It's time for a report on olives, oil and related matters. If you wish to read no further, this is all you need to know: this is the best year we have ever had for all the following categories: quantity of olives, quantity of oil and most importantly, quality of oil. We have done this for the most part with three people: me, Ben and Broc. Additional thanks to Steve, Janet and Andrew (Harvest 3) and James, Megan and Luke for their contributions (Harvest 4). We started in the last week of October and kept going until the last week of November when the weather turned (wind and rain -- neither conducive to harvesting) and physical exhaustion kicked in. We did not run out of olives to harvest -- we could've done half as much again easily. In short a rare year.
Harvest 1
3 days | 3 people
396kg olives | 67l oil | 17% (weight/volume x 100)
Harvest 2
3 days | 3 people
436kg | 88l | 20%
Harvest 3
3.5 days | 5 people
561kg | 104l | 18.5%
Harvest 4
2 days | 6 people
353kg | 88l | 26%
We also did two days on others' harvests which netted us 30l 50l of equal quality oil. There were three other harvests on the same land we harvested on (not all our land, but we also use adjacent abandoned land which we tend -- it's complicated), which totalled about another tonne of olives and approximately 200l of oil.
(Our) Totals
1,746kg | 347l | 20%
In previous years we have shipped 25l garrafas of oil to folks all around Europe (and there are some here who have had oil off us). We will continue to do that, but we have also bought some 1l, 3l and 5l tins for shipping (not arrived yet, of course), thereby hopefully expanding the number of folks who can get their hands on some of our hand picked, first press, extra virgin, herbicide free, pesticide free, nothing off the floor, pressed within 72 hours olive oil. Very definitely not what you get in the supermarket or to be honest, most speciality food shops.
Who wants some? Our basic price is €12 or £12 per litre. Shipping will be charged at cost to us ADDITION/CLARIFICATION: in the sense of we make no profit on shipping. What we charge you is what we are charged.. We will ship to Europe (which includes in this context UK). Negotiation is possible. If you live in or near Sheffield, Brighton or London (UK), Amsterdam (NL) or Berlin (DE) you may be in luck -- there are garrafas being shipped there and you may save on shipping costs.
PM me please if you're interested, I am also @elmussol:elsmussols.net on Matrix. I repeat: we have been doing this 15 years now and have never had more better oil than this -- take the op, peoples. Questions welcomed.
