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This article tells us the keys to know when to pick the olives to obtain the highest quality in the production of your Extra Virgin Olive Oil (EVOO).
The ideal time to start planning the harvesting of the olives that we are going to use for the production of an Extra Virgin Olive Oil of the highest quality (Premium Oil, outstanding, high-end or early oils) usually begins at the end of September in the Northern Hemisphere.
We must start selecting those plots that have a medium/high quantity of olives and with a larger fruit size.
Once we have selected the plots that we want to collect, we will take about 2 kg of olives from each plot located at eye level and in the 4 tree orientations. We homogenize the sample, separate about 100 fruits and classify them in the following categories:
Another factor to take into account when marking the optimal time for harvesting is the color that the olive takes. That is, at the moment in which the olive turns from an intense green color to a yellowish green, we resample the plots and send the samples to the laboratory.
Sometimes it is interesting to open the olive because sometimes the color of the pulp is not what we have imagined. It is possible that on the outside we see some parameters that tell us that it is ripe and yet when we open it we see that it is green.
It will be necessary to check the following parameters:
When we already have our olives with these parameters, it is the key moment to submit them to the abencor test, in which we simulate the oil extraction process that we would do in the oil mill, but this time it is carried out in a laboratory.
Once we have extracted the oil from the olive samples, it is filtered, tasted and, if the oil has the correct characteristics (fruity, balanced, bitter and pleasant spicy, etc), we will proceed to carry out the harvesting, but always starting for the plots that indicate a higher maturity index.
Because if we start with the less mature ones, as the harvesting lasts approximately 10 days, when we get to harvest the more mature ones, they may already be too ripe to make this type of EVOO.
Another factor to take into account is the weather. You have to be attentive to all weather forecasts to date the optimal time of harvesting. If you have the olives ready, and ¡wait more than necessary, if a storm comes, it will throw part of the olives on the ground and you will lose the harvest. Imagine that we hire a crew, we go out to the field and after half an hour it starts to rain heavily.
Fat yield, even on dry matter, varies from year to year, on the variety and on the geographical area.
In view of the knowledge of the entire process described above, we explain the factors that influence and make it so difficult to determine for each variety, in each farm, in each locality and in each campaign the Optimum Harvesting Moment for Olives.
Here we can see some examples of varieties
Are you ready to obtain full advantage of your olives?