10715 Anyone picking olives yet?

They are picking olives around here at about 350 mts. Slightly higher than that the olive picking is to start first week-end of November. Yes the trees are loaded and our friends have bought hand held vibrating machines...no jokes please!

Angie,
I drove by an oleificio this morning just outside Ascoli and I saw they had started the pressing. I also talked to a friend this morning who was picking his as we spoke.

Thanks, that was quick!, blimey better get the gang together, we are at about 400mtrs so maybe have another week or so to go, hopefully 1st week in November, lets hope the sun keeps shining.
A
Noble I can think of at least one contender for the dirty joke!
A

We were in the hills to the west of Pescara (Moscufo area) last week. People were in the olive groves picking and we occasionally got the unmistakable whiff of a [I]frantoio[/I] in operation as we drove along.

The mill we use in Coledara (first exit on the Teramo side after the long Gran Sasso tunnel on the A24) will open next Saturday – 25 October.

We're at 500 m s.l.m. in the hills just to the east of the Gran Sasso. Our trees are absolutely loaded this year compared to last. Another notable difference is that while we picked on 2 November last year and most of the fruit was then still very green, this year there's already a lot of purple and even black fruit.

Al

[quote=Noble;99817]They are picking olives around here at about 350 mts. Slightly higher than that the olive picking is to start first week-end of November. Yes the trees are loaded and our friends have bought hand held vibrating machines...no jokes please![/quote]Do they have one of the Oliviero units? I would be very interested to hear how they get on with it - or if it isn't one of those, what they are using. No joke, I know!
[IMG]http://www.innovazionitecnologiche.com/immagini/nuovi-pulsanti/Testimonial%20come%20a%20tutte%20le%20lingue.jpg[/IMG]

.....but not quite half finished. We are a few miles south of Teramo at about 300 metres. Last year we only had 200kg and so far this year, from 12 out of 35 trees, we have picked 235kg and they are at the mill as I type. I would say about 50 per cent were blacker than black, so hopefully the oil yield will be good.

Back breaking stuff, but immensely enjoyable, especially on a day like today. Sadly, I am back in London tomorrow evening, but hopefully with a little bit of Abruzzo in a bottle with me (less than 100ml of course).

Happy olive picking everyone!

Yes, my lads are at the picking right now at 300m in Lazio. I have noticed v little damage by olive fly this year. Crop seems OK but you never really know until the oil has been extracted. Anyone noticed an improved price this year due to new labelling legislation?

[quote=AllanMason;99842]We were in the hills to the west of Pescara (Moscufo area) last week. People were in the olive groves picking and we occasionally got the unmistakable whiff of a [I]frantoio[/I] in operation as we drove along.

The mill we use in Coledara (first exit on the Teramo side after the long Gran Sasso tunnel on the A24) will open next Saturday – 25 October.

We're at 500 m s.l.m. in the hills just to the east of the Gran Sasso. Our trees are absolutely loaded this year compared to last. Another notable difference is that while we picked on 2 November last year and most of the fruit was then still very green, this year there's already a lot of purple and even black fruit.

Al[/quote]
we are at 500 metres in the marche.whilst it's true many trees are already bearing violet/blue/ black olives we won't be picking them until well into November (around the day of San Martino) the olives require the cold to start to "shrivel" them a bit and reduce their water content in favour of oil .there are people around here who are already picking but the resa is very low at this stage 6-8 litres per quintale by the time we will be picking it should be up to 15-19 litres per quintale.The down side is we will probably be picking for around 10 days in low cloud and drizzle with cold but a bumper crop is probable despite the dreaded mosca (which we have had )

[QUOTE=Nardini;99859]Do they have one of the Oliviero units? I would be very interested to hear how they get on with it - or if it isn't one of those, what they are using.

Will let you know in a week Nardini.