<table border=0 cellpadding=2 cellspacing="0"><tr><td>
<pre>Why pick so late? People seem to be concerned about the colour. They should
come to Italy in November and see the olives being picked quite green. June
in NZ is December here when the olive harvest is more than half over. There
needs to be some good research in Oz and NZ to determine picking dates.

Cheers Brian Chatterton.
</pre>
</td></tr></table>

<table border=0 cellpadding=2 cellspacing="0"><tr><td>
<pre>An interesting point Brian. Is it only to maximise the oil yield?

We pressed some very green Verdale olives last week and yes the oil yield
was down but the resulting oil was very green, fresh and slightly peppery.

Regards,

Phil Bramley
</pre>
</td></tr></table>

<table border=0 cellpadding=2 cellspacing="0"><tr><td>
<pre>Quite so Brian. I have been keeping records now for the past three seasons.
The fourth underway. Now I must say that the trees that are currently being
harvested are all quite young - say 8 years. With this proviso (and others
such as climate, altitude, watering regimes or lack of) I can say that our
green fruit isn't yielding anywhere near the amount needed for commercial
purposes.

It would seem that they have to be well and truly turned in colour to get
even modest amounts (about 15%) out of.

My 20 - 100 year old trees I have yet to harvest this year. They are
solidly green. In past years however they yielded consistently above 18%
(weight for weight) when half coloured (Mission & Verdale).

The year before last (98) I picked until November! In January 99 I came
across some 55 year old trees that were still fully laden and approx 50%
were still green or only partially coloured. These trees had about 80-120kg
on them. Some of these were harvested, pressed and yielded very pleasant
oils (unknown variety but ? Mission).

I agree that harvesting should not solely be determined by colour or even
date. It will vary from year to year, climate to climate, variety and so
on. Our/my research/recording shall go on but I doubt there will ever be
the right date to pick! The question therefore, "Why pick so late?" is one
that has yet to be justified in Oz terms. We are learning and, I might add,
exponentially.

Regards
</pre>
</td></tr></table>

<table border=0 cellpadding=2 cellspacing="0"><tr><td>
<pre>Just to get in the discussion of harvest date, I prefer to look at this
question from two year perspective. There are a couple of "knowns": 1) large
crops mature later than small ones thus the natural tendency is to delay
harvest of such crops for suitable oil development; 2) the longer harvest is
delayed (obviously our experience and research are with the Cvs we deal with
in California), the more detrimental effect it has on quantity and quality
of the subsequent bloom. We've found that delaying harvest of a big crop
greatly exacerbates its alternate bearing effect (makes it worse). So,
compromising oil yield one year may increase potential for oil yield the
next (in sum, more total oil). This problem is resolved by crop modification
(pruning is probably the best cultural practice) to minimize excessive crop
problems in the "on" year.

Steve Sibbett
U.C. Farm Advisor
Phone - office 559.733.6486
Mobil 559.280.0666
FAX 559.734.2708

-----Original Message-----
From: P Caird [mailto:caird@hitech.net.au]
Sent: Wednesday, May 17, 2000 2:44 AM
To: OliveOil@egroups.com
Subject: Re: [OliveOil] Harvesting date.


Quite so Brian. I have been keeping records now for the past three seasons.
The fourth underway. Now I must say that the trees that are currently being
harvested are all quite young - say 8 years. With this proviso (and others
such as climate, altitude, watering regimes or lack of) I can say that our
green fruit isn't yielding anywhere near the amount needed for commercial
purposes.

It would seem that they have to be well and truly turned in colour to get
even modest amounts (about 15%) out of.

My 20 - 100 year old trees I have yet to harvest this year. They are
solidly green. In past years however they yielded consistently above 18%
(weight for weight) when half coloured (Mission & Verdale).

The year before last (98) I picked until November! In January 99 I came
across some 55 year old trees that were still fully laden and approx 50%
were still green or only partially coloured. These trees had about 80-120kg
on them. Some of these were harvested, pressed and yielded very pleasant
oils (unknown variety but ? Mission).

I agree that harvesting should not solely be determined by colour or even
date. It will vary from year to year, climate to climate, variety and so
on. Our/my research/recording shall go on but I doubt there will ever be
the right date to pick! The question therefore, "Why pick so late?" is one
that has yet to be justified in Oz terms. We are learning and, I might add,
exponentially.

Regards


------------------------------------------------------------------------
Cut down on your Small Business’ Long Distance bills. Join beMANY!
and start saving immediately!
http://click.egroups.com/1/4117/1/_/137757/_/958559642/
------------------------------------------------------------------------

