Olive Trees on Public Land Provide Bountiful Harvest for Italian Locals

Italian vol­un­teers are car­ing for olive trees in parks, along roads, river­banks and pub­lic squares, with the result­ing olive oil des­tined for self-con­sump­tion or char­ity.

“The idea of a com­mu­nity-dri­ven olive har­vest activ­ity came up dur­ing the peak of the Covid-19 pan­demic when every­thing was on hold, the econ­omy and so forth,” Cristina Degasperi, the sec­re­tary of edu­ca­tional and envi­ron­men­tal poli­cies in Desenzano, a munic­i­pal­ity near Lake Garda, told Olive Oil Times.

“That was some­thing that could be done; it could ben­e­fit our trees while also sup­port­ing our cit­i­zens, so we went for it,” she added.

The north­ern Italian region of Garda, which sits on the south­ern banks of Italy’s largest lake, has a long tra­di­tion of olive grow­ing. In Desenzano, hun­dreds of olive trees are scat­tered through­out the munic­i­pal­ity.

“For a long time, local insti­tu­tions invested in plant­ing new trees every year, not only olive trees,” Degasperi said. ​“A new tree is planted for every new cit­i­zen born in our town. Last year, we planted 183 trees.”

Still, man­ag­ing and main­tain­ing many trees may divert resources from other pub­lic pri­or­i­ties. In the case of the olive trees, a ded­i­cated coop­er­a­tive takes care of their prun­ing. Before the new ini­tia­tive, olives were often left on the trees.

To par­tic­i­pate, inter­ested cit­i­zens only have to answer the pub­lic call based on the offi­cial map of more than 500 olive trees. ​“Each res­i­dent can ask to har­vest up to five trees, which are then listed as reserved,” Degasperi said.

“Up to now, the only excep­tion is the Catullo sec­ondary school,” she added. ​“Their har­vest of 100 trees is reserved.”

For years, the Catullo stu­dents par­tic­i­pated in the olive har­vest of the trees grow­ing next to the school play­grounds.

“This is our fourth year,” Carlo Viara, Catullo’s head teacher, told Olive Oil Times. ​“The idea of har­vest­ing the olives came on the heels of the other char­ity ini­tia­tives that the Catullo school always orga­nizes at the end of every year.”

The suc­cess of the ini­tia­tive and the inter­est among the school com­mu­nity prompted the agree­ment with the munic­i­pal author­i­ties and the expan­sion of the har­vest to dozens of other trees. The ini­tia­tive attracts stu­dents and their fam­i­lies, teach­ers and oth­ers related to the school activ­i­ties.

“One of the most inter­est­ing aspects of the ini­tia­tive is the enthu­si­as­tic par­tic­i­pa­tion in the group activ­i­ties by all stu­dents, even by those who strug­gle a lit­tle more dur­ing nor­mal class hours,” Viara said.

“Last year, we har­vested just about seven quin­tals of olives and pro­duced 180 half-liter bot­tles,” she added. ​“This year, 180 stu­dents par­tic­i­pated in the har­vest on school grounds. Approximately 70 vol­un­teers on Saturday and Sunday par­tic­i­pated in the har­vest of the trees in the other areas.”

Students, their fam­i­lies and the other vol­un­teers can assist in the olive milling and bot­tling processes. Sales of the bot­tles will finance a sup­port­ing ini­tia­tive at a twinned school in India.

“This year, the num­bers are going to be much lower, as there are fewer olives on the trees, and they are not the same qual­ity as last year,” Viara said.

In some cases, such as in Massa Marittima, a town in south­ern Tuscany, local author­i­ties look for vol­un­teers to solve what is also per­ceived as a hygienic issue, as olives on aban­doned trees can eas­ily be tar­geted by the olive fruit fly.

Dozens of olive trees on pub­lic land can be spot­ted near the medieval walls sur­round­ing large por­tions of Massa Marittima. More are located in other pub­lic areas out­side the city cen­ter. Every year, vol­un­teers can apply to har­vest up to 25 olive trees each.

The max­i­mum num­ber of olive trees each vol­un­teer can har­vest changes sig­nif­i­cantly from one region to another. In Cerveteri, a munic­i­pal­ity in cen­tral Italy not far from Rome, res­i­dents apply to har­vest a max­i­mum of five trees each.

In all cases, though, access to the trees is com­pletely free. Volunteers use their own means to har­vest and only need to remove debris or small branches pro­duced dur­ing the olive-col­lect­ing oper­a­tions.

In a few instances, includ­ing vol­un­teer har­vests in Grottammare, a town on the Adriatic Sea in cen­tral Italy, the requests from the vol­un­teers far exceed the avail­abil­ity of trees, which num­ber slightly more than 200.

According to the local author­i­ties, Italy’s long cul­tural ties to olive grow­ing and olive oil pro­duc­tion fuel the long-stand­ing inter­est in har­vest­ing aban­doned trees. Additionally, many olive trees are cen­tury-old mon­u­ments, fur­ther enhanc­ing the sig­nif­i­cance and the appeal of main­tain­ing them.

Given the suc­cess and the inter­est in com­mu­nity har­vest activ­i­ties, some munic­i­pal­i­ties are try­ing to take it fur­ther.

In 2023, the town of Pistoia, not far from Florence, in north­ern Tuscany, began look­ing for vol­un­teers inter­ested in car­ing for the olive trees all year round for a min­i­mum of three years.

There are almost 900 trees that ben­e­fit from ded­i­cated care­tak­ers who began work­ing on most of them in 2019.

“We have included even more trees in the project now,” said Alessia Bartolomei, a munic­i­pal sec­re­tary of urban green spaces. ​“Through these years, the main­te­nance work done by res­i­dents ensured qual­ity, and the ter­ri­tory prof­ited from this.”

“The goal is to pre­serve a col­lec­tive her­itage and raise aware­ness about the envi­ron­ment and the advan­tages of tak­ing good care of pub­lic spaces together,” she con­cluded.

• City of Desenzano del Garda
• Municipality of Cerveteri
• Municipality of Pistoia