Picking olives in Kandanos, Crete
A January Sunday in the hills above Kandanos, nets spread under trees older than any living memory: this is how western Crete still gathers its table olives — by hand, one at a time, the slow way that turns a harvest into a family day out.
Crete lives on the olive as much as any place on earth. The tree shapes the terraces, the diet and the calendar, and in the mountain villages behind Chania the winter harvest is still a communal affair — nets under the trees, family and neighbours on ladders, and a long, patient sort through the fruit afterwards. Around Kandanos, in the folds of the White Mountains, the prize is table olives good enough to cure and eat, not merely press.
Trees older than the villages
The old orchards around Kandanos hold trees whose trunks look less like crops than monuments — hollowed, twisted, girthed like small towers. That is no exaggeration born of romance: a short drive away at Ano Vouves stands one of the most famous olive trees on earth, its trunk some twelve metres round and its age put by researchers at anywhere from two thousand to four thousand years, and still bearing fruit of the local Tsounati variety. We tell its full story in the oldest olive tree in the world. A tree like that reframes what a harvest means: you are gathering from something that fed people before Rome.
Nets, patience and a thyme broom
The method has barely changed in millennia. Nets go down under the tree; wind and hand-stripping bring the ripe fruit onto them; then comes the real labour — sorting scattered olives across a wide net into piles you can work through sitting down. The old countrywomen’s trick is a broom of wild thyme snapped from the hillside, sweeping the fruit into heaps and perfuming it as they go. A morning’s work might yield thirty kilos. It is slow, sociable and unmechanised on purpose — these are eating olives, and they must not be bruised.
Tsounati, and the cracked-olive habit
Tsounati is Crete’s great dual-purpose olive, pressed for a fine oil but also cured for the table. The big, ripe, blue-black fruit is picked for eating whole; the smaller, hard green ones become tsakistes — cracked olives. You split each one with a stone or mallet, soak away the bitterness in changes of water, then keep them in brine sharpened with lemon. Split olives cure faster because the flesh is opened to the brine, and they carry a marinade beautifully. Dressed with oil, lemon, garlic and a little fennel or wild green, they are a meze in their own right and the backbone of a dozen Cretan dishes. Explore the wider family in the Greek olives guide.
| Ripe black olives | Tsakistes (cracked green) | |
|---|---|---|
| Picked | Late, fully coloured | Early, hard and green |
| Prepared | Cured whole in brine | Cracked, then brined with lemon |
| Cure time | Slower | Faster — flesh is opened |
| Eats like | Soft, mellow, fruity | Firm, sharp, herb-friendly |
| Region | Chania province, western Crete |
|---|---|
| Signature variety | Tsounati (oil & table) |
| Harvest | December–February |
| Method | Hand-picking onto nets |
| Table styles | Whole ripe in brine; cracked (tsakistes) |
| Eat with | Bread, cheese, wild greens, fennel |
If you want to try it
- For cracked olives, use firm green fruit and split — don’t pit — each one before brining.
- Change the soaking water daily for a week or so until the harsh bitterness fades.
- Finish in brine with lemon; a slotted lemon and a little oil on top keeps air out.
- Dress to serve with oil, garlic and fennel — a Cretan table olive wants herbs, not just salt.
Cretan olive picking: common questions
What olive is grown around Kandanos?
Mainly Tsounati, Crete’s dual-purpose variety — pressed for oil and also cured for the table. The famous ancient tree at nearby Ano Vouves is a Tsounati too.
What are tsakistes?
Cracked green olives: firm, unripe fruit split open, soaked to remove bitterness, then cured in brine with lemon. Cracking opens the flesh so they cure faster and take a marinade well.
Why pick table olives by hand?
Because bruising ruins an eating olive. Machines that suit oil fruit would damage table olives, so the good stuff is still gathered by hand onto nets, one at a time.
When is the Cretan harvest?
Broadly December to February, though green olives for cracking are taken earlier and fully ripe black olives later. Winter is the working season across the island.
How old are Crete’s oldest olive trees?
The monumental tree at Ano Vouves is estimated at anywhere from two thousand to four thousand years old and still fruits. See our full account.
If you only ever buy jarred olives, a batch of home-cracked tsakistes is a revelation — firm, herby, alive in a way the industrial article never is. The catch is patience: you cannot rush the bitterness out, and skipping the daily water change leaves them harsh. Use green fruit, crack don’t pit, change the water for a week, then brine with lemon. It is the most rewarding cheap food project there is, and it is exactly what those families above Kandanos have done every winter for longer than anyone can count.
Drawn from Cretan harvest tradition and records of the monumental Tsounati olive tree at Ano Vouves.