Toby'shuman

Mmmmm! Carobs. Don't worry mum, I'll pick up the stragglers.



This Olive net is just perfect for sitting on and attending to ones personal hygiene.



What's that over there?


It is I. Russell.


Mum insists on picking these little black things.

Harvest time is upon us, oh joy, hours of back breaking work, (this little lot took me 2 and a half hours to pick). I don't use machines on my trees instead I pick by hand, straight from the branch.

Toby'shuman

Don't they look pretty on the tree.


My big mitt handling the delicate olives.


How I actually remove them from the tree, I use a nipping motion.


This is better mum, not so cold on my bum. LOL!

lolonurse

thank you for these photos... we used to have one lonely little olive tree, and then moved to a neighborhood that, many decades ago, was a large olive orchard. Unfortunately, no-one tended those beautiful old trees, and now they are just in awful condition. I'm not a fan of olives personally (DH just adores them), but we cook with olive oil, and also, what's more historical than olive groves - one of the first things that man cultivated. Do you also do the brining/processing, or do you sell them fresh, for others to process?

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Toby'shuman

I can tell you how to prune the neighbourhood trees if you want. It isn't hard to get them back to how they should be in order to produce olives.

I do preserve some of the olives, but to be honest mine make better oil.

I do occcasionally press my own oil, but unfortunately my press is real small and can only do a limited amount of olives per day. It does about 10 kilos a day which produces around 1 litre of oil.
I have over 200 trees (though not all produce each year, they work on a 4 year cycle) and can get upto and above 400 kilos from the trees that are producing at the time of picking. Once picked the olives must be pressed or preserved within 24 hours, preferably quicker. So for expediency's sake I take them down to the local co-operative.

Because my grove is organic I book the machines just to press my olives.

Beaumont67

Toby'shuman - Thanks for the great photos & story behind organic olive farming...most interesting.
- looks like Toby has the best job, on the farm...watchin his Mom do, all the hard work...he-he
Just curious, why not pick bare handed ??
- I would think rubber gloves, would be a pain wearing all day, and somewhat reduce your picken output, labour-yield for the day.

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------------Kelly & (Amy - RIP @ 11.7 y/o)

Toby'shuman

The gloves are only rubberised on the palm.
I wear gloves for 3 reasons,
1st. The olives stain your hands something fierce so you end up with yellowy brown hands with darker lines (in the creases) which don't look nice to say the least.
2nd. The action of nipping is pretty harsh and your fingers can get sore.
3rd. Daft as it sounds even though it's lovely weather at the moment, thin jumper type of weather your hands get really cold.
Oh, I forgot one last reason, so my reasoning is 4 fold, locusts, preying mantis sometimes hang out in the trees and if you accidentally get hold their leg spurs etc hurt when they stick in your hand.

Yeah it's a hard life being an olive farming Doberman.

Beaumont67

^^^^ Her is your Toby boy, in animation....while Mom very busy, harvesting the olives...he could "watch work", all day.
- thanks for 4 solid reasons, wearing rubber gloves...interesting thread, I am finding

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------------Kelly & (Amy - RIP @ 11.7 y/o)