Bottling the oil

Time to get the oil into bottles. We head over the Jane's, and set up our system. Carefully washed bottles heated in the oven. I have made labels Blackrockrd Olive oil 2009, painted on canvas. You can see these fab labels in the pic on the right.

The lime green liquid flows into the bottles. Occassionally, David missed the moment to turn the tap off, I recoil in dismay at losing any drops at all. We become more proficient and fill over 30 bottles! Half way through, we have a tast to make sure it is OK. You can see the look on Richards face, it is completely divine.

From olives to oil 2009

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.

Early morning and hot air balloons

Our great companions Sandra and Ran are here from Dunedin. David and Ran moved the earth and the stones left over from the entrace way being made with the tractor, while Sandra and I were onto the bike and down to the river to pick blackberries. Already autumn, the berries are now mostly red as we had picked the lush black ones last week. There's no longer enough sun for the rest to ripen.

Saturday morning we were down at Henley lake as the sun was beginning to warm the sky, the morning mist drifting over the lake, the ducks were waking up, and people from masterton gathered. At 7.15am the first orange giant could be seen peeping over the trees, followed by a yellow striped one, then a blue one. The ducks rose as a body, squawking in protest, knowing what was coming. The balloons, glorious in the morning sun, glided over the lake, dipped down to be perfectly mirrored in the water. The baskets touched the surface and then up they went, up and up, and drifted further on. By 7.45 there were 12 balloons in the sky, gliding, dipping, touching, swooping. We learned of box wind, where at different levels of altitude, there are different wind drifts enabling the balloons to navigate their paths. One balloon dipped between two trees and we learned that the shady side of the tree harbours different drafts from the sunny side of the tree. Magically, this balloon, after nesting close to the ground for several minutes, rose again, to dip onto the lake and off to the south.

The swans and geese were the first to return to the lake, the ducks more reluctant. and still the balloons came. Many of us were standing in awe and delight with the beauty of this early morning spectacle. We were part of a large crowd, many wearing jackets and sun glasses and cameras and still waking up, taking in this wonderful scene together. Not a cloud in the sky, the warm blue held these delicate giants carefully and tipped them along their paths. As we drove back to the farm for breakfast, we followed balloons along the country roads, and watched them as they drifting down to be packed up and taken back to their base camp.

Nets up

Getting in before the birds is part of growing grapes and making wine. Glenys and Barry loaned us their net applicator, Rex came to help. 32 degrees so it was a warm day. There was a bit of mucking around and sorting things out before we got underway. We had enough nets to cover 9 rows.

David drove the tractor, I stood on the back of the tractor and fed the nets out and took photos, Rex and Barry stretched the nets and made sure the mid line of the nets was on top of the vines. While this took a couple of hours, this was the easy bit. The next step was to pin the nets to the ground. Every metre, the base of the net is gathered, twisted, and then pierced by a metal peg, by hand, and by David, Richard and me. Where the ground is stoney, and a metal peg hits a stone, its is impossible to hammer the peg in. So we used rubber pegs. That sounds easy, and it is once you have the rubber pegs. We didnt have them, so
while Richard and David continued to labour, I hopped into the car and drove to Martinborough, to Glenys' house, picked up 100 rubber pegs, and drove back to Masterton. Before doing this
we had a serious discussion whether to begin again, and draw wires around the length of each end post so we could tuck the nets under. And, nail netw stretchers along on the posts to keep the nets out. Being on the edge of feeling apoplectic, in response to the time and money this option would take, gave me an indication that I wasn't in favour of neither spending the money to do this, nor doing the work.

Once we discovered the rubber pegs worked and Glenys had some we could immediately have, the sun continued to shine, and we began talking with one another again. We have naviagatd our crises of confidence in the face of the seemingly impenetrable unforgiving earth which is nuturing our vines.

