slow and peaceful in the picture, it felt so different in real life. (picture curtesy of the Postira tourism board)
The kids helping move our olives after the fun of picking.
Here is our load. It doesn’t look like much compared to the amazing home team - Croatia but we were pretty proud!
Team USA! (picture curtesy of the Postira tourism board)
After picking and fun the two of us had found a place in the shade under a tree. Such a great time with these kids. One of my favorite quotes from her while we were picking was “mom: olive picking should really be a school sport, this is awesome!”
This was the amazing Spanish team (and their amazing team photo). They run an olive oil certification lab in Spain and know a tremendous amount about oils. It was a pure joy hanging out with them and hopefully our paths cross again soon. (picture curtesy of the Postira tourism board)
All of the teams at the end of a great race! (picture curtesy of the Postira tourism board)
This was as soon as we got back to the hotel - I think it was as much emotional exhaustion as physical as they had been so excited.