After given the matter a great deal of thought and consideration, we finally decided that we would have a go at harvesting our own olives this season. We have around 80 olive trees, around 60 of which are situated around the house and 20 in the paddock where we keep our Alpacas.
We joined the local COOPERATIVA ‘SCA Agricola Almazara de Ronda’ on the 14th December 2007 to where we were to take our olives for pressing and produced into ‘Aceite de Ronda oliva virgin extra’. We received our membership number within a day of our application and given a quota of 2000kgs, which was estimated on the number of trees we have.
We purchased our 4 Manto Red Gris (nets) measuring 8 metres x 6 metres and a Vara Fibra Vidio; the pole you use to knock the olives off the tree with, which measures 2.5 metres in length.
The season starts once the COOPERATIVA opens for business, which is normally around the beginning of December, although this year it opened in the middle of November, as the majority of the trees locally were laden with ripe fruit and it was obvious that is was going to be a bumper crop this year! The season finishes at the end of January, so you have around 2 months to complete your harvest.
We started our harvest around the 15th/16th December and finished on Monday 21st January. Sadly Lin was taken ill soon after we started, so she was only able to play a small part in this year’s harvest, which was upsetting for both of us, as she was really enjoying it! Luckily, Eddie who was staying with us for a month over Christmas, pitched in and did an admirable job, as one would expect of him,.
Although it was incredibly hard work, it was also great fun, especially when the weather was fine, which it was for most of the time. It did rain for a couple of days, but other than that we had clear skies and sunny days!
It was a particularly difficult task this year, as our trees had not been properly looked after for the past couple of years, so we were having to prune them at the same time as picking, which made it more time consuming. Hopefully, we will be better prepared next year!
The work is quite pressurised as the harvested olives have to be taken to the COOPERATIVA within two or three days of being picked, as after that they become acidy. You are actually paid on the quality and oil content of your olives, so it is important that you get them to the COOPERATIVA as soon as you can. Samples are extracted from every batch delivered to the press and taken to the laboratory to determine the quality and oil content and they are valued in accordance with the test report.
We have three different varieties of olive in our grove, Hoji, Marte and Lechin. I have no idea of the difference between them, but out of interest I will do some research on them when I get some time!
We collected just over 1900kgs; not bad for our first year! Originally, we were quite disappointed with the total, but when somebody pointed out to us that we had collected just under 2 tonne, we were more content with our endeavour!
Although we were looked upon as a novelty at the COOPERATIVA during our first couple of visits (this crazy Englishman and his wife) we were soon accepted into the fold and are now good friends with the twin brothers, Alberto and Antonio, who control the daily deliveries of olives.
Everyone there has since been so kind to us and many of our fellow olive harvesters have given us advice and tips and I think they have responded to our efforts to integrate into our new environment and their community.
We joined the local COOPERATIVA ‘SCA Agricola Almazara de Ronda’ on the 14th December 2007 to where we were to take our olives for pressing and produced into ‘Aceite de Ronda oliva virgin extra’. We received our membership number within a day of our application and given a quota of 2000kgs, which was estimated on the number of trees we have.
We purchased our 4 Manto Red Gris (nets) measuring 8 metres x 6 metres and a Vara Fibra Vidio; the pole you use to knock the olives off the tree with, which measures 2.5 metres in length.
The season starts once the COOPERATIVA opens for business, which is normally around the beginning of December, although this year it opened in the middle of November, as the majority of the trees locally were laden with ripe fruit and it was obvious that is was going to be a bumper crop this year! The season finishes at the end of January, so you have around 2 months to complete your harvest.
We started our harvest around the 15th/16th December and finished on Monday 21st January. Sadly Lin was taken ill soon after we started, so she was only able to play a small part in this year’s harvest, which was upsetting for both of us, as she was really enjoying it! Luckily, Eddie who was staying with us for a month over Christmas, pitched in and did an admirable job, as one would expect of him,.
Although it was incredibly hard work, it was also great fun, especially when the weather was fine, which it was for most of the time. It did rain for a couple of days, but other than that we had clear skies and sunny days!
It was a particularly difficult task this year, as our trees had not been properly looked after for the past couple of years, so we were having to prune them at the same time as picking, which made it more time consuming. Hopefully, we will be better prepared next year!
The work is quite pressurised as the harvested olives have to be taken to the COOPERATIVA within two or three days of being picked, as after that they become acidy. You are actually paid on the quality and oil content of your olives, so it is important that you get them to the COOPERATIVA as soon as you can. Samples are extracted from every batch delivered to the press and taken to the laboratory to determine the quality and oil content and they are valued in accordance with the test report.
We have three different varieties of olive in our grove, Hoji, Marte and Lechin. I have no idea of the difference between them, but out of interest I will do some research on them when I get some time!
We collected just over 1900kgs; not bad for our first year! Originally, we were quite disappointed with the total, but when somebody pointed out to us that we had collected just under 2 tonne, we were more content with our endeavour!
Although we were looked upon as a novelty at the COOPERATIVA during our first couple of visits (this crazy Englishman and his wife) we were soon accepted into the fold and are now good friends with the twin brothers, Alberto and Antonio, who control the daily deliveries of olives.
Everyone there has since been so kind to us and many of our fellow olive harvesters have given us advice and tips and I think they have responded to our efforts to integrate into our new environment and their community.
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