Almost Olive Time…!
17Monday 14 October, 2013 by Uncle Spike
From the back end of October till the end of December, much of my time is spent picking olives, sorting them, and preparing for two visits to the olive oil factory.
Most are used for olive oil production. I pick, sort and take the olives direct to the pressing factory myself, so it’s great to have your OWN olive oil; so green and pure.
Olive trees tend to fruit every two years, so you never quite know how much there will be. Last year we had almost 700kg, which is not a bad haul… but I was glad when it was all done and dusted!
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SOME TREES ARE LOADED THIS YEAR
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JUST RIPE FOR PICKING
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MANY EVENINGS SPENT SORTING OLIVES IN THE UTILITY ROOM
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OLIVE HARVEST TIME
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In addition to oil production, I usually do a few large tubs (maybe 40kg) of olives I preserve for the table (5 varieties). Funny thing is, I hated olives until I bought this land… the stuff in the shops is NOTHING like home-grown, home-preserved produce.
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TRAYS OF OLIVES DURING PRESERVATION PROCESS
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LOOK AT THE SIZE OF THESE OLIVES
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After harvesting, I then have to prune and spray the trees – and then off we go again, for another year…
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LUGGING ROUND A 35kg BACK SPRAYER
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After receiving a comment about seeing olives in their natural habitat, here are just a few more shots taken of olives on the trees as of today (14 October 2013). Hope you like them Gayle…
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Uncle Spike's Adventures 
[…] No. 9: – Almost Olive Time […]
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[…] it comes to farming in winter here in southern Turkey, there is always plenty to do, from olive harvesting, citrus fruit picking and general winter chores that are pretty well impractical during our long […]
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This post is really interesting! Olives grow well in Victoria, where I’m from, but I have no idea how to grow them… do you find the whole process pretty simple? How did you learn about how to grow them? And how many trees do you have? They look huge!
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The trees are a few years old, one is poss 150 yrs. They are pretty simple, they will grow even if you do nothing at all; native species. But the regeneration pruning and watering schedule is key to fruit production, as it disease and pest management.
Mostly I learn from the net, as well as plenty of advice, some wanted, most not, from old farmers here who prefer old traditional, non-scientific methods.
I think I have 50 live trees in all, from tiddlers around a metre high, to a couple of oldies which keep trimmed to 4 metres else they are pain to work on my own.
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I’ve only ever had olive oil from the supermarket. It could be dyed corn oil for all I know. Would like to taste the real thing.
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They even taste different, from village to village 🙂
I’ll post a pot over, lol
🙂
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Yea! C/O:
Sandy Place
Amongst Cactus
Arizona
USA.
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157 litres on it’s way
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Oh, I so envy you as my mouth is watering at the delicious looking olives. I love OLIVES! You are living the dream of every health conscious person, with your own delicious olives and olive oil! I usually try to buy cold pressed organic olive oil, but I always wonder what it’s like to have access to the pressing factory and actually see what is going on, and what the difference is between store bought oil and … your own 🙂
I also love your photos!
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Never found a factory oil that compares, that’s for sure.
Add to that we grow most of our own veg and certainly all the fruit, so yes, guess I must be a bit healthier than before.
We also have honey from the next farm one side, and fresh milk (still warm) from the cows the other side. Plus homemade pomegranate molasses, homemade yoghurt, butter, jams and I also dry quite a bit of the summer veggies now for winter.
🙂
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That must be a lot of work, but then that’s the best work you can do for yourself and for the others. Life seems so much simple and pleasant like this, when you really know what you are eating and where it’s coming from. Ehhhh… *dreams of moving on a farm and picking up fruit*
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🙂
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Oh how much I wish we could all get to taste this olive oil!
I live near the largest production area of olives in the United States (down in the Central California Valley.)
However, for some reason, as soon as the olive oil hits the market the taste is almost always too old already.
I love how you show us the whole process from harvesting to processing.
Thank you for a lovely post about the natural bounty of our planet.
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Shop stuff is never the same… I still have 45 litres in a tub from last year; shame I can’t post it 😀
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I especially liked the second photo down of the olives on the trees. I never really knew how they grew before. I love olives. I eat them stuffed with cheese which is how we can buy them in the store where I live.
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I guess there are not many olive groves in Manhattan 🙂
Wish I could send a rate over there; here we can only sell fresh olives for $3.50 a kg (2.2 lbs) .
I’ll pop out later and take a fresh foto for you – how ’bout that?
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