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<pre>One difficulty growers in Oz and NZ have ( besides the lanaguage
barrier) in understanding Italian olive growing techniques is that the
marketing images is generations of tradition. We have all seen the ads
for four generations of olive growers etc. Behind the facade is an
extremely modern industry and a large and active group of research
centres.

The tradition in Italy to pick the olives on certain Saint's days
has been dismissed as a joke by many writers outside Italy but the idea
if not the exact date is confimed by modern research in Italy. Our
information comes from the Ag faculty of the University of Perugia. They
found that colour and oil percentage varied considerably from year to
year and were not a good indicator of maturity. Fruit fall marked the
end of harvest as the oil yield drops dramatically as the fruit falls on
the ground and is not recovered.

They said as a rule of thumb the month before 5% occurs is the
optimum period. This would be of little use to thegrower if it were not
for the fact that the fruit fall is remarkable date stable. Once you
have measure the pattern it occurs on the same date each year. It seems
to me a useful piece of research that could easily be done by the
average grower in Oz or NZ. More details are in our book.

Cheers Brian Chatterton.
</pre>
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