When I was recently in Tuscany, I happened to stay at a lovely cottage in northern Siena with an olive grove of about 300 trees. The property owners harvest the olives themselves – ladders, nets and buckets, no machines. They send what they collect to a mill to be made into olive oil. They do it just for themselves, not to sell; and, they said they get enough olive oil to last them about a year. A fun factoid: It takes about 6 whole olives to make 1 teaspoon of olive oil! Let me just say, those olives are worth it. The olive oil was fruity and delicious. Talk about local food! Too cool.