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<pre>Hi Frank,
There is another way to pick your olives. Your hired
help at $17.50 an hour were getting paid a lot for not
picking very much. At an olive press at Willunga (SA)
on monday I met an ethnic Italian couple who I guess
were in their late 50's who had picked about the same
quantity of olives as your pickers in two days. My
wife and I picked (and pruned) 200kg from one 150 year
old tree in one day on the weekend and then with two
helpers and our son only got another 70 kg the next
day! Four of us picked 500 young trees at Gawler River
two weeks ago but only got 250 kg, although that
yielded an astonishing 80 litres. At Hahndorf my wife
and I and two pickers harvested 760 kg from young
trees on a weekend. We always pick on the weekend and
press on monday.

Small producers can't afford to pay for pickers unless
they are very efficient pickers. What's the solution?
We invite our friends to join us. Between 2 - 12
people but I know one grower who had 100 turn up. We
put on some good food and wine and we give them some
of the oil we produce. Most people really enjoy the
experience. We now have friends flying in from Sydney
for a weekend's picking because they find it so
enjoyable. At the press the other day I met someone
who had friends drive over from Melbourne to join in
the olive harvest.

Rather than spending all that money to pay pickers,
who are costing you more than the return you get on
your oil, why not invite your friends, family and
colleagues and buy some wood oven bread, some farm
house cheeses, nice fresh tomatoes, olives, olive oil
etc and some wine? It will cost you a lot less and it
will be a lot more fun.

We have built a wood oven fired with olive wood to
produce pizza, sour dough bread, roasted meats and hot
pots. Single pot cooking works well or do a BBQ if you
like. Just make sure lunch is not too indulgent and
make plenty of coffee/tea. You will soon sort out who
to invite back next time. Some don't contribute
much...some over indulge...some are great
company...some are excellent pickers. It's a good way
to get to know people too. Everyone really enjoys it.
Later you can invite them all back to try the finished
oil. Some will love to accompany you to the press.
Think of it as a harvest festival.
Where are you? What olives are you growing? How many
trees? Provide a little more info and you may find
other offers of advice, help, interest inn your oil.

Regards
Antony Whiting
Waterfall Gully
South Australia

--- cfe55 <cfe55@...> wrote:

> Let's talk about economics.
>
> Our trees are young and this year they produced on
> average 4kg each.
>
> On the first day of harvesting, I had 10 workers who
> were costing me
> $17.5/hr. In eight hours they managed to hand rake
> 880kg of olives.
> That translates to 158 lit of EVO (very dry year and
> oil content is
> down from 22% to 18%).
>
> At $7 / lit, my income would be $1106, while my
> harvesting expense
> alone is $1400. What about other costs?
>
> As I can not move my grove to one of the developing
> countries for
> picking, I have no option but to leave fruit on the
> trees or pick
> olives myself which would take me about 1500 hours
> or 180 full days
> :-)
>
> When comparing world prices of EVO, one should not
> forget, that in
> Australia, it is impossible to find workers who are
> happy with
> something like $4/ hr , unless government allows
> migrants on temporary
> visas during the harvesting time.
>
> Perhaps I should become more creative with
> marketing: $7/lit for EVO
> plus fuel levy, dry weather levy…..
>
> Frank
>
>
> --- In OliveOil@yahoogroups.com, "Russell Driver"
> <tyke@c...> wrote:
> > Antony Whiting wrote:
> > > Hi Russell,
> > > We are in South Australia too and we harvest
> olives
> > > from our 150 year old grove for our estate label
> and
> > > as well we harvest olives from other groves and
> buy
> > > oil from other growers to produce a blend for
> our
> > > second label.
> >
> >
> > <snip wonderful posting>
> >
> >
> > Thanks so much for your comments Antony.
> >
> > It's good to hear what is going on out there. At
> least I know I'm
> acheiving
> > a decent market price.
> > It was only a few years ago that I could see $10 a
> litre, now there
> is much
> > more oil on the market - but a huge variance in
> quality.
> > My grove is only a hobby but I like to think I am
> seeing a decent
> price for
> > my oil.
> >
> > Cheers
> >
> > Russell
>
>
>
>
>
</pre>
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