By the end of the weekend we had completed three rows. On the Monday, each of us had exruciatingly sore legs from kneeling and standing over 300 times. However the grapes were safe from marauding birds, starlings, and are beginning to turn dark purple. You can see how we pulled the nets out rather than having them hanging directly down. This is because Wairarapa birds are wiley; they fly into the nets and eat the fruit. If we pull them out in this way, they don't have a chance.

What we are beginning to discover is our fruit is ripening in vastly different rates. In the first four rows, the grapes are deep purple, in the next four, they are green. We are discovering we have a mix of varieties, and the overhead canopies of some of the rows just isnt letting the sun in long enough.

Last night we walked the vines, counting how many bottles of wine we might finally get from the first row. Hmmmm, around 36! perhaps a smaller vintage in our first year. I think the word boutique applies here.

Abundance in the country estate

Arriving after two weeks away, we are greeted by lush roses, the last of the gladioli, raspberries, strawberries, lavendar and loooooong green beans. 35cms in fact. Have a look at these! They are lush and delicious. Sliced longways with my bean slicer they are bean spagettis, and served hot with butter and pepper.

We have a big decision this weekend, to make wine or not. A couple of weekends ago, Richard, David and I did the first leaf pluck of the grapes so the morning sun can get onto the fruit. The affect of this over the next few months will be to increase the number of bricks (read sugar). We want lots of bricks! Virgil, our wine maker came to see the grapes. to our great delight he was positive and encouraging. We are doing OK and have enough grapes to make wine. Each bunch weights 250gms so there are several kilos to each vine. both Saturday and Sunday saw us up at the crack of dawn, pulling the leaves from the central part of the vine to get as much sun on the grapes as we can. The picking date has been set as the third week in April. the plan from here is to do one more spray of sulphur to stop powdery mildrew, and then next weekend we will put on the nets which David has ordered. the nets of course are to keep the birds off the grapes. as soon as the grapes begin to turn to colour, the birds are in, so nets on. apparently last season the birds became wiley and dived into the nets and pecked fruit madly. Our deterrent to this is to peg the nets out to the middle of the rows. We will see if it works. Now we need to find a name for our pinot noir! I am keen on Blackrock Rd, Richard's choice is Resurrection vineyard, and David is keeping quiet, so far. We have discovered we now need to buy 3 barrels to store the wine in between making and bottling which is usually around 8 months. The barrels costs around $1200 each so we can easily see why wine costs what it does. We are hoping a lot ours will taste fabulous. Neither David and I drink much red wine, so Richard will be our taste expert. We are feeling delighted that our long hours and hard work is beginning to show real results. It is deeply satisfying to see the grapes looking like grapes should and the vineyard almost looking like a vineyard! I tasted one of the tiny grapes which had gone purple and it tasted sweet and delicious, a good sign.
We are watering both the grapes for four hours a day. Grapes need 1900 hours of sunshine to ripen ready for harvest. So now its a race between us and the birds, whether we can get the nets on before they munch through our potential wine cellar!!

Here's a shot of David and Virgil deciding to make wine with our grapes!

Christmas greetings

This is a year of many firsts, including this e-letter which comes with warm greetings, wishing you a wonderful festive season, full of good friends and heartfelt times and more best wishes for a great year in 2009.

Our year began with the shearers quarters upgrade and including putting in a road and sewerage system. Planning for the future included a second water tank to gather water from the barn roof. Supervising from a distance proved one of the greatest challenges of my life as I discovered trades people promise the earth but deliver in their own time - eventually. However I survived with my hair intact, the completed cottage is gorgeous and we have hopes that paying guests will help us cover the costs of running the farm. Most of the year ‘the farm’ has been running us ragged, however we are now proud owners of a tractor and a sprayer which can apply nutrients into the olive trees, deal to the dreaded peacock spot which has been plaguing the olives, and keep botrytis at bay with the grapes. Our vines are beginning to look like regular vines, and we raced in August to put in a frost system and a second pump for the well. David and his team at work, created magic and when the temperature drops to 2 degrees the water sprayers go on. All the leaves and buds are covered with a fine mist which then freezes over. The water turns off when the temperature is back up to 10 degrees again, and the ice is rinsed off, leaving the buds intact and not burned by the frost. Experimenting before we put this system in had me up one morning at 2am reading outside temperatures at ground level and 10metres up. Yes, devotion - or madness?

