Rake or tub?
For olive trees the sandy soils and the hot summers of Fremantle/Walyalup feel a lot like home.
First planted in 1850 they grew so well that over the years councils and residents have planted olives everywhere; on street verges, in parks, front and backyards – everywhere.
It was only a matter time before someone felt bad about all the olives going to waste on the footpaths and lawns that the idea to start harvesting them for oil got a bit of traction.
Over the years a community tradition has grown up and spread across Fremantle and into the surrounding suburbs – each May, when Freo’s olives are at their best, people come together for the harvest.
Early on an olive-loving mayor got involved bringing even more people out to pick.
Community harvests of olives and other fruits have been spreading across Australia with the wonderful effect of building community and preventing food waste at the same time.
If you have an olive tree or have walked past a tree in your neighbourhood and had that same feeling about needing to do something with unwanted olives and other people, then maybe this is the year you join CERES 3000 Acres annual Olives to Oil.
It’s happening this weekend at CERES so book your drop off time at either
·CERES Brunswick East or at the CERES Fair Food Warehouse in Preston
At CERES Brunswick East there’ll be live music, olive fruit identification, pruning sessions and an olive press demonstration.
At the end of the day we’ll be sending the thousands of kilos of olives up to Sandra Brajevic’s Barfield Olive farm in Kyneton, where they’ll be pressed, bottled and returned a fortnight later.
As a ballpark guide 10kg of olives makes about 1 litre of oil and remember = pick your olives on the day or the day before pressing – the fresher the olives the better the oil.
For residents of Moreland, Yarra and Darebin the first 50kg will be processed free, for residents of other areas it’s $10 to get your olives pressed.
Veteran Freo olive picker, Lindsay Miles, has a few harvesting hints in her olive diary:
My friend uses little hand rakes to rake the olives onto a tarp, and you gather them up.
Lyndsay’s not a raker, instead she straps a large yoghurt tub handle over her wrist and strips the olives with one hand so they fall into the tub on the other.
Her tips for which olives to pick;
– part green and purple olives taste best and have the best yield.
– Fully green olives can still be picked. They are stronger flavoured and peppery but don’t have the yield of the greeny-purples.
– Purple/black olives are mild tasting, but are often lower in oil than the mixed colour olives. They are however, very easy to pick.
– Slightly wrinkly olives are okay if the wrinkles are from lack of water but not from being overripe.
There’s more info here and if you have an olive tree but can’t pick it email Merrin and she’ll do her best to find someone who would love to pick your fruit.
And if you want to taste some of last year’s Royal Adelaide Show Silver Medal winning vintage we have a few bottles to try in the webshop.
Oh, and one more thing – if you’re a CERES Fair Food customer you can get your oil delivered with your Fair Food order – look out for an Olives to Oil email with a coupon code.
Alanna’s back!
Also next Sunday join Open Table’s Alanna Brown (everyone loves Alanna), in the virtual kitchen for another series of online interactive cooking workshops.
These very social workshops are chock full of great tips and tricks to help us make the most of our fresh, seasonal produce and they’re free!
Each session is a virtual hands-on community cooking experience making something delicious together while focussing on simple ways to reduce household food waste and cook meals for everyday.
This week Alanna is cooking Sweet Pumpkin & Apple Filo Pie – the workshop runs from 11am-12pm May 29th – find out more here.
Have a great week
Chris
