Olive Harvest – Fr, 16.11.2018

Olive Harvest – Fr, 16.11.2018

Introduction: November and December are the months when olive growers harvest olives in the Alpes-Maritimes. Following the advice of Nicolas Prin, the project's referent olive grower and scientific facilitator, we planned the olive harvest in the LIV olive grove on 16 November 2018. Curriculum elements: this activity funded by the Erasmus+ project is based on the Contemporary Global Issues part of the 2nd year SVT curriculum. The aim is for the pupils to understand the major issues facing humanity in the 21st century, in particular the management of resources and the environment within the framework of sustainable development. This activity allows students to understand the need to develop and maintain local food resources. The olive tree is a local agrosystem which allowed the pupils to tackle the following notions: characterise the organisation of an agrosystem (nature of the crop, inputs, interactions between the elements and man, flow of matter, harvests, yields, energy); definition of a terroir, qualitative consequences of the farmer's production choice on the environment and health. The culture of the olive tree is thousand-year-old in the Mediterranean basin, so there is also a very strong cultural anchorage in our students who have been and are in relation in their great majority with olive trees (family olive groves or realization of activities and festivals around the olive tree in the lower levels).

Competences implemented: Through the harvest, the pupils were led to cooperate and collaborate in a project approach as well as to adopt ethical and responsible behaviour by identifying the impact of human activities on the environment at the scale of the olive grove. But also to understand the collective responsibilities for the preservation of the planet's resources.

Course of the activity: On Friday 16 November 2018, the students of the 2de class participating in the project "Styrian pumpkin seed oil and olive oil from the Alpes -Maritimes" carried out the harvest of olives from the olive grove of the Lycée International de Valbonne. The harvest took place over a day with the technical assistance and advice of Nicolas Prin, an olive grower and scientific contributor to this project. We first discovered and set up the instruments needed to harvest the olives: nets, sheaves, combs, rakes, sorting table, scales and containers to collect the olives.

The stages of the harvest are as follows:

  1. Setting up the nets under the olive trees to collect the olives falling from the tree.
  2. Gaules (bamboo canes) are used to shake the branches loaded with olives to make them fall on the nets. 3)Students would "comb" the low branches with rakes to make the olives fall. 4)Collecting the olives in the nets. 5)Passing the olives through the sorting table in order to detach the fruit from the remains of leaves and branches. 6)Collecting all the olives in large plastic containers to take them to the oil mill in Opio. In total the students collected 150kg of olives, with other students from the school helping out. Mutual aid and a very good atmosphere characterised this harvest day. The students were pleasantly surprised to feel the pleasant smell of olive oil on their hands!

Olive Harvest – Fr, 16.11.2018 Olive Harvest – Fr, 16.11.2018

Some photos of the different stages of the harvest carried out on this day. A big thank you to all the CVC team who helped us with Mme Regnault. Thanks also to Diane Carrer, SVT teacher who brought us her expertise and her precious help. A big thank you to the class of 2de who participated enthusiastically in this project. To Mrs. Frank-Niro for her participation in this harvest. To the school management team who made this project possible.

Olive Harvest – Fr, 16.11.2018

Dieses Projekt wurde mit Unterstützung der Europäischen Kommission finanziert. Die Verantwortung für den Inhalt dieser Veröffentlichung trägt allein der Verfasser; die Kommission haftet nicht für die weitere Verwendung der darin enthaltenen Angaben.