Olive Love

I’d like to tell you the tale of two oils, starting with this year’s bottled harvest:

57L of olive oil, cold pressed from 320kg of handpicked olives.

My aim was to have enough oil to last our household a year, with sufficient left for family, friends, helpers, and olive-givers. And, in spite of early doubts, I made it.

In order to tell this year’s story completely, I have to take you back to the oil that started it all…

Hannah’s [Unexpected] Harvest, 2017

This is some of our oil from last year:

Last year’s harvest was unexpected for two reasons: (1) the olives I picked were not meant to produce so much oil; and (2) I did not set out to make oil. I was going to brine a few kilos — maybe four, five. Seven at most.

But, aided in spurts by Xander, Oakley, and India, I harvested 27kg from our olive tree alone.

Suddenly my original plan to brine seemed like an awful lot of work — but I was not prepared to see any olives go to waste. I did have a vague recollection of a commercial press nearby… I’d press oil instead!

Thinking there must be a minimum load required, I approached neighbours about their trees and, while Oakley and I picked their olives, another couple stopped by to offer their trees. Then a friend told me about a tree in Pearsall, and yet another friend picked her own olives and brought by a bag.

In five days of not trying very hard, I amassed nearly 100kg of olives.

After that, I had assumed it would be a simple matter of driving our olives to the nearest press and having them crushed on the spot. Alas, I was mistaken.

Every olive press near and not-so-near was booked out weeks in advance. Handpicked olives must be pressed within 5-6 days of picking and I was on day 5, which meant I was running out of time.

Enter my rescuers, Jenny and Arnaud from the York Olive Oil Company. They were pressing through the night to cope with demand.

The only drawback: York was a 3-hour round trip.

I gave my littlest one a mental health day and turned our roadtrip into an excursion, involving an oil press, two playgrounds, rusted-out farm equipment, and olive oil ice cream.

[first four (in-car) photos snapped by India]

Even though we were prepared for a low yield — 10L at most — we were in it for the the learning. And the best part of this learning was that it would end in oil.

I missed Arnaud’s call the next day, but I didn’t miss the surprised tone of his message. With 21L of oil from 96kg of olives, we had exceeded yield expectations by more than 100%.

But I knew I could do better.

Olive Love, 2018

By the time February arrived, I was determined and prepared: come May, I would set aside two weeks to pick 300kg of olives. I booked two 150kg pressings on consecutive Fridays.

A week before our first pressing, I put the call-out on our local Buy Nothing group for olives going to waste.

Even with a steady run of trees, my pick-rate was lower than anticipated. I was limited by my own arms, my paltry ladder system, diminishing daylight hours, the weather. How on earth was I going to make it? Would I be penalised for under-picking?

In the background, I studied the Jumanga Olives website. There was no problem with a lesser harvest, but I would incur a penalty if I exceeded my estimate by more than 20%.

I picked my way steadily through my first week, weighing after each day, working towards my goal — though at more than one point in each week, I panicked that I may have too much too soon.

This is what 157kg of olives looks like on your dining room floor.

After these two weeks, I felt like I’d run a marathon, but it was only when one of our friends pointed out I had just handpicked nearly 1/3 of a tonne of olives that I realised how mammoth this effort was. If I had have conceptualised the task in that way (instead of thinking about the carrying capacity of my car), I may not have started.

I certainly would not have this year’s oil without the help of many others.

Thank you for the olives:
Suzie & Paul; John & Jean; Leandri; Anna & Andrew; Nicole; Phil & Denise; Darren & Alicia; Ali; Amanda; Anneliese; Nerine & Eddie; Kristy & Laurie; Julie & Brian.

Thank you for giving me picking time/chopping branches for me:
Justin; Xander; Wilma; Anna; George & Elizabeth; Brian.

Thank you for the shiny new ladder (my first one broke):
Justin.

Thank you for the boxes, bottles, and oil containers:
Baiba; Anna; Leanne; Susso; Tash & Craig; Mark; Vintage Cellars.

Thank you for custom-designing the label image and choosing our oil’s name:
India.

Thank you for pressing our oil and educating me about varietals and pressing methods:
Tom & Jutta, from Jumanga Olives.

