Olive Harvest 2018 Wrap Up

Harvest is done and dusted for another year, with table olives being the beacon of light in 2018.

Our “just in-time” farming practices worked again this year. The table fruit was picked just before the frosts rolled in to the Grampians. Frost makes the olives split, destroying them on the tree. When this happens, the trees need to be stripped of this fruit, as to not effect next years’ crop. Luckily, there were only a handful of trees that needed stripping.

The tanks are now full of table olives, including our ‘Mother Tank’ (approximately x litres). With plenty of olives to work with, Rita has been working on a recipe for table olives marinated in chilli. These will now be a regular in our range. Chili lovers be sure to try them!

Is was a good year for olive oil, also. We produced a good yield, with high-quality olives taken to the press. We will have the 2018 olive oil out for tasting over the long weekend. Although it needs settling and is currently cloudy, it is still packed full of flavour and all those healthy antioxidants.

Rita has created a winter infusion of roasted garlic and rosemary extra virgin olive oil, perfect for winter roasts!

Overall it was another beautiful harvest, assuring us its our favourite time of year at Red Rock Olives. It was warm, no rain and no vehicles were bogged – a big win for David!

Now we sit back and hope for a wet winter. If that doesn’t come, David will be out searching for more irrigation systems to help our beautiful trees! Fingers crossed.