- Hand Harvesting Leccino Olives
I just returned from a lovely weekend harvesting our Leccino olives. The air was crisp, a bracing breeze blew, and the remnants of a storm scattered clouds across the sky; it felt a lot like Fall, the perfect weather for the approaching Thanksgiving holiday, but maybe a little later than we wanted to harvest olives. Farming is a balancing act, however, pitting the dictates of nature against the availability of labor: walnut harvest stretched longer than planned due to some early season rainfall. The baby olive trees also needed to go into the ground before it became too cold. Thus the Leccino harvest was thrust third in line.
Which has implications for taste. Early harvest olives are greener, containing more of those wonderful antioxidants called polyphenols. Later harvest olives are generally smoother in taste, less bitter than pungent early season fruit, but also containing less polyphenols. Knowing when to pick is an art: balancing taste against the olive’s oil and polyphenol content. And of course, not all olives mature at the same rate, even on the same tree.
- Varying Degrees of Ripeness
Looking at these olives and some of the boxes of darker fruit, I predict we will have a sweeter oil than in previous years, although we won’t know for sure until we bottle the oil. Our olives pressed yesterday, so we should have a taste of the new oil soon.
Secured by 
How exciting!
What fun this time of year is at the farm!
I remember when we spend Thanksgiving there… was about 9 years ago I believe… my how time flies.
I do remember that Arron’s Turkey on the grill was yummy, and the mandarins were too…
typo….. when we “spent” Thanksgiving there….
couldn’t edit, so re-posted…
Rachel, just want you to know how much I enjoy your blog and am glad you have the time and energy for it despite your busy schedule. I love the descriptions of the ranch. (As you may know, we were just there a week+ ago.
love, Verity
What sort of differences are there between the olives grown California compared to those you might find from Italy or Spain? Most of the olive oil that I purchase is from Europe.
Also, how are olives normally treated? Are pesticides common? I have Kirkland Organic olive oil in my kitchen.
True extra virgin olive oil is harvested, taken to the mill, and pressed within 24 hours. There are no chemicals, and no heat is used. For this reason, true extra virgin olive oil is one of the purest oils around. That being said, many olive trees are treated at some point to prevent olive fly infestation. Fortunately we haven’t had to do that with our olive oil because olive flies are not yet common where we grow our olives. I’m due for a post to answer the rest of your questions, because believe or not, I get those questions a lot. Stay tuned and thanks for reading!