The Olive Harvest 2014

The Annual Olive Harvest 2014
The 2014 harvest produced 695.4 kg of fruit. After this was processed at the oil press factory the oil produced was 98.6 kg or 114.7 litres. This means that the yield was about 16.49% by weight, which is an excellent result. The pressing fee was $904.02, which is $7.88 per litre. That's not a bad reward for amateurs.

Harvesting the olives is a communal activity mid-June each year. Enlarge

The olives on low banches are picked by hand into buckets, and then an electric 'shaker rake' is used to dislodge those high up onto ground sheets. Enlarge

Although fully ripened black olives contain the most oil, those that are still green also contain oil and all fruit is picked regardless of colour. Green olives impart desirable flavours to the final oil extracted. Enlarge

The harvest is being delivered to a commercial Olive Press. Leaves twigs and other debris are easily removed by a wind extractor. Enlarge

Our harvest 2014 was just short of 700 kg and is in two of the large blue containers in the backgound, together with the smaller bins on the pallette in the foreground. Enlarge

This is the machine that does all the work. The typical yield varies from 10-20% by weight, depending on average ripeness of the harvested olives. Enlarge

Here is the final oil arriving. Enlarge

The final sludge after all the oil is removed. This is dried and ends up as a useful fertiliser. Enlarge