The heavy rains finally came, just 2 days after we finished picking.  A total of 60 mm fell on Monday and Tuesday, bringing this year's total at Gezer to 161 mm. Our yearly average rainfall is about 500 mm, so unlike most of Israel we are on course to reach our average.  
We have four major varieties of olives: Suri, Nabali, Shimlali, and Barnea.  Each has its advantages and disadvantages, but in general its good to have several varieties.  We began pruning the Suri olives, which are smaller trees and  easier to prune than the other varieties. Hopefully we'll finish the Suri trees next week and start on the Shimlali.

We finished harvesting this year's olives yesterday. It seems like an appropriate time to start the olives blog.  This year's harvest came to 10,200 kilograms of olives. That's close to the biggest harvest we've had.  All the olives were pressed at the Trappist Monastery at Latrun, about 10 kilometers from Gezer. 
Like previous years, lots of people came to help.  Beni, Ilan, Tom, Ayal, Daniel, Rox, Buddy, Yoav, Lisa, Amos, Maya D., Ofra S., Itai,Miriam S.,Aliza, Ofra L.,Yoni, Irit, Ruth, Avi R., Tamar B., Boaz, Orlie, Joanne,Jessie, Yuval,  Patches,Shimrit, Tamar, Aryeh, Elliot, Judy, Varda, Steve, Gabi and Micah.
And like previous years, the wwoofers and volunteers who came were just amazing, helpful, caring and hardworking people. Thanks Hanna, Brett, Peter, Karen, Mark, and Ray.  I hope you enjoyed working with me as much as I enjoyed working with you.
Peter is staying on for 3 more weeks to help prune the trees. Thanks Peter. 
This was the first year I can remember where we did not miss a single day of picking due to rain. That is obviously a mixed blessing. The weather report is calling for stormy weather the next few days. Lets hope they're right.
Happy Hanuka and Merry Christmas to all of you. D