How to Harvest Olives

How to Harvest Olives

A Guide for Harvesting, Milling, Curing and Canning Olives

Harvesting olives for food and oil has been done for thousands of years. Making harvest decisions about methodology, timing, and more than, are based upon a number of factors. Which cultivars are you growing? Each one has unique characteristics, such as fruit (drupe) size, pit-to-pulp ratio, oil content, colour and flavor profile, every bit well equally considerations for the type of harvest (hand or mechanical), climate conditions, etc. Use this guide as an assistance in making your harvest decisions.

olive trees with ladder for harvesting

Above: Harvesting ladder against olive tree

Introduction

The key to the olive season, colour, and texture is the moment of harvest. Fruit can exist harvested when it is green and unripe, fully ripened to black, or any stage in betwixt. Older olive fruit can be salt-cured or dry out cured to produce a salty, wrinkled product. Damaged fruit tin can still be used past pressing information technology into oil. It is the combination of the harvest, the cure, and any added flavors that yield the characteristics sought by the producer and consumer.

Therefore, the factors to consider in harvesting olives include:

  1. Are you harvesting to make oil or to eat?
  2. If yous don't know, much will depend upon what cultivar(s) you are growing, as some are ideal for producing oil, and others are prized for their flavor profile.
  3. Are you harvesting mechanically or by hand?
  4. Do yous have a ready harvest date(s), or are yous waiting to make up one's mind ripeness level?
  5. For producing oil, is this for home or commercial use? (For the latter, volition you be targeted EVOO [actress virgin olive oil] standards?)
  6. For food product, do you have preferences in curing methods or recipes?

Here's a terrific, short video, produced by California Ripe Olives as an introduction:

Harvesting Basics

If you lot are new to olive growing and harvesting, here'due south a primer:

  • Olives are harvested about ordinarily in mid- to late-autumn. In California, in the Northern Hemisphere, that is ordinarily tardily Oct and November. Merely harvest can last into December depending upon the desired flavor profile.
  • All olives are greenish. Black olives merely indicate a high level of ripeness. Some cultivars are traditionally harvested with simply small ripeness (green); others are ripened completely to achieve optimum flavors (black).
  • Depending upon ripeness, it takes about 80-100 pounds (36-45 kg.) of olives to make 1 gallon (3.8 Fifty.) of olive oil. And 80-100 lbs. of olives is ofttimes more than than 1 tree's worth of olives.
  • Olives are harvested both by-paw and mechanically. Harvested olives may be milled to make oil or cured for food product. Olives cannot be consumed straight from the tree; they are too bitter without curing. The raw fruit is bursting with oleuropein, a bitter chemical compound that must be removed prior to eating.
  • Different cultivars piece of work best for oil or for food production. Cultivar drupes (the fruit), with high oil content and modest pit-to-lurid ratio, are often exclusively produced for oil.
  • Olive production for nutrient is similar to winemaking, going through a fermentation process before existence edible. Olives picked in October are typically set up to eat in the following May or June. Shelf life may exist relatively brusque (i twelvemonth or less), with most canned olives having a maximum shelf life of iii to 4 years.

Let's brand sure we're on the same page with our harvest decisions. Below are olive farming components and methodologies that affect harvest.

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Your first consideration is the desired flavor profile, whether harvesting for oil or food production. Are yous targeting a more balmy flavor or potent? Do you seek sweet flavors and aromatics? Herbal? Tropical? Or are you targeting strong and pungent flavors?

Ripeness has a stiff effect on season. Greener olives (less ripe) mostly accept an intense grassy flavor and less oil. More mature, imperial olives will have a milder buttery flavor and produce more oil that tends to be aureate in color.

Factors affecting harvest timing may include current weather conditions just also available harvest crews (if hand harvesting), volume of copse to harvest, spacing of those copse and more.

Mechanical harvesters reduce the need for hand crews and may reduce bruising of fruit since it doesn't drop to the basis. But they can't run across if y'all program to harvest only the ripest olives early on and return to the tree in three weeks to harvest newly ripened olives past hand since ripening is non even across copse.

