Olive Tree Hervester requires appropriate timing and technique. How and when you harvest olives are key deciders for the chemical indices of your olives. The difference in aroma, taste and appearance you see in olives is because of varying harvesting times. For example, green olives are harvested when they are unripe, giving that delicious tangy taste. A number of methods are used to harvest olives. Selecting the right method is essential for producing top-quality table olives. Let’s get to know how to harvest olives.
How to Harvest Olives: The Right Time
The right time of olive harvesting depends on the purpose for which olives will be used. To know this, let’s first know about stages of olives ripening.
The Three Main Stages of Olive Ripening
At each stage olives have special aroma, taste and chemical composition, making them suitable for specific purposes.
Immature Olives
First stage where green olives are harvested. Used for eating or pickling. Such olives are hard and bright green in appearance. Green olives contain a high amount of phenolic content. Such olives are harvested in early season to secure those peppery notes.
Veraison Stage
If you want a balance of flavour and intensity, harvesting olives at their veraison stage is best choice. As they tend to change colour from green to reddish with purple hues. Such olives have balanced nutrition with a unique composition of chlorophyll, carotenoids and anthocyanins. At this stage olives acquire fruity freshness and develop roundness in flavour.
Ripened Olives
When you observe a purple to blackish appearance, it’s an indication of complete ripening. Such olives are rich in nutrition and best for olive oil extraction. Typically have peaks of oil content in them. At this point anthocyanins reach their peak concentration. That’s why olive taste less bitter but more buttery.
Regional Harvesting Seasons
Region
Harvest Season
Northern Hemisphere
October to January
Southern Hemisphere
April to July
Spain (Early Harvest)
October to February
Italy (Tuscany)
September to Mid-November
California (USA)
September to November
How to harvest olives: Olive Harvesting Techniques
When it comes to Olive Tree Harvester, olive harvesters adopt two major techniques worldwide. Manual harvesting and mechanical harvesting. Here is how these techniques are used to harvest olives.
Manual Harvesting
In manual harvesting three methods are used, including hand harvesting, Raking and combing, and the beating method.
Hand Harvesting
As name shows, in this method olives are hand-picked by workers. So the best quality, fully ripped olives are picked. In this method nets or traps are spread under the tree where picked olives are placed. To harvest one acre land it takes about 20 to 200 labour hours Best thing here is not only the quality olives but also fruit damage, which is also very low, just 2-5%. Although this method comes with a high labour cost, it’s effective for extra virgin olive oil (EVOO).
Raking and Combing Techniques
You can use raking and combing if you want speedy harvesting. Here flexible combs or rakes are used to strip olives from tree branches. But be ready for that fruit damage in case olives are fully ripped and soft.
Traditional Beating
In Mediterranean regions harvesters still use traditional methods for olive harvesting. In this method, labourers strip the olive branches with long trees, and olives fall in nets spread under the tree. But using this method can harm branches and damage the fruit as well. ,
Mechanical Harvesting Methods
In mechanical methods, olive tree harvesting equipment is used. For instance, tree shakers are used. Here Oliver’s harvesters use tree shaker which grip the trunk of tree and shake it on specified vibration. Such a harvester can harvest 60 to 80 trees within one hour. Such temethode reduced the time and minimise labour cost.
For more dense olive harvests, use the over-the-row harvesters. They straddle the trees while using rotating rods to strip the fruit. Over-the-row harvesters usually harvest 400 to 600 trees per hour. The rapid mechanical stripping causes a higher rate of fruit damage (10-20%). Furthermore, this bruising can trigger oxidation, causing oil acidity to rise to 0.5-0.6%.
Equipment for Olive Harvesting
Traditional Tools and Gear
- Hand Picks and Rakes
- Nets and Tarps
- Sticks
Industrial Olive Harvesting Machines
- Trunk Shakers
- Over-the-Row Harvesters
- Pneumatic and Electric Combs
Processing Your Olive Harvest
What you do with the freshly picked olives depends on the desired end product:
For Olive Oil: Transport it to a local mill (frantoio) as soon as possible. Where olives will be washed, crushed, and spun to extract extra virgin olive oil.
For Table Olives: Freshly picked olives contain oleuropein, a highly bitter compound that must be cured. This involves washing and slitting the olives, and soaking them in water or a salt brine for several weeks to months to draw out the bitterness