Citizen Groups in Rome Harvest Local Olive Trees for Charity

Rome is dot­ted with pub­lic parks, some host­ing ancient and recently planted olive trees.

Volunteers from two neigh­bor­hood asso­ci­a­tions in the city’s east­ern out­skirts have stepped up to care for olive trees grow­ing in their district’s green spaces. These trees pro­duce extra vir­gin olive oil for char­ity.

The city insti­tu­tions have received the ini­tia­tive well and aroused great inter­est among the pub­lic.

“Initially, we were just a small group of neigh­bors who used to hang out in the park,” said Antonio Carosi, one of the ini­tia­tive’s pro­mot­ers in the Parco dei Romanisti in Torre Spaccata.

“As we vol­un­tar­ily started to look after this pub­lic space, keep­ing it neat and safe­guard­ing its veg­e­ta­tion, we real­ized that the 35 olive trees scat­tered in the gar­den were grow­ing well, pro­duc­ing a lot of fruit,” he added.

The decade-old trees were planted in the park when it was estab­lished in 2004. The group, which har­vests the olives yearly, is try­ing to iden­tify the olive vari­ety.

“I have expe­ri­ence mak­ing olive oil with my fam­ily, and so do oth­ers of the group; there­fore, it was eas­ier for us to embark on the project to pro­duce extra vir­gin olive oil from their olives,” Carosi said.

The vol­un­teers car­ried out the first har­vest in 2012 after receiv­ing per­mis­sion from local author­i­ties, as law required in pub­lic spaces.

“In the first years of our activ­ity, despite the per­mis­sion we had been given at the start of each olive sea­son, the munic­i­pal police showed up to ensure we were work­ing in com­pli­ance with the reg­u­la­tions,” Carosi said.

“After some time act­ing as ama­teurs, we decided to for­mal­ize our role and to oper­ate in a more struc­tured way by merg­ing into the sol­i­dar­ity pur­chas­ing group ​‘GAS.P.A.R.8.’ (reads ​‘Gasparotto’),” he added.

Since then, they have par­tic­i­pated in an event focused on pub­lic spaces orga­nized by local insti­tu­tions. The launch of their project was greeted with enthu­si­asm.

“We intro­duced our work to the pub­lic and received the appre­ci­a­tion of Roma Capitale coun­cilor for agri­cul­ture, Sabrina Alfonsi,” Carosi said. ​“We com­mit­ted our­selves to enhance the project fur­ther, and we are now about to sub­mit a draft col­lab­o­ra­tion agree­ment to the munic­i­pal­ity of Rome.”

Now, they are prepar­ing for the upcom­ing har­vest in mid-October. At the right ripen­ing time, the fruits will be picked and deliv­ered to a mill within a few hours of the city to obtain extra vir­gin olive oil. ​“The expenses for the milling oper­a­tion are paid by us vol­un­teers,” Carosi said.

The extra vir­gin olive oil is imme­di­ately bot­tled and donated to the char­i­ta­ble asso­ci­a­tion Caritas Italiana, whose local branch is in the parish of Saint Bonaventura, next to the park. Here, the oil is included in food parcels dis­trib­uted by the staff with the sup­port of the vol­un­teers to peo­ple in need.

“Now we are reach­ing an agree­ment to prune the trees in col­lab­o­ra­tion with the munic­i­pal­i­ty’s gar­den­ing ser­vice work­ers,” Carosi said. ​“Some years ago I also attended a prun­ing course. I have to say that we are increas­ingly com­mit­ted to know more and fur­ther improve the pro­duc­tion process.”

Usually, seven or eight vol­un­teers are respon­si­ble for the ordi­nary man­age­ment of the small urban grove, while at least a dozen peo­ple join the group dur­ing the har­vest days.

“Picking olives is an inter­est­ing expe­ri­ence and a nov­elty for many city inhab­i­tants, who also are moti­vated by the char­i­ta­ble pur­pose behind it,” Carosi said. ​“Everyone can ded­i­cate the time they can, and this is a great oppor­tu­nity to social­ize. Indeed, the work con­cludes with a nice bar­be­cue open to all.”

“People get busy with this activ­ity, which revi­tal­izes the neigh­bor­hood,” he added. ​“As we aim to extend the project to other parts of the city, we are glad we could sup­port another group of vol­un­teers who also started pro­duc­ing extra vir­gin olive oil not far from here a few years ago.”