Thank you, thank you, thank you all!

With so many community trees still sagging with olives, I hope all of this has you inspired to pick your own for brining — or for oil — if not this year, next.

As for me? In 2019, I might just aim for a tonne.

Happy picking,

Hannah.

[feature image, for this post and this year’s label: “Olive Love” by India van Didden]

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But, wait — there’s more! Read on if you are interested in some of the finer details.

The nitty gritty

The basic process

1. Source + schedule trees
2. Pick + store olives > repeat
3. Deliver olives to the press
4. Press oil
5. Pick up oil
6. Wait 4-6 weeks (from date of pressing, for sediment to settle)
7. Bottle oil
8. Deliver oil
9. Enjoy oil

Some stats

Olives picked = 320kg (157kg in week 1; 163 kg in week 2)
Oil produced = 57L total
Number of batches = 3 (1. 21L > week 1 oil; 2. 21L > even blend of week 1 + week 2 oil; 3. 15L > week 2 oil)
Time spent picking = 52.5 hours (= 45.75 hours of me + 6.75 hours of helpers)
Varietals of olives picked (listed from greatest to least amount) =
week 1: picual, verdale, manzanillo, kalamata
week 2: manzanillo, verdale, picual, seedling

The Benefits

Relaxing, rewarding work.
Free workout.
Lots of vitamin D.
Meet your neighbours in a positive way.
It’s fun.
Your very own olive oil, of course!

The Costs

Time:
“admin” (organising times to pick, thanking & reporting back, collecting boxes)
picking
driving
bottling (source > clean > sterilise > design > fill > label)
deliveries

Dollars:
pressing cost
storage containers
fuel (getting to each picking location + 3 x return trips of 35-50 minutes each way + deliveries)
bottle preparation (labels + water + electricity — plus I am sure we drank more wine than usual to achieve the bottle quota…)

the bottle army gathers in readiness

Consider

How much does oil taste and quality matter to you?
Different pressing techniques produce different oil qualities. My two experiences have both been different and excellent.

Jumanga Olives (2018 harvest) employs a first cold press method.

York Olive Oil Co. (2017 harvest) cold presses and incorporates a centrifugation process that adds water to extract 6-10% more oil, losing some of the volatile compounds that add complexity to flavour. These compounds happen to be antioxidants, and they also tend to taste more bitter. The result of the centrifugation process is a milder-tasting, clearer-looking oil.

Each option has its pros and cons, depending on your preferences [I love a more robust flavour in my oil]. If you cold press your own oil by either method, you are choosing a far healthier option than the solvent-extracted alternatives.

How much time can you set aside to pick?
Make your estimate realistic. I picked for 2 weeks, allowing 2-8 hours per day for 4 or 5 (or 6) days per week. You may need to take time off work to allow for picking, canvass friends and family for helping hands, or organise a massive picking party to pick at an olive grove over a weekend. Which leads me to my next question–

What method will you use for picking?
Some people set out nets under trees and shake or rake them down [main benefit: volume at speed].
I handpicked into small buckets, transferring into a large basket or box at regular intervals [main benefit: high quality end product (less squishage)].

How much lead time do you need?
For hand-picked olives, press within 6 days of picking (and only risk the 6-day stretch if the weather is cool).
If you have knocked or raked the olives from the tree, I have been told by repeatedly that you must press within 2 days of picking to ensure a quality end product.

Which olives do you want?
Not all olives are created equal. The smaller “picual” varietal will give you more oil; the commoner “verdale” gives the lowest yield. I picked indiscriminately and reaped rich rewards. Maybe I was lucky. I like to think it was because I looked after my olives.

Some dos and don’ts

Do pick a combination of green and black olives.
Don’t store your olives deeper than about 30cm — the olives at the bottom will spoil.
Do care about safety. Those three olives on that extra high branch ain’t worth falling for.
Don’t pick fruit from the ground, unless it’s “fresh” dropped (aka “the 5-second rule”).
Do involve others in the process, from the planning to the bottling. A shared experience multiplies the joy.

More questions?

Start with the Jumanga Olives website for guidance. I picked up a lot from my brief conversations with Tom and Jutta — and I still have much to learn.