Additionally, you lot may have contractual agreements requiring harvest completion by specific dates.

Whatsoever your constraints, most producers are racing to become the perfect balance of maturity of their fruit before the offset frost of the yr, later which the olives might non pass the sensory and chemistry tests necessary in making actress virgin olive oil (EVOO).

Olives mature on the tree and can be harvested for green table olives when the fruit is immature or left on the tree to ripen. The ripe olives are also harvested for processing as nutrient but are left on the trees nonetheless longer if they are to be used for oil. Six to viii months after the flowers bloomed, the fruit will attain its greatest weight; and 20-30% of that weight (excluding the pit) is oil. Within each olive, the pit contains one or 2 seeds; botanists call this kind of fruit with a seed-bearing rock a drupe; plums and peaches are other drupes.

Harvest Methodologies

There are two basic harvesting methods. For manus-harvesting, crews use ladders to reach the fruit and advisedly pick the olives off each co-operative, tree by tree. There can be upwards to 1,000 olives on each tree, so each crewmember is only able to harvest 2 or 3 trees in a day. Some farmers, however, use mechanical harvesting, which increases the speed in which olives are harvested.

Below are detailed descriptions of hand and mechanical harvesting methods.

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Hand harvesting olives is the virtually traditional and common method of picking olives. This harvesting method is done with the hands, rakes, and vibrating rakes that shake the fruit into nets, either suspended above the ground or laid downwardly on the footing. This method makes sense for a lot of small farms or farms located on mountainsides. Their copse generally are taller and more spread out, making hand harvesting their just option. Harvesting by hand can be labor intensive and expensive. For California olive growers, harvesting costs are their largest expense each yr, forcing them to charge a high price for their olive oil.

When olives are harvested past mitt, sheets of netting or plastic are placed on the ground under the copse, and the harvesters climb ladders and rummage the fruit from the branches. Long-handled rakes fabricated of wood or plastic are used to pull the olives from the tree. There are other methods of harvesting including hitting the branches with long canes or using shaped creature horns every bit combs to scrape the fruit from the branches. Pickers who apply their fingers only utilize a milking move to strip the fruit from the trees. Hand picking is preferred by most growers, but it is too expensive.

Olives Unlimited offers harvesting services if you are in demand of a crew and the necessary equipment.

After harvesting of a tree's ingather is completed, the nets filled with olives are emptied into baskets or crates, which are then transported to the processing plant.

Machine harvesting is a recent addition to the olive grower's arsenal. The machines were borrowed from the nut harvesters and are able to grasp the trunks of the trees and shake them. Each machine has a crew of vi to nine men to operate the machine, shepherd the falling olives into the nets, and strike the branches to knock down the stubborn few by manus. The vibrations of the machine shake down virtually 80% of the tree'southward crop, and knocking at the branches with staves yields another 10% percent. Almost i,100-i,800 lbs. (500-815 kg) of olives per day can be harvested in this style. The trees are sensitive to such assaults by machines, however, and many purists adopt paw harvesting.

Harvesting olives with over-the-top harvesters allows olive oil producers to harvest at their perfect ripeness. This method aims to minimize any damage to the fruit past never letting the olives impact the ground, and by turning the olives into extra virgin olive oil as rapidly as possible. This method requires particular olive cultivars and tree spacing in order to work with the over-the-top harvesters. This method is at present used effectually the world.

Harvesting for Oil or Food Production

Whether harvesting to mill for oil or process for food, there are choices to exist made depending upon cultivar, ripeness, production for domicile use or commercial use and more. Some cultivars, such as Sevillano, may be used for both olive oil production and canning. Others, such as Leccino, are advised but for olive oil production and non for canning. Read on for details about each.

Below are detailed descriptions of olive oil and olive nutrient product processes.

