Ours is a small farm, we have 11 hectares land, about 27 acres. This year we have taken advantage of the last sunny days of the season to harvest olives from our 250 trees. We like to harvest early, between the end of October and the beginning of November, when olives are just turning from green to purple. At this stage olives are rich of oil and aromatic compounds.
The oil will be fruity and peppery with a slightly bitter aftertaste.
Umbrian oil at its best.
Potentially we could produce some 3500 kg/7700 pounds olives. However, most of our olive trees are very young so we presently make only a fraction of that. We pick olives by hand, using small rakes and nets.
We try to pick fast as olives should not be stored too long before processing. However, it takes at least an hour to harvest a tree like that one in this picture below. All for 2-3 bottles oil per mature tree, yeld is 15%.
As our fields are on a fairly steep hill, with all the climbing up and down and carting stuff back to the house at the end of the harvest we are dead tired. Luckily this year we had an energetic helper.
Just like us, she can’t wait to get to the mill and see the results of our efforts.
Love the photos and information — I had no idea the olive harvest was so difficult. Wish we could visit and try the olive oil from your trees! Buon natale.
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Ciao Jennifer, nice to see you here! the sunny days of olive harvest seem so far away already. I have an almost ready post about the processing of olives at the mill. Luckily we do not have to work for that, only bring the olives and wait until the golden liquid comes out of the machine. Then we run home and have the first bruschetta of the year, mmmmmm. I will be working again on the blog after mid January. Happy holidays!
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Great photos — I didn’t realize you had so many olive trees! (250 sounds like a lot to me!)
I’m sure Google is a big help!
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Hi Sandra, you are welcome to join the harvest next time you find yourslef this side of the world. It’s hard work but it is also a lot of fun and the bruschetta with just pressed olive oil is unforgettably good!
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This is great to see a bit about your harvest. Ours was a misty day since the winter came early to our part of New Zealand, but we ended up with 48 litres of gorgeous, gorgeous frantoio & leccino oil.
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