Neudorf Olives

We are now two thirds of the way through our harvest, having harvested and pressed the Frantoio and Koroneiki olive varieties. We are waiting for a spell of fine weather to harvest the Leccino, which is proving to be unpredictable – the weather that is, not the olives! So far I’ve been pleased with the yields we’ve had from the fruit, which are up from last year when we were averaging about 12 – 15 %. This year we have seen yields from about 15 – 18%. Anyone who knows anything about pressing olives will understand that the press operator can become somewhat obsessed with the olive weight to oil ratio! We have a great team of harvesters this year, replaced in part with family and friends over the weekends. Our two sons, 17 and 19 years old, are finally strong enough and motivated by the pay to put in a hard day’s work, and our 12 year old daughter helps, on occasions, with leaf blowing and loading the olives onto the conveyor belt, which takes the olives into the crusher. One of the harvesters was amazed and suitably impressed at her ability to lift almost 1/2 her body weight in olives onto the platform for leaf blowing! Here’s hoping for a dry July, that is, if we don’t get the weather we want at the end of this month.