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The basic procedure for making olive oil has remained the same for thousands of years: harvest the olives at the correct time, crush them into paste, separate the solids from the liquid, and further separate the water from the oil. The method of extraction has a distinct effect on the season and ultimate quality of the olive oil. The mechanical process has undergone numerous changes and refinements that accept increased both productivity and quality.

Note: You may find olives infested with the olive fruit wing at harvest fourth dimension. Depending upon larvae evolution, you may be able to salvage your olive-curing programme by converting information technology to an olive-milling operation. Check with all local, state and federal requirements for infestation tolerance levels permitted to go along with harvesting olive for oil production. Learn more in How to Manage Olive Fruit Fly Infestations.

There are two parts to olive nutrient product for both home and commercial use. Beginning, olives are cured via a number of different methods and recipes. Then, they are canned or bottled in jars. Some methods are relatively quick and others, resulting in highly complex flavor profiles, may take many months.

Here's a terrific video by California Ripe Olives on how commercial olives are processed in two of their family-owned plants:

Olive Curing Methods

Diverse methods of curing include oil-cured, water-cured, alkali-cured, (salt) dry-cured, and lye-cured. The simplest for the novice are water-curing and brine-curing (which is essentially the aforementioned process as pickling). After the olives are cured they are placed in a pickling alkali.

Below are detailed curing descriptions and processes.

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Green olives, which are immature, immature olives, tin be cured in water, which removes the bitter taste of the raw fruit. They will take a fresh, nutty flavor and house texture. Afterward a week or so of water curing, they are stored in a pickling brine, which adds a salty flavor. Brine curing is a like procedure, but instead of uncomplicated water, the olives sit for a calendar week in a salt and water solution. This method can be used with light-green olives every bit well every bit ripe (purple or blackness) ones. No matter which kind of cure you select, the brining process is similar.

The longer the olive is permitted to ferment in its ain brine, the less bitter and more intricate its flavor will get.

If using a water-cure process, place the prepared olives in a pan and cover with cold water; let sit down for most a week, changing the water twice a day. Once the bitterness is gone, y'all are gear up to place the olives in a brine.

For a alkali-cure, place the prepared olives in a mixture of 1 role salt to 10 parts water, making sure they're submerged, and get out for three to vi weeks, changing the alkali every calendar week and shaking the pan once a day. Weigh them downward with a plate and let sit down for 1 calendar week. Drain the olives and repeat the brining process for another week. Practice this ii more times and so they alkali for about a month or so.

NOTE: Water-merely cured olives are not stable and should be stored in an air-tight container in the refrigerator.

NOTE: Some recommend non changing the water or washing the olives during the above steps. Read on in Brining to understand alternate methodologies.

Here'south a recipe nosotros plant that has since been taken off the internet, then we'll share it here:

Water Cured Green Olives

Ingredients:
5 pounds fresh green olives
1-1/2 quarts water
iii Tbsp table salt
2 lemons, sliced into 1/2 inch thick pieces
2 Tbsp stale oregano
two cups white wine vinegar
1 – iii dried chile peppers (optional)
6 cloves garlic, peeled and sliced in half lengthwise
Olive oil every bit needed

Directions:
Make a long, deep incision along the side of each olive with a sharp paring knife. Place each cut olive immediately into a large container of cold h2o to prevent browning from oxidation. When all of the olives have been cut, place them in a non-reactive container (stoneware, glass, or porcelain) sufficient to hold them all and cover with cold water. Continue the olives submerged by weighing them down with a plate or a plastic handbag filled with h2o. Place the container in a cool, dark place for at least ten days, draining the water and replacing information technology with fresh every mean solar day.

Afterwards the olives have been soaking for x days, eddy 1-i/2 quarts of h2o and dissolve the salt in information technology. Remove from the heat and ready aside. Drain and rinse the olives with cold water and return to the container. Comprehend the olives with the warm salt brine mixture. Mix in the lemon slices, dried oregano, vinegar, garlic, and chiles, if using. Pour in just enough olive oil to form a thin layer on the surface. Store in a cool place for at least two weeks before eating. The olives will keep for at least ii months. Air-condition to extend shelf life.

