We harvested 4,000 pounds of olives last week and that turned into 75 gallons of extra virgin olive oil. We lay out nets under the trees to collect the olives when they fall to the ground. Some of our trees had up to 200 pounds of olives on them. It can take up to 45 minutes to harvest from a tree that loaded with olives. We have a compressor that attaches to our tractor and so we are able to use our air powered harvest rakes. The rakes we have shake the olives and they fall down onto the nets. Then we gather the nets up and the olives collect into a big pile. From there we transfer the olives into crates. Once all of our crates are full we drive them 2 miles down the road to the local mill. It takes only a little over an hour for the olives to be crushed and processed into oil.
It is an incredibly rewarding cycle to be a part of. In the Winter we prune the trees, in the Spring we watch them form buds that turn into flowers that turn into olives.
In the Summer we water and watch the olives grow. In the Fall we watch the olives begin to blush purple as the colder nights set in. And now the olives are ready for harvest. And in the course of a week we have enough oil to last our family and community until the next harvest the following year.
