Olive Weekend at Mas Baget: Our Favourite Gathering of the Year
There are weekends at Mas Baget that feel special, and then there is olive-picking weekend, which somehow manages to outshine everything else. It’s the moment each year when friends old and new gather from near and far, filling the house and the grounds with laughter, conversation and the steady rhythm of harvest. This past weekend was, without question, our favourite weekend of the year.
We welcomed around 30 people to Mas Baget, an extraordinary mix of familiar faces and new friends who fit in as if they had always been part of the family. There’s something about spending hours under the olive trees, hands busy and minds quiet, that creates instant connection. Strangers become teammates, teammates become friends, and by the end of the weekend everyone feels stitched into the same story of land, trees and shared effort.
The weather was kind to us too. It saved its rain for the nights, leaving the days clear and gentle. Mornings began with a simple continental breakfast – coffee, tea, bread, jams, cheeses, fruit and plenty of chatter – before everyone headed out with nets, rakes and baskets. The air was full of the unmistakable scent of olives and earth. The soundscape was perfect: chatter drifting between the trees, the thud of olives hitting the nets and the occasional burst of laughter echoing across the valley.
And what a harvest it was.
This year we surpassed ourselves. By Sunday afternoon, the final tally came in at an incredible 967 kilograms of olives. That’s nearly a tonne of fruit, more than double last year’s total. When we took them to be pressed, they yielded about 190 litres of fresh, organic, extra-virgin olive oil. Liquid gold. The colour was the most beautiful deep, luminous green … the kind you only get in the first hours after pressing, before it settles and softens.
Everyone who helped went home with a bottle of this delicious, precious oil. There is something deeply satisfying about placing that bottle on the kitchen counter at home and knowing you picked some of the olives inside it. It’s a taste of Mas Baget that people carry with them long after the weekend ends.
Of course, the weekend wasn’t just about work. There was plenty of feasting too. We prepared hearty meals each day, big warming dishes and generous portions to refuel everyone after hours in the fields. Meals stretched late into the evening, with candles flickering, faces flushed from the day’s efforts and conversations weaving their own tapestry of stories.
When it came time to sleep, the house and bungalows were comfortably full. Despite a couple of committed snorers, everyone slept well, wrapped in the kind of deep, heavy tiredness that only comes from a day spent outdoors working with your hands.
By the time the final bags were packed and the last hugs exchanged, something lovely had happened: people who arrived as acquaintances left as friends. The olive harvest always seems to create that magic.
And now, as we line up the filled bottles of glowing green oil, we already find ourselves dreaming of next year, another weekend of nature, community and the quiet joy of bringing in the harvest at Mas Baget.
