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<pre>> > Hi, I've just read an article on olive oil in Western Australia that
> > states that only green olives are picked for oil. This in a way
> > makes sense to me (with no experience at all) as olive oil is a
> > greenish colour and ripe black olives have an extrememly dark juice;
> > but maybe the oil from ripe olives isn't coloured like the juice?
> > But wouldn't green olives be very hard and therefore more difficult
> > to extract oil from?
> > I guess what I'm asking is what is the optimum time for picking
> > olives for oil, and how do ripening and fully ripe olives compare
> > with green ones? I've seen photos of olive harvests with olives at
> > all stages of ripening being picked.
> > Thank you
> > Elizabeth

Dear Elizabeth,

When to pick is something of a contentious issue. As an industry we have
been sold on the mantra that olive oil should be green in colour if it is to
be any good. High polyphenols and all that sort of stuff to justify the
colour. However, I disagree with much of this.

I have tasted plenty of oils made in Australia from under-ripe, green fruit
that gives lovely green coloured oil. I generally don't like any of them as
I find them far too bitter and astringent. I much prefer oil made with a
high proportion of ripe, black olives in the mix. My belief is that we are
being "sold" on green oil but it isn't necessarily the best option for
everybody. I should add that I suspect that some of the imported oils with
the lovely green hue might just have had the colour "adjusted" prior to
bottling.

Another factor to consider is the amount of oil you can extract from olives
at different stages of ripeness. I harvested and pressed some Frantoio at
the green to starting to colour stage - early April 2004 and the press
managed to extract 12% oil. When it came out of the press it was bright,
almost florescent green although the pigmentation started to drop off within
a week or so. I then picked some more olives of the same variety from
another grove at the fully black stage (black skin, white pulp) in June and
the same mill was able to extract 28% oil. Yes, the second oil was more of a
golden colour and less aggressive on the palate, but more than twice the
amount of oil from the same olives does make you think. The first oil was
almost repulsive on its own, the second still had a lot of flavour and aroma
and was very approachable.

Another factor to consider when deciding when to pick is the availability of
a press? There is no point in picking and finding that you have to store the
fruit for a couple of weeks until a press is available.

Regards,

Mike Wilson
Hunter Valley, NSW.
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