------------------------------------------------------------------------
TODAY'S FEATURED SITE: http://sadoun.home.att.net/webringform.htm
------------------------------------------------------------------------
To see more olive related sites visit: http://www.egroups.com/links/OliveOil
------------------------------------------------------------------------
~~~~~~~ Life is healthier with OliveOil ~~~~~~~
------------------------------------------------------------------------
</pre>
</td></tr></table>

<table border=0 cellpadding=2 cellspacing="0"><tr><td>
<pre>Very interestimg. As I asked before, would having the ability to test the oil
for a small quantity say 1 to 5 KG be of use in determining the best harvest
date. And is there a method to extract the oil on such a small quantity.

Andrew & Val
</pre>
</td></tr></table>

<table border=0 cellpadding=2 cellspacing="0"><tr><td>
<pre>> Why pick so late? People seem to be concerned about the colour. They
should
> come to Italy in November and see the olives being picked quite green.
June
> in NZ is December here when the olive harvest is more than half over.
There
> needs to be some good research in Oz and NZ to determine picking dates.
>
> Cheers Brian Chatterton.

Brian,

We are in the Hunter Valley of NSW which is also a wine grape growing area.
As far as the grape harvest is concerned, we are usually the first area in
Australia to harvest grapes in the year, our grapes usually starting to
ripen to picking levels in late January. Logically, we should also be
amongst the first olive picking areas too.

I started picking some green Manzanillo for pickling in March, picked the
balance of the Manzanillo, about 40% green, in mid April, the balance of the
Manzanillo & Sevillano (15% still green) in mid May and still have Paragon &
Azapa to pick in June. The Paragon are still turning from green to half and
half, the Azapa are still 50% green.

As a general rule, Southern NSW, Victoria and New Zealand should ripen their
fruit after us, so I doubt that the month by month parallel with Europe
would hold true.
There is also another theory that the light is brighter in the Southern
Hemisphere than the Northern (less atmospheric dust) and that the trees
should theoretically ripen earlier here?

Regards,

Mike Wilson.
Hunter Valley, NSW.
</pre>
</td></tr></table>

<table border=0 cellpadding=2 cellspacing="0"><tr><td>
<pre>on 18/5/2000 10:30 am, Andrew Brown at drewbrow@senet.com.au wrote:

> Very interestimg. As I asked before, would having the ability to test the oil
> for a small quantity say 1 to 5 KG be of use in determining the best harvest
> date. And is there a method to extract the oil on such a small quantity.
>
> Andrew & Val

I have come across details of a small (?10kg) press for olives in the USA.
One of the US websites had details - oliveoilsource or some such. Try a
search engine. I want one, too!
--
Gareth Renowden, Limestone Hills, New Zealand
Words, olives and truffles
Office +64 (0)3 355 9552 Home +64 (0)3 314 9921
"I knew she carried a snorkel in her handbag, but would she use it?"(Sir
Henry)
</pre>
</td></tr></table>

<table border=0 cellpadding=2 cellspacing="0"><tr><td>
<pre>Quite so Mike. Here in the Bega Valley, which is 600kms (?) south of the
Hunter Valley we will probably pick in about a week or two. We did press
some very green Verdale last week but we suspect that the crop was harvested
a little early.

Regards,

Phil

p.s. how did your wine harvest go this year?
</pre>
</td></tr></table>

<table border=0 cellpadding=2 cellspacing="0"><tr><td>
<pre>Try the following site : it is the newsletter and site for the USA olive
group - you can sign on and receive their mail/newsletter. they do have a
small home press.
www.oliveoilsource.com/olivenews.htm
regards John Bishop
----- Original Message -----
From: "Gareth Renowden" <gareth@renowden.co.nz>
To: <OliveOil@egroups.com>
Sent: Thursday, May 18, 2000 1:44 PM
Subject: Re: [OliveOil] Harvesting date.


> on 18/5/2000 10:30 am, Andrew Brown at drewbrow@senet.com.au wrote:
>
> > Very interestimg. As I asked before, would having the ability to test
the oil
> > for a small quantity say 1 to 5 KG be of use in determining the best
harvest
> > date. And is there a method to extract the oil on such a small quantity.
> >
> > Andrew & Val
>
> I have come across details of a small (?10kg) press for olives in the USA.
> One of the US websites had details - oliveoilsource or some such. Try a
> search engine. I want one, too!
> --
> Gareth Renowden, Limestone Hills, New Zealand
> Words, olives and truffles
> Office +64 (0)3 355 9552 Home +64 (0)3 314 9921
> "I knew she carried a snorkel in her handbag, but would she use it?"(Sir
> Henry)
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Attention Job Seeker! Save on Long Distance Now! Join beMANY!
> http://click.egroups.com/1/4119/1/_/137757/_/958614338/
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> TODAY'S FEATURED SITE: http://sadoun.home.att.net/webringform.htm
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> To see more olive related sites visit:
http://www.egroups.com/links/OliveOil
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> ~~~~~~~ Life is healthier with OliveOil ~~~~~~~
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
>
</pre>
</td></tr></table>

<table border=0 cellpadding=2 cellspacing="0"><tr><td>
<pre>>
> Quite so Mike. Here in the Bega Valley, which is 600kms (?) south of the
> Hunter Valley we will probably pick in about a week or two. We did press
> some very green Verdale last week but we suspect that the crop was
harvested
> a little early.
>
> Regards,
>
> Phil
>
> p.s. how did your wine harvest go this year?


This is the Hunter Valley, it's always a wonderful year.

In case of doubt, just ask Murray Tyrrell, Len Evans or Brian McGuigan.

Mike.
</pre>
</td></tr></table>