The whole world knows about Croatian olive oil, but to quote the famous saying, that prestigious reputation wasn’t built in a day – nor have the olive masters perfected their skills overnight.
Where any craft is considered, it’s always an advantage to get acquainted with the basics at an early age: meet the students of the Ostrog Elementary School in Kaštel Lukšić, who are learning the tricks of the trade right at the source: in their very own olive groves.
Students and employees of the school in Kaštel Lukšić ended up with almost two tonnes of olives after their recent olive harvest, reported Slobodna Dalmacija on November 8, 2017. The impressive bounty comes from the 170 olive trees growing in the school’s botanical garden, where children are taught about nature through direct contact with the local flora. The school staff carefully tends no less than 40 various sorts of olive trees on the garden grounds.
According to a teacher and garden manager Leda Tomaš, the olive trees bore plenty of fruit in spite of the drought the region has suffered this summer, meaning there won’t be any shortage of oil this year.
The school staff kicked off the harvest, picking around a tonne of olives and producing about 170 litres of oil. A couple of days later, they were joined by all of their pupils, carrying on to work in two shifts. As there is no such thing as too young an age to develop a love for this tradition, the merry crowd was also joined by the youngest olive pickers out there – a group from a kindergarten in Split.
The pupils have outdone the teachers by matching their bounty, picking roughly the same quantity of the fruit as the staff did a few days earlier. The Ostrog Elementary will thus dispose of 350 litres of virgin olive oil this year – a fact to be proud of, and it’s also worth noting the pupils from Lukšić already hold multiple awards for the quality of their product. Bravo!