Flavorings can exist added to a brine. Red pepper or a variety of Mediterranean herbs for blackness olives, and lemon or hot green peppers or chilies for green olives, make unique flavor profiles. Fennel, vino vinegar, or garlic can exist used to add involvement to any olive, but the time required for the olives to take on these flavors tin can range from a week (for whole chilies) to several months (for a more subtle taste like the herb fennel).

To create a home alkali, use i/4 cup kosher table salt to 4 cups h2o, plus i/2 cup of white wine, cider or simple white vinegar. Submerge the olives in this brine and tiptop with cheesecloth or something else to keep them underwater. Do non cut them.

Embrace the top of the container loosely and put the jar in a nighttime, absurd place. Check it from time to time — meaning every calendar week or so at offset. The alkali should darken, and you might get a scum on the top. That'south okay. Your olives are fermenting; it is the fermentation that breaks down the oleuropein over time. (If you wash olives before curing, yous may be removing the natural yeasts that accumulate on the outside of the olive, eliminating their magic.

Y'all may wish change the brine every month or two when it begins to look nasty. Information technology's your selection to re-rinse the olives (or not), during changes, because the remainder tin act as a "starter" to get the adjacent batch of alkali going. Remember the timeline: Olives picked in October are typically set to consume in May or June. It's a lot like making wine.

Add together seasonings later the New Twelvemonth, otherwise you lot risk too much spice and not enough olive season; this is peculiarly true of chiles. If you observe yous've gone also far, modify the brine and don't add new seasonings, and permit it steep for a few weeks. That should calm things down a bit.

Commercial brine curing: For green olives, add a 12-14% common salt and water solution to the barrels filled with olives. Ane cup of live agile brine is added to each butt; the live active solution is previously used brine that contains airborne yeasts and sugars from the olives that fermented in the brine. The agile ingredient transfers plenty yeast to begin the curing process in the new batch of brine. If salt and water alone were added to the olives, fermentation (curing) would not brainstorm on its own, and then the live active brine is a starter. A salometer—a salinity meter or specific gravity meter—is used to mensurate different types of olives.

The salometer measures the percentage of salt in solution in the barrels. For dark-green olives, the salinity is increased past 2% every two to 3 weeks from the initial salinity of 12-14%. Black olives begin their curing at 8-9% salinity; this is increased by one-2% every ii weeks until a maximum solution of 22-24% is reached.

Freda Ehmann's curing method is a vii-day process that is initiated by soaking olives in a lye curing solution to leach out bitterness. (This method is most commonly used for commercial processing.) Next is a series of cold-water rinses designed to remove all traces of the curing solution. During the multi-day curing process, pure air is constantly bubbled through the olives. This air is what creates their rich, dark color. Olives that do not have exposure to oxygen in their tanks will remain green in colour. Small amounts of organic iron salt (ferrous gluconate) are occasionally added to the mixture for blackness olives but, to maintain the historically rich blackness colour of Manzanillo and Sevillano olives even later on the cans are stored.

According to the purists, lye-cured olives are bland, either spongy or hard (but non crunchy), with most of the flavor gone. Lye-cured olives are also almost e'er pitted, and the most naturally flavorful part of the olive is adjacent to the pit. Curing with lye softens the olive so it can be picked when information technology is still difficult, but olives to be naturally cured must exist more ripe, handled carefully, and candy apace. Lye curing also changes the color and texture of the olive and removes many of its nutrients.

Dry (or Greek-style) curing is a method in which plump black olives are layered in barrels with dry stone common salt (no liquid is added). The salt breaks down the bitterness and leaches it out. The olives are stirred daily, and purplish liquid leached from them is tuckered from the bottoms of the barrels. After four to half dozen weeks, the olives are rinsed to remove the salt and glycoside and lightly coated in oil; they are wrinkled and purple in color, and these qualities are unpleasant to some despite the excellent flavour and nutritional value of dry out-cured olives.

