Now in Size #3 - The Olive Gatherer - La Ceuilleuse d'olives - New from Marcel Carbonel Santons for 2015

Posted on December 02, 2015 | 0 Comments

Happily, 2015 brings The Olive Gatherer - La Ceuilleuse d'olives - to Marcel Carbonel Santons Size #3 / Grande - the 3-1/2" size.

First introduced in 2012, we loved the Olive Gatherer in Size #2

and we love her even more in Size #3. She is more than elegant, wearing a wide-brimmed black hat to shade herself from the sun over a green cotton headdress. She has a headscarf on her shoulders, a pinafore around her waist, and carries a basket of olives on her right arm, a branch of olives in that right hand, and an olive rake in the other. A bag of olives lies at her feet. The painting of her costume is, as always, exquisite.

Yet, more than that, we think she is especially appealing to those of us who are not from the French culture, as she symbolizes the harvesting of the glorious olive trees and in turn the pressing of those olives into olive oil, that we, as foreigners automatically and rather romantically associate with Provence.

Olive trees were planted by the Greeks when they settled circa 600 BC in Provence and around the Mediterranean. The trees thrived in the dry, stony, limestone soil and helped prevent erosion. Today, Olive oil from Provence is a limited crop. Varied and distinctive, Provence is known not known for the quantity of its olive oils, but for their superb quality.

Patricia Wells, a renown Provence cookbook writer rejoiced in this year's harvest.

Just last month, in November, she made the decision to pick the olives in her olive grove by hand. She writes:

"The events of Friday November 13^thin Paris left us stunned and horrified. It is the city that I have come to call home and not uncommonly for a Friday night, I was out dining with friends at a small bistro on the left bank when the news of the attacks broke. We decided that the most positive action we could take was to continue with our plans to harvest our olive grove in Provence, both to celebrate the longevity, strength, beauty, and bounty associated with the revered olive and to soothe our saddened souls."

Carbonel's Olive Gatherers make a soulful addition to everyones Santons collection!

Enjoy our My Growing Traditions Marcel Carbonel Pinterest Board - click here

Posted in Carbonel Santons, French Christmas, Nativities, Provence Christmas

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