At the extreme east­ern edge of the city, the Salvador Allende arche­o­log­i­cal park cov­ers 12 hectares of land. It is home to 25 olive trees lin­ing a stone-paved road from the Roman era.

“These trees are prob­a­bly cen­turies-old and belong to autochtho­nous vari­eties,” Andrea Cacciani, pres­i­dent of the Nuova Tor Vergata neigh­bor­hood com­mit­tee, told Olive Oil Times.

“When we moved to this newly built area in the late 1990s, they were basi­cally neglected, mainly because they are pro­tected by leg­isla­tive con­straints by the Superintendence for Archaeological Heritage,” he added. ​“They are indeed located right next to an ancient road in an excel­lent state of con­ser­va­tion that in Roman times con­nected the set­tle­ments of Tuscolo and Fidene.”

Despite the rigid restric­tions imposed by the author­i­ties, the vol­un­teers from the neigh­bor­hood com­mit­tee obtained autho­riza­tion to look after the trees.

“Afterwards, when I was elected pres­i­dent of the neigh­bor­hood com­mit­tee three years ago, I thought that their fruit, too, should be val­ued,” Cacciani said. ​“Furthermore, in the out­skirts, we have to deal with the ​‘olive raiders’, who steal the olives and, in doing so, tear the branches and dam­age them.”

“This is a prob­lem for the health of these trees, which are a true her­itage, espe­cially con­sid­er­ing their great age,” he added. ​“We pro­tect the trees from harm by col­lect­ing the fruit at the right moment to obtain a qual­ity prod­uct while they are still too green to attract the thieves’ atten­tion.”

Determined to safe­guard and val­orize the olive trees, rep­re­sen­ta­tives of the neigh­bor­hood com­mit­tee went to the gar­den­ing ser­vice office. They pre­sented the park’s sit­u­a­tion and their idea to pro­duce extra vir­gin olive oil to the offi­cials. They quickly received per­mis­sion to carry out the first har­vest in 2022.

“Not only did the coun­cilor for agri­cul­ture agree to let us har­vest the fruit, but her col­league informed us about the work already being under­taken by the vol­un­teers in the area in Torre Spaccata,” Cacciani said. ​“They put us in touch with them, who imme­di­ately made them­selves avail­able to help and gave us use­ful tips to start.”

As the har­vest­ing oper­a­tions at Salvador Allende Park started, sev­eral peo­ple joined the group of vol­un­teers to help them pick the olives and load them into a van.

“I called an expert, who came with two col­lab­o­ra­tors to help us bet­ter, and he lent us all the nec­es­sary tools, includ­ing crates, nets and rakes,” Cacciani said. ​“We begin har­vest­ing in the morn­ing, and in half a day, we were on our way to a mill in the area of Pavona. Given the pur­pose of our work, the miller gen­er­ously gave us a good dis­count on the press­ing.”

They obtained 110 liters, which have been bot­tled and entrusted to the Caritas oper­a­tors in the adja­cent town of Frascati.

In the mean­time, the col­lab­o­ra­tion between the Nuova Tor Vergata neigh­bor­hood com­mit­tee and the Romanisti park’s group turned into friend­ship, which bodes well for the pro­jec­t’s future. The vol­un­teers hope that more cit­i­zens’ groups will start safe­guard­ing and valu­ing the olive trees in their local areas, with the added ben­e­fit of pro­duc­ing good and healthy extra vir­gin olive oil for those who need it more.

“Just yes­ter­day, Tonino called me,” Cacciani said, affec­tion­ately refer­ring to Antonio Carosi. ​“He told me that they have sub­mit­ted the request for per­mis­sion to carry out har­vest this year and that their trees and olives are in good shape.”

“Last year, it was impos­si­ble for us to pick any fruit because the strong drought caused a loss in pro­duc­tion, but this year, our trees are also thriv­ing, and we are set to start the new har­vest in a few weeks,” he added.

“This is a way to take care of a com­mu­nity asset,” Cacciani con­cluded. ​“It is not only an oppor­tu­nity for all of us to social­ize but also a way to pro­tect these beau­ti­ful olive trees while doing some­thing good for oth­ers.”