This year at Telegraph Hill we began our hand harvest of these greens under Level 3 COVID-19.
I didn't/couldn't imagine that 48 hours later we'd be working through a Level 4 home lock down for the next four weeks (the majority of harvest).
Anyway it was a beautiful day for hand harvesting, no wind, slight cloud cover and warm temperatures. The variety of these is Uovo D'Piccione (Egg of a Pidgeon) as the name suggests a big green olive.
These trees are all based at the Olivery. There are only three trees, so these are just sold locally to restaurants. My favourite tree - one is allowed to have a favourite - produced 44kg. A new record for this tree. I am a pleased father...
The next grove was a different Variety - Manzanillo which makes the most of our stocks. This was machine harvested, making it easier to keep social distancing spaces.
These yielded well with a 85% meeting size requirement, so only a small quantity of under size sent to oil production. We just keep the bigger olives for eating.
This Picture is a pre harvest size check on next weeks grove. It is looking good at this point, with one chance per year to harvest, we must take it. As they say: Food is ready, when it is ready.
Keep safe and be kind.
Geoff
