en route to autignac: day 3

there were so many things we didn’t know when we first arrived in the languedoc in 2010. we could more or less recognize olive trees with their green and silver leaves shimmering in the wind, but we were a few visits in before we realized that there aren’t species of “green” olives that are different from other species of “black” olives. rather, every olive left long enough on the tree will turn from green to black eventually, like sweet peppers and chili peppers that start green, and eventually mature to red. to those of you who grew up with olives as neighbors, this will sound laughably ignorant. but, to a northerner who had only seen olive trees in photos, or through car and bus windows, it was entirely new…

olives in varies phases from green to black