Day with the Olives

One of my favorite things about being a photographer is how we get to see so many things on the inside of Tunisia.  This year we've done a lot of manufacturing photography, we've seen how cars and airplanes are made at least in part, here in Tunisia.  This week we got a really beautiful opportunity to do some photography for Ruspina, a 100 year-old Tunisian olive oil manufacturer.

Every time I get outside the capital city I breathe.  Fresh air and a simpler way of life; I feel people are grounded and know where they stand in their community.  This was no exception.  Our job was to document how olive oil is produced by Ruspina so we started the day with some lovely ladies who pick the olives from the fields.  When we arrived they were having a picnic together under the trees.  They got a huge kick out of being our models: I think several of them had to be in their late 70s, still at work in the fields.

It is the end of the olive season, which starts in October/November so these women are making the final gleanings from the fields.  After the olives are gathered they are transported the the factory about 10 minutes away where they are cleaned and pressed, a still relatively simple process.  

From here it is pressed into the olive oil and then filtered.  The oil is actually really a beautiful thing.  I was so intrigued to watch it bottled.  

It was all prepared and bottled in the same place, just minutes from the field were the olives were picked.  One of the sad things about Tunisian olive oil is the vast majority of it is sold to Italy and Spain in bulk and re-bottled as Spanish or Italian olive oil simply because Tunisian olive oil production is not well known.  Ruspina is unique in that they are working hard to promote Tunisian olive oil as a Tunisian product, tied to the history and tradition of this country.  I know what brand I'll be buying at the grocery store after this lovely day out...I know the smiling faces and the work that is going into each bottle of Ruspina.  

Things I've been making...

Creating with fabric is a new thing for me: 1 1/2 years ago when we suddenly had a 4 year old foster daughter (adoption nearly finalized, can't wait till it's official!) I went on a bit of a nesting drive....I just needed something to get excited about since I was instantly a mother without the 9 month wait of expecting.  In Tunisian children's clothes and decor ridiculously expensive and so I had to get creative. I have two grandmothers who were sewing whizzes but they stopped before I was old enough to get real lessons. I knew how to stitch in a straight line since I was in 4-H as a youngin' but that's about as far as my skill set went.  Even in my 4-H days I think I didn't produce anything that was usable.  Enter pinterest and all the amazing online tutorials these days and I discovered a new love!  Seriously, sewing is so much fun and it's kind of an instant gratification thing because you can produce something useable in just a few hours.  This new finding also tapped into my life-long obsession with fabric and textiles so I was really hooked.

So now the idea I've been kicking around is doing some training for women in the neighborhood who are in need of some extra income to care for their children.  However, I don't really have the start-up cash flow to do this until I kind of see what products they can make that actually sell.  So, I'm in a bit of the research and development stage.  Here are a few examples of the things I'm thinking of offering.

I'm excited about the possibilities and nervous at the same time.  I get so excited about this and then filled with doubt...how will anyone find us or will they even want to purchase from us with the millions of products out there?  It seems overwhelming but I know two things I have to stay true to are my desire to make a difference in the community and my passion to be a create.  As a product test I just launched an etsy store:  http://www.etsy.com/shop/SimplyMeHandmade

Please pay us a visit and please let me know any comments you might have about products you would like to see, what's good and what's not!

Central Market Stop

I'm pretty much open-air market obsessed.  Drop me any place in the world and I want to see the fruit and vegetable market.  The colors, the smell, the bustle.  You find a small portal into the way life works; what does it take to get the basic task of feeding family done?  What goods and products are available?  Today I had to go downtown Tunis so I decided to do my shopping at my all-time favorit, the central market.  I will probably write more on the central market at a later date, but suffice it to say the produce is the freshest and cheapest you'll find anywhere and it's beautiful.

Added bonus today is I met a new friend who is the one who should be writing this blog post!

Hamza told us that he is a fellow photographer.  He greeted us with a warm smile and offered us some of his bouquet of daffodils.  I bought a pound of lemons and some fresh garlic from him for the equivalent of a dollar.  He then gave me his real treasure...he has been photographing the central market for quite some time with a small camera.  His speciality was photos of people napping in the market (indeed, on exit I saw an old man napping holding plastic sacks, on his shoulder was a sign "150 millimes for my sacks...I guess it's self-service).   The photos made me smile, the personality and warmth he conveyed about his market where evident in each one.  I snapped a shot of a few of his photos on his lemons, I would like to credit that the photos within this photo are taken by Hamza Ayari.    

I didn't have that long to spend today, just enough time to pick up some asparagus, mushrooms, mandarins  and fresh cheese.

Definitely the highlight of the day was meeting Hamza.  I will have to come back and see his entire series of the central market...he photographed us as we were leaving so I think we're part of the story now!

When I got home and was cooking lunch I had to have a little fun with all the pretty things I bought.

Okay, I'm a nerd, I get it.  Thanks central market for the beautiful morning!