Every year in October Palestinians harvest their olives. Palestine has around 8 million olive trees. Most of the olives are used to produce olive oil for personal consumption or is sold on the local market. Olive oil is also used to produce soap. The olives that are picked early are pickled to eat as table dish.

This is a podcast episode on the field of Daud Baboun from Beit Jalla who is helping his uncle and grandparents with the harvest of their olive trees. You can hear the olives dropping from the tree on the tarps, being collected in the buckets and being pressed in the cooperative olive press in Beit Jalla. Listen to the sound of pruning the trees, having lunch together and the chatting of the olive pickers in the field. I speak to Daud, Waffa and Georgette, three Palestinians from the Bethlehem area and to some international volunteers who came out to help with the harvest.

Next week’s episode will contain more information on the history of olive trees in Palestine and its importance for the Palestinian society.

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