We are home gardeners now and self sufficient in lettuces, strawberries, onions, beans, tomatoes, herbs, rhubarb, roses and lavender. Masterton District Council has us recycling so we keep bottles, paper, plastic and inorganic stuff in separate bins and head off to the recycling centre once a month. We both overdosed on mowing this year, with the incessant rain, we could almost see the grass growing, and the trees and vines slowly disappearing. Now its summer, everything has slowed down again, and we are about to as well, at last. We are almost organic, and are rewarded by tons of ladybirds this year. We failed organic under the vines and just had to spray as we couldn’t keep up with the fast growing grass.

Our box hedges are flourishing, including, at last, the ones in the apartment garden. Dianne Hall helped us to re-pot them midyear and they are now a luscious green and growing profusely. This year I made a garden scene, inspired by Paul Bangay, outside our bedroom doors.

I have loved my work this year and found deep satisfaction as executive coach to a number of private and public sector leaders. Next year I plan to expand this work, and I am publishing a small book on moving from silos to collaboration in organisations. David has had his share of dramas and at last the baby identification system designed for Wellington Hospital is being installed on time. Phew. David’s business goes from strength to strength and he has a wonderful team of creative and productive people.

Our life has been governed by a series of lists: here’s one from August 22^nd: Plant the courtyard garden around the Shearers Quarters, put in the frost system, buy the sprayer off trademe, begin the spray regime for the olives, get the gas fire working in the Shearers quarters! (All have been ticked off). Summer list is: swim in the river, drink lots of wine, laugh a great deal, have time with friends!!

Greatest thrills this year has been the growing of a white Romance rose hedge from cuttings rose guru Anne Erwin taught me to do, eating plump strawberries covered by a netting cage Mum made last year, pouring leccino oil over everything from Paul’s olives that Jane and I picked and had pressed mid year, and of course the fab shearers quarters. One of the biggest challenges has been to reconcile our city life with our country life: moving between bright lights, cafes and consultations, to warm winds, shining stars and rustling trees, from meetings to mowing, not an easy transition at times.

David’s daughter Pirimia has been living with us since August as she makes her transition from Auckland to Wellington and from portfolio work to being employed in the public sector. Peter joined us for three months too when he was in Wellington making the docu-drama ‘Until proven innocent’, the David Doherty story, which is compelling. We saw it the other night and fully recommend you see it. It will be shown on TVNZ. So we have had many family dinners and good times.

In between all of this, David and I went to a couple of painting workshops with neighbour and artist Jane Sinclair and we are both thrilled with the results. The experience is frustrating for most of the day and yet in the last hour something wonderful emerges on the canvas along with great feelings of accomplishment.

Frost and cold and wet and hail

We have discovered we are in a frost valley. And...the frost system we slaved to put in works!!! Woken by the vintners instinct, David had already gone out to see what was happening at 5am. The spray system was working. All the leaves and buds were covered in ice and water dripping off them. It is meant to be like that! At 5.30am Dennis (neighbour and irrigation guru) rang to let us know to leave the system on until all the ice had melted off and not leave the melting process to the sun, as this can damage the fruit and leaves. So David heads out again, this time with the camera! David has set the system up so the water flippers come on when the temperature is 2 degrees, and goes off when it is back up at 4 degrees. However we are learning it is not so much the temperature, more to know when all the ice has been washed off. We are keeping an eye on this today to see how that works. We had a few clues that it may be a frosty night. Hail had poured down for several minutes during the day. I rushed out and put a foil blanket on the citrus trees in the courtyard, hoping to save them. It worked! We are learning more on the perilous life of being horticulturalists!