Harvest 2020
In keeping with the stress of 2020 due to health concerns, our olive trees had their own version of 2020. The experts say pollination came during cold weather in 2020. Most of our trees were bare of fruit, some bore an average load of fruit, and just a few were loaded with plump, ripe olives.
Harvest started November 10th and November11th. We recruited our sons, who typically install decals on semi- trailers. Jack, Owen, and Jeramy arrived on Tuesday morning with their install teammates, John and Brady. Pamm and our daughter, Kylee, made sure we were well stocked with coffee, sweet treats and delivered our typical first day lunch item, burritos.
Olive harvest is the most difficult part of producing olive oil. It is labor intensive and requires long days of hard work. We use nets and field harvesters. We have 4 battery operated harvesting devices that gently vibrate the olive branches, so the ripe olives drop to the nets on the bare ground. The tricky part is not stepping on the fallen olives as you work your way around the tree. Some harvesters get the nickname, “Big Foot” before they learn the delicate dance of olive branch shaking.
Our team worked the areas of the grove with the highest concentration of olives. For some reason, the trees with the most fruit were on the perimeter of the grove. We had nice concentrations of purplish black Leccino, plump with oil, the green and yellow Pendolino, and our fence line of purple and green, Frantoio.
The first day yielded two and a half bins of fruit. This was a little disappointing. We had one of our mechanical harvesters, go down, despite the efforts, of our friend Bill. Bill can fix anything, but this was beyond his handiness. On day two, we lost two of our sons to their day job, but were joined by our nephew, Corbin. Corbin has served on many of our harvests. Pamm strapped on a harvest bucket and picked on her special trees. We were able to pick a little extra fruit on Wednesday.
Our trees underperformed this year. Last year we collected 400 gallons of oil and sold 5 tons of olives. This year, we collected 58 gallons of oil and sold under one ton of olives. One bright spot was the quality of oil and the yield. We collected 40 gallons of oil per ton, up from the typical 32 gallons. The fruit on the trees were filled with oil.
As a newly promoted taste panelist on the esteemed California Olive Oil Council, Pamm was extremely anxious to taste our Olio Nuevo. “Delish,” she exclaimed! The small 2020 vintage of Olivewood Ranch estate-grown extra virgin olive oil produced an exquisite flavor-bursting oil with notes of green almond, floral and cinnamon; buttery with a balanced amount of astringency.
Buon Appetito!! ~Pete
