What did you do in the garden today?

[Smokerbill]

I was on Pinterest and seen a sign of a chicken running and the sign read: Live today like you're getting fired tomorrow. I had to share it

Getting fired? Or getting fried?

 

[Minanora]

Now I have olive picking questions.

Are the trees tall enough that you need ladders? Having never seen an olive tree, I don't have any idea about their growth habit.

Do olives tend to ripen all at once, so that you're just picking everything, or do you have to pick according to the ripeness of the fruit? Is there one main harvest, or several smaller ones?

Olives and ginger are two crops I wish I could grow here in Michigan.

Some of the trees are quite tall, we do get up on ladders of various sizes. The original owner of the home planted olive trees as landscaping but must have picked them, based on the varieties he chose. His gardens were used as test and show gardens for Sunset magazine.

My MIL planted 100 that will be kept short in her orchard. I personally think she's crazy, we get a lot of oil already. But she wants more I guess.

Olives do not ripen all at once. Nor do you want them to. Green olives give less oil but higher polyphenol levels. Also a much stronger, grassy, peppery, flavor due to the high level of oleuropein. While ripe olives have about 15-30% more oil but it's much more mild and lacking in oleuropein as it breaks down as the olives ripen. It's good to have a blend of ripe and green olives. Green olives also tend to have less damage and quality issues. Ripe olives are softer so fruit fly damage increases. The olives get pressed the same day they are picked. To maintain quality. We generally get ours pressed within 3 hours of us finishing picking. We do not let the mill use talc for our oil. Just as a personal preference.

We have done two harvests before when we have a lot of olives. If we had our own mill and press we would harvest every weekend over about 6 weeks as a reason to hang out and spend time with family.

We have talked about brining olives but have never done it. We may this year.

When you pick for 12 hours, close your eyes and see olives, and dream about olives. The last thing you want is to pick more and process them.

You can grow ginger in Michigan. It's just an annual, not a perennial.

 

[CatInTheHenHouse]

Olives and ginger are two crops I wish I could grow here in Michigan.

You can grow ginger indoors in pots! You can start it with a rhizome from the grocery store.

 

[Sally PB]

We do not let the mill use talc for our oil.

What does this mean?

Thanks for the explanation in your last post. It's really interesting!

 

[Minanora]

What does this mean?

Thanks for the explanation in your last post. It's really interesting.

Well the mill tells you to do it, and they will do it if you don't tell them not to.


It can increase yield but it's not a benefit for us. It makes the oil cloudy and then you have to filter if. It changes the taste. It's just not what we're after.

Here's a Google snip.

We would rather have less oil.