When is an olive ready to pick?

People often ask how we know when it’s time to pick the olives. Judging their ripeness and oil content is done by computers and lab tests in the big groves these days, but small family farms like ours like to keep it old school. : )

It’s a very simple and visceral process for us to evaluate our olives. It’s about the color of the skin, their shape, and the way they respond to the pressure of our forefinger and thumb. It’s feeling the soft fruit inside, seeing its tones, and rubbing it on our hands to see how it feels, and how the oil catches the sunlight.

Doesn’t that sound more fun than sending them in to a lab? We hope you enjoy this short clip that shows what we’re taking about with some of this year’s olives.