In the summer of 2020, my father told me out of the blue about a friend of his who, after decades of working as a photojournalist in Milan, decided to return to his roots and start producing extra virgin olive oil on a family farm on the slopes from Mount Etna, an active volcano – the largest in Europe – on the eastern side of Sicily.
I flew to meet the man, Enzo Signorelli, at the beginning of the olive-picking season, in late October of the same year. It was very wet for the first few days, so the harvest was postponed and there was no guarantee that I would photograph it. Fortunately, towards the end of my stay, the skies opened up and we got two warm and clear days.
Because of its height, Mount Etna is visible from almost anywhere in northeastern Sicily. (In August was the top 11,014 feet long, although it changes with eruptions.) But the volcano looms large especially for the farmers and winegrowers of the region: for millennia, they have benefited from mineral-rich soils, as a result of its eruptions.
“Somewhere along the slopes are olive trees that are at least 500 years old,” Enzo told me, adding that the Greeks, and then the Romans, were known to harvest olives here.
Enzo, now 63, moved back to Sicily in 2011 and became the manager of the olive groves his family has owned and managed for over 100 years. “I wanted to spend my time on the land and the olives,” he said. “At first I had no idea that this interest of mine would turn into a passion — and later into a full-time occupation.”
Enzo gathers a small team of about 10 pickers each fall to help with the harvest. The men work elsewhere the rest of the year – picking oranges and lemons, for example – but keep themselves available for Enzo during the olive season, which typically lasts from late October to mid-November.
The workers gathered at seven each morning, while it was still dark and cold, to build a fire while discussing the day’s plan. Then they quickly laid out the nets under the designated trees.
To harvest the olives, the men used their hands as if they were rakes, reaching into the trees with both hands and gently but firmly pulling out as many olives as possible, and the fruit fell into the nets below.
The men, who all know each other, spent their working hours sharing stories and telling jokes. Since they worked in the open air, they did not wear masks. During their lunch break, they took out their hearty packed lunches and shared their food. Riccardo, the team leader, kindly invited me to sample the meal his wife had packed for him and his friends. Alessandro, one of the other young workers, had joined his father during the picking season and talked to him about family matters.
All day long I heard a steady symphony of bird calls, crickets and other buzzing insects, olives falling first against the wooden ladders and then to the ground, and the pickers’ very local Sicilian parlance.
The men often sang while they worked. Roberto, 35, with dark hair and eyes, entertained everyone with an impressive repertoire of local folk songs, most of them about love and desire.
Although often difficult to work, the volcanic soil near Etna is extremely fertile. Over time, lapilli, ash and lava rocks, deposited by eruptions, have broken down into crumbly soil rich in nutrients, including minerals and organic matter. The height and exposure of the groves to southern sun and wind, along with a moderate supply of rainwater, also promote soil fertility.
Because the grass in his orchards is useful in protecting the soil from excessive evaporation and because it softens the fall of the olives when they fall into the nets, Enzo only mows it about three or four times a year. Yet in the summer months, the ancient roots of its olive trees break down lava rocks in their search for water.
The weather was particularly warm this year. In the midst of a heat wave, a nearby monitoring station about 50 miles south of Enzo’s groves recorded a temperature of 119.84 degrees Fahrenheit, possibly the highest temperature ever recorded in Europe.
Often the olives are taken to the oil mill within hours of being harvested, where they undergo a series of mechanized processes: the leaves are sucked away; the olives are cleaned with water and cold pressed into a paste; the paste is sent to the kneading machine, which begins to separate the oil from the pulp. From there, the oil, which still contains some water, is centrifugally extracted and then filtered.
The process, from start to finish, takes up to 40 minutes, after which the oil is ready for consumption — though the flavor will stabilize over time, explains Enzo.
“We don’t throw anything away,” he added. The solid residue and paste are dehydrated and converted to fuel. The residual water is made into a concentrate from which polyphenols, a broad class of antioxidants that occur in plants, are extracted and added to animal feed.
Enzo produces four different olive oils, each from a different cultivar or variety of olives. (In practice, this means that each oil is produced from olives from a separate orchard.) While each oil retains its own individuality, they all have the three characteristics typical of this area: bitterness, spiciness and a sweet aroma.
In addition to producing olive oil, Enzo has launched a new program to save several of Etna’s old and abandoned olive groves, many of which were damaged in a series of bushfires this summer.
Since moving to Sicily, Enzo says he has found a new balance. “The countryside has taught me its own rhythm – new to me, but as old as these mountains themselves,” he said.
“I wake up, step out the door and the volcano is there. How could I not be happy with my decision to come back?”
Marta Giaccone is a photographer based in Tallinn, Estonia. You can follow her work on Instagram.
