In 2021, Francesc Vicens Vidal, a musicologist from Palma, discovered a remarkable story within his wife Maria de Salut's family. "I received," he recalls, "a phone call from filmmaker Álex Dioscórides, who was preparing the documentary." Stone and oilfocused on the olive grove culture of the Tramuntana mountain range. He asked me if I knew any olive harvesters he could interview, given that many sang while they worked. I told him no. But one day my mother-in-law told me that her mother, when she was single, had been hired out to work on an estate in Sóller. They called this 'going to the mountains'."

The San Bartolomé de Sóller Cooperative—the oldest in Spain at 126 years old—now has an organic olive mill. This project stems from collaboration between farmers and the government, with the aim of improving the quality of the island's olive oil, which "is increasingly competing in a better market and must raise the bar, which is already very high," explains Mique, president of both the San Bartolomé de Sóller Cooperative and the Camp Mallorquí Cooperative. Added to this is the desire to give a boost to the island's industry. "And what better way to do that than through the organic sector?" he asks.

Producers of table olives under the Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) Oliva de Mallorca are already facing the final days of harvesting, and so far, the olive mills have harvested 4,445 kilos of olives. This figure represents "30% of the estimated production that can be harvested this year," explained Andreu Oliver, president of the regulatory council, this Wednesday.