Personalise Your Olive Experience: Adopt an Olive Tree

Table olive varieties available to adopt include:

California Queen (UC13A6) – this variety comes from the University of California olive breeding program and is a variation developed from an open pollinated seedling of the Egyptian variety Tafahi variety. The breeding program has established a slightly more robust fruit which is less susceptible to bruising. This variety can be fermented as green or black olives, or dry salted when fully ripe, depending on your preference. Fruit is ready from mid-April onwards for green-ripe processing. Not recommended for oil production.

Queen of Spain/Spanish Queen (Sevillano) – this variety ripens early in the season, usually from mid-April onwards and produces very little oil, so is not recommended to attempt oil processing. It is a cling-stone variety, green fruit can be fermented whole from mid-April, but it’s best processed as dry pickled fruit at full ripeness (late May).

Manzanilla (de Sevilla) – A round, medium sized free-stone fruit usually picked fully ripe for fermenting or dry salt curing. This variety is early ripening from mid-April. Oil production in this variety is extremely low but highly regarded. It is mild and buttery.

Hardy’s Mammoth – One of only a handful of Australian-bred olive varieties. This one was discovered and named by Thomas Hardy (1830-1912), of Hardy’s Wine fame. The fruit is often fermented as a green olive but can also be processed when fully ripe. The fruit begins to ripen in early May.

Kalamata – this olive is usually fermented when fully ripe, which can be as late as June in our area, depending on the growing conditions. The fruit can be processed for oil, but the yield is lower than oil olive varieties. The flavour of the oil is mild and sweet. The fruit is usually harvested earlier for oil than for fermenting.

Oil olive varieties available to adopt include:

Leccino – this olive variety holds a special place in our hearts at Apulia Grove. Not only is it Ceilidh’s favourite single varietal olive oil, it’s the variety that is grown around Charles’ father’s home town of Lecce, in the Puglia region of Italy. The fruit has slightly less oil content than the other Italian varieties at between 18-20% yield but it’s SO GOOD! An earlier ripening variety, these trees are usually ready to harvest all at once in late April.

Corregiola – this Italian variety ripens late in the season, from mid-June onwards. It has good stability due to high Vitamin E content and can extend the shelf life of other oil varieties when blended together.

Frantoio – very similar flavour, ripening time and oil properties as Corregiola. The fruit has oil yields between 20-22% by weight.

Pendolino – this mid-season ripening variety is also Italian, from the central region of the peninsula. It is often used as a pollinator for other varieties as it has abundant flowering, starting early in the season and continuing for a long time. The fruit ripens in mid-May and it has a lower oil content; around 15% yield.

All the flavour variations you can get from variety, terroir and blending that apply to grapes in wine making, you can also apply to olive oil production, so come and experiment!

When combined, the Leccino, Corregiola and Frantoio olive varieties produce what’s known as a “traditional Tuscan blend” in terms of the oil’s flavour profile. However, individual olive varieties produce complex flavours in their own right.