Black olives, rosemary and a little preserved lemon

In the Alpilles, near the Vallée des Baux, nothing signals that autumn has arrived more than the olive harvest. The exact timing of the récolte depends on Mother Nature’s impact on the fruit’s maturity. Like every crop, farmers hope to get the timing right to maximize flavour and quality. Commercial operations harvest the olives in cycles. A small percentage of the olives are picked green and cracked to make olives cassées. Others are left on the trees longer to darken for the heavier flavoured oils.

It has been almost 100 years since Jean-Martin founded his company in the village of Maussane. In 1920, this town on the Alpilles range’s southern flank had just over 1200 people. When M. Martin senior launched his business of preserving and selling the local olives grown in Les Baux de Provence, Maussane would have been heavily agriculturally focused. Disaster struck in 1956 when a deep frost damaged Provence’s olive stock. The Jean Martin company and many others dependent on the olive harvest suffered terrible financial losses.

Almost a century later, the founder’s two grandsons, Bernard and Jean-Louis, operate the Jean Martin business. They continue producing “high-quality olive and vegetable-based natural products.” In 1978, the brothers assumed business responsibilities from their father, Gabriel and Uncle Jean-Pierre Martin and greatly expanded the range of products and the company’s footprint in the region.

Read: Fall is Olive Season in AOP Les Baux

Picking Olives in the Fall

Teams of seasonal workers are expected to harvest the ripe olives in the fall. However, it is just as usual for groups of families and friends to create a social occasion out of collecting the olive crop. Picking olives is not exceptionally hard work. A fine net catches the olives at the base of the tree as they fall. You use a small handheld rake to pull the branches, some olives will drop naturally and others you pick off individually. The harvested fruit goes to the mill for oil extraction and processing. The question is, will there be more oil than last year?