Tunisian Woman removing olive branches from her orchard.
The Tunisian winter is the time to harvest the olives, then clean up the orchards to get ready for another year. I was overwhelmed my the number of olive orchards in Tunisia. Olives provide over 18% of their Gross National Product.
Throughout Tunisia and everywhere we went, small groups of people were picking, pruning, collecting, and hauling their olives to the mill to turn it into olive oil. This lady and the rest of her family had picked their olives and completed pruning their trees. I’m not sure where they take the olive branches, but we saw plenty of carts like this one hauling them off the grounds of the orchard. Do you know where they take the olive branches?
I have a great olive mill story and slide show for you that I will post in the next couple of days. But for now, this photo has everything I love, a smile and a donkey!
Have you been to Tunisia? Did you know it was one of the leading producer of olives?
I like the picture! Pretty crazy to think that olives take up such a large percentage of their gross national product.
Yes it is Pablo…more to follow! Stay tuned!