Olive Season 2021

It is that time of the year again when olives are ready to pick. Much of the picking is still done by hand, especially for table (eating) olives where pickers must be careful not to bruise the olives: that doesn't matter so much for oil olives, as they will be crushed into a paste shortly after picking, but the best of the crop is for eating.

2021 has seen a bumper crop in terms of size and quality for the Hunter Valley. Belarna Grove started picking in mid February - early for us - with some fabulous green California Queen olives. These are one of the best of the green varieties and we have 3 large 200 litre barrels full!

The picking of oil olives will start up soon - assuming the rain finally stops! Our early dry season has turned wet recently, and this may well slow down the picking as olives tend to want to hang on the trees once they are wet, so we may have to wait a week or so for things to dry out again. You need to be patient.

It will not be long before we have some fresh 2021 Extra Virgin unfiltered, cloudy, green and super vibrant olive oil ready to go. Get in quick as the best always goes very quickly.