There were already several olive groves in our area when we started in 2005 and the beauty of the trees with their silvery leaves inspired us to plant a few. We have chosen varieties which produce olives for the table rather than oil, and because of this we treat them rather differently. The trees are all hand picked, with a little help from our friends, from the middle of February through March and into April as each variety and style matures.
We pick Sevillano, Manzanillo, Picholne and Azappa olives when green and some Manzanillo and Kalamata when they have matured to black olives.
Within an hour of being picked the fruit is in our storage shed where it is washed, sorted and stored in vats of brine. Over the next few months we carefully monitor their fermentation, and debittering until they are ready to eat. Because we use this natural method of processing it takes from 3 months to 18 months for this to happen.
At this stage we are ready to sell either in bulk to other growers who have oil producing trees to enhance their cellar door, in food pails of 2, 5 and 10 litres to restaurants and fruit shops, or we prepare in our accredited kitchen jars of 300ml or 1 litre for commercial sale.
Over the past few years we have entered our olives in our local Hunter Olive Show and this year in the Royal Adelaide Show, we have consistently been awarded medals for our fruit, which assures customers they are buying olives of a high standard.
