Passadoc Gazette - No 107

The weekly 107

Olives and olives

It is a millennial tree, almost mythical.
Archaeological excavations trace 8,000 years BC [some say 14,000!]. In Mediterranean areas it is everywhere; It was cultivated throughout Asia Minor.

It is present in the three major monotheistic religions: the Torah, the Bible, the Koran. In one of the books, it is said that « olive tree is the first of the trees » ; it is found in the garden of Eden, near the apple tree « prohibited ».

It is an olive branch that the dove brings to Noah, meaning that the earth is near and that the flood is over.
Other symbols:
– strength: bark is rough, thick.
– Victory: At the Athens games, a crown of olive leaves was laid on the winners' heads.
– longevity, hope: the tree that has existed for so long is said « eternal ».

When the great Spanish and Portuguese navigators go to discover the new world, they take in their luggage; Today it is spreading in Argentina, Peru, Chile, Mexico and California; It also grows in Australia and Japan.

It seems that the oldest olive tree in the world is in Voves, in Crete: it would be 3,000 years [some say 4,000!]. 7 meters high, a trunk nearly 15 meters circumference, it still produces nearly 300 kg olives every two years. According to scientists, its remarkable fruiting is due to soil conditions and the Cretan sun. Is it necessary to specify that oil extracted from its fruits has exceptional qualities?

Ah! Olive oil... In ancient Greece, it treats sourness, ulcers, cholera... Today, it reduces the risk of cardiovascular disease, it always prevents ulcers, promotes growth, recedes the moment of possible senility... And it's wonderful on the skin! Anyway, except olive oil, no salvation!

– What about our oil in all this?

Patience... She's coming.* Hey!

* Research in various articles: Jeanne Monin

Father François Abbe (born 1906) He said that his grandfather gave the ladies who came to harvest the olives at home, in the Cavalières, the choice between a liter of oil or a franc, to pay for a working day. I wonder if it was oil that was too expensive or whether women's work was underpaid.

I had pointed out to my father that our ancestor was particularly « raspi » (radin) But no, at the beginning of the twentieth century, it was the current salary for women. I regret not taking notes that day. I no longer know whether it was grandfather Jean Abbe (1840-1926) or grandfather François Gautier (1838-1904), both owners in the Moors.

The olive oil today is worth between 5 and 30 euros a litre in trade. We have to find more expensive in some mills. But I don't know anyone in 2023 who would agree to work for a litre of olive oil for 7 or 8 hours.

Olive cultivation has never been a priority in our family but has always been present. I remember accompanying my father bringing olives, around 1950, to the mill in the Galinier district, on the post office square. A vague memory.

Then all our olive trees, except one still in place, were frozen in February 1956.

Badly advised by the olive expert after 1956, my father planted a variety of table olives, the Sigoise, from North Africa, ill adapted to our soil and climate. Fatal mistake. Every other year we buy our olive oil from the merchants.

The last time I met the late André Gayol, on the occasion of a modest harvest, we had tasted together the noveu olive oil (oli is male in Provençal) in his mill of Saint Martin. A good memory.

My nephews Nadine and Bernd maintain the family tradition of harvesting olives when they are harvested. The harvest of winter 22-23 has been zero, alas.

Veirem Ian que vèn... In other words: » We'll see.next year » !

Claude Boyer This reminds me of a trip to Africa, to Mali more precisely.

We had various buildings built in Katibougou, south of Bamako on the road to Guinea. This village is about two kilometers from Niger, which made it easier for us to get the water needed for cement without pumping into the wells vital for the life of the village.

At first, we had imagined using a donkey; his trailer would soon have brought us two drums of 100 litres per trip; Two or three trips a day, so we could have covered our needs.

But things didn't happen as we imagined. The only donkey in the village equipped with a trailer was otherwise occupied and could not be released for a month; We had to start work immediately.

We share our problem with the dougoutigui (village chief) who proposes to hire women from the village who would be happy to earn a salary by going to get us water.

Immediately said, immediately done; the next morning, we had a noria of women in boubou, some with their child in the back, going back and forth between the yard and the river with a calabass on the head for a salary of 1000 CFA francs a day, i.e. 1.50 €.

At first, we felt some discomfort to see these women walking miles in the sun for a sum that seemed to be derisory to us Europeans, but that was the normal daily wage for a worker.

To silence our scruples we had bought « sweets » – that's how they call the sodas they're fond of – And they could take as many as they wanted. When the project was finished, we bought sheep that the villagers prepared and we offered a nice party in the village!

This adventure is not very passadocian, but it is that of a Provencal in Mali who asked himself the same questions as André.

