The best time of year in Tuscany? The October weeks of the olive oil harvest. At any time, small Tuscan towns have a sense of community but during this season, the festivities triple, jovial arguments ensue over whose oil is best, the tastings seem endless at neighbors’ houses, and at home, there’s just the plain joy of welcoming this year’s olio nuovo into your kitchen. Almost everyone has enough trees to provide for the family, or at least an uncle or cousin with an oliveto.

Anyone out picking has to feel a connection with the ancient agricultural ritual of this season: You’re doing what’s been done on this land for thousands of years. It’s a sustaining emotion, and I think that’s what creates the camaraderie among the pickers. It’s hard work but everyone’s up—joking, spreading the golden nets, disappearing into the foliage as the ladder leans into the branches.