You’ve heard about fly fishing in Montana, coconut cracking in Hawaii, and cow milking in Wisconsin. But, what about a family vacation spent olive picking in California?
In Pasadena, California it’s out with the pumpkins and in with the olives. Tis the season for harvesting the black and green fruit before the overstock falls from the branches and stains the city’s sidewalks. The best part: no previous picking experience is required. Families with members of all ages are encouraged to visit the sunny city during the month of November to help tend to the thousands of olive trees that surround the area.
Even students at the California Institute of Technology campus were given the day off to harvest olives. Last Friday students and faculty stepped away from their math and science classes and climbed 16-foot-high ladders and plucked as much of the fruit as possible.
The campus-wide harvest festival is just one of many offered in the olive rich region. The university’s particular festival is expected to yield some 1,200 bottles of olive oil, which will be sold to raise money for scholarships, staff bonuses and student activities.
Unlike most olive harvest festivals, the one at California Institute of Technology includes workshops on how to make olive oil. Students and faculty use blenders, concrete blocks, window screens and a centrifuge to produce the oil shortly after the fruit is picked. Though, most of the olives picked by harvest festival participants are turned over to the Santa Barbara Olive Co., where they are professionally pressed and bottled. But, given that most of the students that attend the university are future rocket scientists and award-winning engineers, visitors are given the opportunity to see homemade one-of-a-kind olive pressing devices at work. Last year two Caltech students designed and built a human-powered crusher that rolled two one-ton metal wheels over some of the olives, which were then wrapped in cloth, placed in a press and squeezed into a bin.
For more information on places to stay in Pasadena and specific dates of various olive picking opportunities click here.