Table salt-cured (dry-cured) olives will go on in crocks well-nigh indefinitely.

Blackness olives can too be cured by air curing. The olives are stored in burlap bags that allow air to pass through and around the olives. Over a menstruum of weeks, the olives volition cure, although they tend to exist stronger in flavor than olives cured past other methods.

NOTE: Air cured olives are not stable and should be stored in an air-tight container in the refrigerator.

Finishing and Canning

Once cured (pun intended), olives can exist flavored with a finishing brine, stuffed and canned (for abode or commercial use). Hither are a few ideas and storage information:

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Dark-green olives are unremarkably pitted, and often stuffed with various fillings to provide colour, season and texture, including pimentos, almonds, anchovies, jalapenos, onions, mushrooms, anchovies, or capers. If you would like to have pitted and/or blimp olives, remove the pits and add together the fillings at this betoken after curing. Then, mix up a like brine, adding vinegar and herbs if desired. Store the olives in the brine in a jar and air-condition. The olives will last up to a twelvemonth this way.

After curing is completed, the barrels of olives are emptied onto a shaker table and rinsed with clean water. The shaker tabular array sorts the olives by size while inspectors watch and remove damaged fruit. The olives are moved to another station where they are pitted then stuffed. At filling stations, they are put in jars that are filled with an 8-11% saline solution. If the saline is flavored, herbs or other flavorings are too added to the brine. The jars are then capped and sealed for rubber.

Olives are canned in a mild salt-brine solution, and because they are a low-acid product, they are also oestrus sterilized nether strict California Land health rules. They are inspected by the U.S. Department of Agronomics to ensure consequent quality, color, flavor, and texture. Canned olives are offered to consumers in a diverseness of convenient forms including: whole, pitted, sliced, chopped, or wedged.

In the San Francisco Bay Area, observe canning services at:

Bell-Carter Foods, Inc. / Lindsay Olives
590 Ygnacio Valley Road, Suite 300
Walnut Creek, CA 94596
Contact: Tom Rickard
Phone: (925) 284-5933
world wide web.ilovelindsay.com

In many households, an open up tin can of olives goes fast, but what if you lot take leftovers? Here are some tips from the California Olive Committee (www.calolive.org) on how to store them:

  • Once opened, store unused olives in their original brine in the open up can and cover with plastic wrap to allow oxygen to permeate.
  • Partially used cans may be stored in the refrigerator for upward to x days.
  • If the original brine has been discarded, supervene upon with a solution of one cup water and half teaspoon salt.
  • The shelf life for unopened cans is 36 to 48 months, stored at room temperature.

Cultivar Chart and Harvest Details

Harvest Guide by Olive Cultivar

Use the chart below as a reference on ripening speed, harvest time, type of harvest (hand or mechanical), oil and/or food profile and recommended curing method.

Cultivar Harvest Type Oil Food Curing Blazon
Arbequina Small fruit but oil sweetness and aromatic, shorter shelf life
Ascolana Terena Mitt Harvesting But Large fruit with tropical aromatics, including peaches
Cerignola Small fruit but oil sweet and effluvious, shorter shelf life
Coratina Small-scale fruit only oil sweet and effluvious, shorter shelf life
Frantoio High yielding, gourmet oil, with stiff, pungent flavor
Kalamata Not ideal for oil production Large flavor Brine or dry (common salt) curing
Koroneiki Mechanical Very green oil, very fruity, slightly herbal, medium pungent season
Leccino Ripens before than others High yielding oil Not used for nutrient
Manzanillo #1 Olive oil producing cultivar Brine or dry (salt) curing
Maurino Balmy oil flavour
Pendolino Sweet oil and aromatic, shorter shelf life
Sevillano Low yielding, mild oil season Ideal for canning due to large size and fruit flavor Lye curing

Resource on Harvesting Olives

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