Jacqueline Marvier Remember:

– When my mother was doing housework, an hour's work allowed her to buy a litre of oil.

About olive oil... Found at Abbe.Photo:

– Who prepares his olives « house » ? A few months later, that's the result! A delight.

Patricia Jouve:
- Me! Rinsing, draining, drying, seasoning thyme garlic and olive oil from Nyons.

Marie-Dominique Germain :
– Yes, every year! I put them in the big salt...

Jean-Pierre Violino :
– Me too! Every year I make my own salt olives!

Old moon... Young moon...
Grandmothers
The Bridge of the Bride
The « masco » Old Provence

Old moon... young moon...

The vines grow on the old moon (downhill). By choosing this period, the branches carrying grapes are less brittle under the influence of the mistral. Varieties such as white Ugni are very sensitive to wind. Fife!

Some people don't believe these moon stories, they're wrong. The subject would deserve a long development, because there are works that have to be done from a young moon (amount) and other old moon.

Basically, we plant in the rising moon floor, we grow above the descending moon floor... and we « Go to the hairdresser » (hair is cut) to the old moon: they will grow less quickly. It's not about the full moon, it's before and after who counts.

Recently, I heard that in Paris some hair salons opened all night at the full moon... But I wonder if it's for the purpose that the hair grows faster or slower.

Grandmothers

Three portraits of women of Provence.

"They're only two in this photo of the newspaper The Southern October 1960 but I'm going to tell you about three ladies of Provence of the time. They did not shine in any field except in my child's eyes, at least for two of them because there is one I didn't know, my paternal grandmother, the poor girl died very young in 1934; Unfortunately I have no picture of her."

Head for the Var with Claude Boyer

The Bridge of the Bride

Here is the Bridge of the Bride in the Upper Nice Country to evoke a divorce in 1388 and a marriage in 1860...

In Nice there is a plaque commemorating the deed of Nice to Savoie in 1388, an act at the origin of Niçois particularism and Niçois pride.

Previously Nice was not French but Provencal and our capital was Aix. They spoke Provençal and the Niçois continued to speak their language until 1860, the date of annexation to France of Nice and Savoie. A marriage to Italian, the king of Sardinia had kept Tende, the Brig and a few tens of thousands of hectares to be able to hunt there.

Don't tell the Niçois that they speak a maritime Provencal dialect barely tinted with Piedmontese and Italian elements. You'd hurt your eyes. It's a sensitive subject of Nice pride.

Andre Abbe

Claude Boyer
In general the place names come from very old events but there this is not the case.

On July 30, 1927, Bernard Baillet and Marie-Louise Pion, newlyweds on a honeymoon in the area, stopped on this bridge to admire the magnificent landscape of the red rocks of the Daluis gorges.

The bride leans to see the river and passes over the parapet. The bridegroom alerts and the body of his unfortunate wife is found the next morning. The investigation concludes an accident but we whisper in the cottages that...

Let's say no more, a judgment has been rendered and we don't comment on a court decision...

This is how the bridge becomes the « Bridge of the Bride » or « Bridge of the bride jump ».

Brigitte Gim
– A young bride fell from the bridge on the evening of her wedding; No relation to our territorial history!

Jeanne Monin
It's the « small » local history, close to the legend... « They say that... »

The "masco" of ancient Provence

An ancestral belief
Today no one anymore believes, at last... I think so. This expression is used more than to designate someone who « does the bregue » (the moat), that is to say, who looks at you with wicked little eyes.

Yet our elders believed it hard as iron and their only evocation was enough to worry the most reckless. The belief in their existence was tenacious, even until the XX^e century.

Claude Boyer tells...

Jeanne Monin

Nice story!

For a bit, we would shiver like when – children – we would read tales full of evil fairies, cruel enchanters and griming gnomes.

« The belief in their existence was tenacious, even until the XX^e century ». So we're saved because we're at XXI^e Hey! Far from us the spells, the spells!

The « masco »... Can we call them « spell casters » ?
Like those of Dumas [Captain Arena]
– Witch? He said: Doctor, are you of course?
– Sure as of my existence; She's a girl without a father or mother first. Then, you see, she was raised by an old shepherd, a spell caster, a poisoner at last.

or George Sand [Daniella] :
– Another shepherd, his mulch neighbor, is a gettator, a caster of spells, and kills his sheep.

Would the shepherds of Provence – those who contemplate the stars with Daudet – be more « masco » the others?

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Writing – Passadoc – Participants included:
André Abbe
Claude Boyer
Marie-Dominique Germain
Brigitte Gim
Patricia Jouve
Jacqueline Marnier
Jeanne Monin
Jean-Pierre Violino
Layout
Jeanne Monin