900kg! That's a lot of olives. Very interesting, colleenoz, especially since they're experimenting with olives in central FL as a possible replacement for citrus. But it makes me tired to think of picking that many olives, even with rakes. :)

It’s surprisingly less daunting than it sounds. I thought I’d be a physical wreck the next day, but not even after yesterday when the cold made my dodgy knees stiffer than usual, I feel fine! And it’s very convivial, you’d be amazed at the conversations and laughter we have around the trees :-)

That sounds just wonderful!

Colleen: I was wondering where you live that you're harvesting olives now; then I noticed the oz at the end of your name, so I assume you are in Australia. ? Great story! and could have been here in CA if it was October.

Olive trees are very messy, and so I would expect you to have a change of clothes ready. I think I would have worn a raincoat just to pick the olives.

I buy olive oil at farmers' markets from olive growers or else visit the olive ranches myself, but I've never picked many olives. Mission San Miguel has a lot of olive trees, and I did pick a few olives there, but of course you cannot eat them off the tree. It was very messy walking under the trees as well.

A liter of olive oil generally lasts me two or three months (or more), but I did buy a two-liter bottle at the farmers' market recently because I got a discount for buying a larger quantity. Still, it cost $40, but it's very good.

Like Kate said, our harvest season is October, and so I generally wait until November to stock up.

I thought there were more Greeks in Australia than Italians. Do you know where the olive trees came from? Some of the olive ranches here have Tuscan olives, but I think some of them have Spanish olives. I'm not that up on olives.

Our favorite place to go for olive tasting is Paso Robles, but we have not been for a while. There are also over 200 wineries in that area. This thread makes me want to go back this fall.

Sounds like you had a great time!

Colleen, that sounds like a great day, especially the tea. (grin) I've never picked olives or seen them grow, and I'm not a fan of the brined olives, but I use olive oil a lot.

I currently buy mine from Sciabica's in California, just because the old guy who owned the place called me a couple of times, wanting to make sure I didn't run out of olive oil, LOL. I've gotten it from them ever since, my first bottles came as a gift from Diana, 10 or 15 years ago!

I'd rather pick the olives and have them pressed into oil, but I don't think they'll ever grow olives in Michigan.

And I think your hubs needs a new raincoat!

Annie

Oh my that does seem like fun!

Reminds me of something from bygone days of manor/estate life in Europe and the UK - minus the hot showers. Wondering if it still happens for grapes &/or olives there?

Hi Kate, yes, I'm in Australia. Over the past 20 years or so Australia, and Western Australia where I am in particular, has developed a fairly competitive gourmet olive oil production industry.

Lars, usually the harvest starts in April, but we had an unusually cool summer this year so it's slowed things down. The olives on the farm where I was are mostly Kalamatas, with a good amount of Manzanillo and Frantoio, so a mixture of countries. My favourite pickled variety is Kalamata, though the Frantoio oil is very peppery and yummy.

Melbourne has one of the largest Greek populations in the world, and WA has a large Greek population, but Italians have been migrating to Australia since the late 1800s, so there's a huge Italian descended population as well. Where I grew up as a teenager was founded by Spanish monks who came to Australia via Italy (due to political issues in Spain) and they had olive oil plantations long before it was fashionable. (When I was young here, only Italians used olive oil for cooking- for British descended families it was used as a home remedy and bought in tiny bottles from the pharmacist :-) .) The monks' olive oil won prizes in Europe.

We found the waterproofing stuff in the laundry cupboard and had a go at re-waterproofing DH's raincoat!

I recently saw a automated olive picking process on TV. Tarps are laid under the trees, and a tractor with a special arm that grasps the tree trunk shakes the tree and the olives fall onto the tarps.

Yes, with 6,000 trees most of my friends' trees are machine harvested, but they like to kick it off with an old fashioned hand picking day.

colleenoz, thank you for sharing your story, I do enjoy reading about things I'll most likely never do, but am curious about. That is fascinating!

What a blast!! It would be hard work, but the fun, relaxation and camaraderie would be wonderful!!

We watch a PBS cooking show, My Greek Table. I can't remember her name but she's a NY transplant. She visited Greece once and stayed. She too showed the tractors shaking the olives onto the tarps.

Thanks for sharing Colleen!!!