At right, Jane and I so proud of our lovely handpicked leccino olives ready to be made into oil.
Queens birthday weekend and David, Jane and I are
doing our best to pick 200kg of olives in two days before the snow comes. At 9.30 we are up the ladders in Paul's olives. Our orange red nets are spread beneath the trees. In two hours we have filled our first yellow bin with lush dark red leccino olives. The first tree we chose was absolutely dripping with olives, and makes our job easier. The wind and the birds had been marauding and some trees have just a few, so we listen to where the birds are and head for that tree. Some trees we pick only a kilo or two, others 10kg. We are aiming for a mix of black, red and green, some say a third black , a third red and a third green. We go for more black and red than green.Some trees we can strip the olives from the slender flexible branches, others, the olives are spread out so we need to pick each olive off individually. Around 4.30pm its is getting darker and colder, and our fingers ache from this meticulous work. We have four bins full. In the past two years, Jane and I have picked and try our hardest we havent been able to do more than 84kg with the two of us. We are hoping with David help we can make 200kg which is the smallest amount the Olive Press prefers. William comes to help after soccer and climbs into the trees, picking from inside the tree. Marty the cat comes too to see what is going on. Day two we are back at 9.30 with three more bins and two large buckets. We pick. It is slow work, finding which tree to pick. Some trees we just pick from the ladders, one or two trees, we pick just one side. The birds have had a field day and the winds of the past month have blown many of the olives to the ground.
By the end of the second day we have 7 full bins and two buckets
. We load up the trailer with our olives and head for the press. We keep guessing how much oil we will get from this and how many kilos we have actually picked! I guess 160kg after over guessing the last two years and being disappointed. Bill at the Press weighs the olives. 202kg!! Yippee, we made it. And depending on the percentage of oil we will get between 20L and 30L of oil. Fantastic. Far Right. Will overseeing the oil making process.This year, from the production board at the Press, it looks like the yield of olives
brought in so far, is down to between 10 - 13%. Last year it was around 15 - 17%.Next morning, Jane and I together with Henry and William head off to the Olive Press so we can see our olives go through the process of being crushed and the oil produced. Our olives are tipped into the vat, and taken up an escalator to be washed and the leaves separated off. They tumble down into the water to be sprayed and then they fall into another vat which takes them up to the crusher. The smell
coming from the olive paste is fantastic. Bill checks the temperature to make sure its between 23 - 27 degrees which is needed to produce extra virgin olive oil. If the temperature
goes above 27 degrees, it is not considered to be extra virgin. The oil comes pouring out and it is vivid green. It looks fabulous. Jane and I take a spoon and taste; creamy smooth with a hint of a peppery bite at the end. Delicious. We fill our 25L container, and there is still some. We'd bought an extra 20L plastic container just in case, and we need it! 
Overall we have 32.4 Litres for our three families. Fantastic. We head home for lunch and Jane makes fresh pasta which we have wiith our oil, ciabatta, pepper and 
parmesan. Perfect.Stats: 202kg of leccino olives picked by hand by three people in two days, produces 35kg of oil, 32.4L of leccino extra virgin olive oil from the Blackrock Rd Estate. This was 15.9%. Pressed by Bill at the Olive Press. This will be bottled the second week of June.
Snow flurry at our front door, the day the oil was pressed, Sunday 31st May.
