Sometime last year, my friend Rachel gave me the idea of pressing my olives into olive oil. She'd either done it herself, or knew others who had
Anyway, this year there was a bumper crop, I already picked some green ones for table olives, and prepared them 2 ways - the old "favourite" - soaked in water for 30 or so days, and then put in a brine solution, and then also a pillowcase full of olives and rock salt - tied to a tree branch - and these would then shrivel up a bit leaching out the water and bitterness because of the salt.
Anyway, I not only had this year's batch - but previous year's batches clogging up cupboards, and I can only give away so many to family and friends....
So, the plan was to pick a lot of olives over the next 48 hours (that is apparently the longest time they should be allowed to stand after being picked)
I arrived in Inglewood around 11.30 on Monday morning, unpacked, and then toured the garden,
That self sown tomato is going gang busters
And the grape vines look pretty in their Autumnal colours
After this walked down the street, and said hello to Steve and Denise etc - and then had some lunch.
Changed into my overalls, a beanie and headphones and took out my newly purchased plastic baskets (like shopping baskets)
And at 1.30 - started picking
To mitigate the boredom/repetition, I listened to a talking book from the Library
If I forget you - by Thomas Christopher Greene - was ok, didn't love it
I picked til close to 6pm, taking about 2 hours to fill a basket. And I filled 2 and a bit baskets.
I discovered that bigger olives are better to pick than smaller ones, and that you don't pick them one at a time - but pick them in "bunches" - sort of roll them off the stems
The branches are also still quite supple, so could bend down the higher branches to retrieve the olives
Had a nice hot shower to warm up afterwards, and then a G&T and some modest nibbles, and then a left over dinner
Then into bed and Netflix
Tuesday - the big day. Started at 9am, and finished at 5pm.....
Whew, big day, basically filled all of the 8 baskets that I'd brought - was pretty pleased
Some of the olives were like little mangos, some like cherries, others like grapes - I tended to have a bucket per tree (I left a couple of trees that had smaller olives - thought I'd come back to them if I needed to.
Maile also came and gave me a hand - voluntarily, no strong arming her, and she even went back home and picked up David to come and help too - fabulous!
Now, the baskets were pretty heavy - maybe 15 kg each? - and if so that meant that we'd picked about 120kg - woo hoo
Note, I filled up that red basket on Wednesday
And on Tuesday I listened to Heartbreak Hotel (by the same author as Best Exotic Marigold Hotel) before Maile came
It was more engrossing than the other book, but there are a lot of different characters - I guess they'll all end up at the hotel eventually.
Steve dropped by after we'd finished picking with a screw driver and other tools - as we'd said that he could have the saddle frame in the back hall for the Tivey saddle to rest on at the RSL.
Took a bit of persuasion to come off the wall - but he managed
We're glad that its going to be reunited with the original major Tivey saddle - look forward to seeing them together.
So, on Wednesday, Terry came with his and Arleen's olives - Terry had approximately 40kg, and Arleen had approximately 60kg
We loaded them into the Passat (luckily the boot was empty) - and I drove to the olive processor.
Luckily I called him on the way, as he wasn't there, and just said to leave them in the olive shed. I was a bit disappointed at that as I had wanted to know how many kg I'd picked, and I'd also wanted to see the olives pressed
Maybe next time
Google maps said it was 48 minutes away - through Kangaroo Flat, and then beyond
Found the shed
Unpacked the car
And assumed that the white thing was the press
He also seemed to have a fancy type of olive rake - perched on the wheelbarrow
And also had a trailer filled with what looked like olive detritus
I sent him a text with photos - asking if he could weight the plastic baskets as one lot, the 5 x big boxes as another lot, and the 5 x medium boxes as the third lot - so that we know how much we have - and then how to divvy it up - but I haven't heard back as yet.
He said he would do it on his return yesterday afternoon - hope it all went well, as I'm really looking forward to this home grown olive oil.
And then back to Melbourne
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