End of an era - no more table olives
For around 15 years I have produced table olives, sourced from many of my friend's olive groves in the Hunter Valley. However, the last couple of years have seen the combination of factors that have reduced the available crop to nothing, so slowly but surely I have exhausted my supply of locally-grown olives. There was no crop in 2023 and again, no crop of any note in 2024. In 2023 this failure was mainly due to weather conditions, but the failure of the 2024 crop is a mystery. Both oil and table olive production was well down on previous seasons. This failure is probably due to high winds at the critical flowering period in October, as olives are a wind-pollinated tree and high winds just blow the pollen away.
As a result - the lack of fruit and a wet summer means that trees have generally had strong vegetative growth and should - in theory - produce a bumper crop in 2025. However, this doesn't help me at all as it takes around 8-10 months from harvest (April / May) to having olives ready to eat (December at best) so I don't expect to be able to offer table olives again until 2026.
As a result - the lack of fruit and a wet summer means that trees have generally had strong vegetative growth and should - in theory - produce a bumper crop in 2025. However, this doesn't help me at all as it takes around 8-10 months from harvest (April / May) to having olives ready to eat (December at best) so I don't expect to be able to offer table olives again until 2026.