It’s that time again. It’s 7:00 AM and because California is not yet back on Standard Time, it’s still pretty dark. Just a smattering orange is coming over the mountains to the east. People are gathering, hoping to make their sustenance income for the day. They’re willing to work, they work hard, and they like to work on our orchard.

Across the 40 acres adults are heard laughing and shouting at each other. They are actually having fun. Now the weather is beautiful. It’s not all that much fun when the weather is cold and foggy as it will be when it’s time to harvest the next round.

Today we will pick about two tons of green to blushed olives. The eight bins that hold the olives will be trailered about 15 miles to where our crusher and his loud, no, very loud machine wait to make our Early Harvest Manzanillo (EHM). The olives are washed and most of the leaves are removed but the pits remain and all are pressed within 24 hours of harvesting. If the olives sit too long the fruit begins to ferment resulting in the quality of the oil suffering.

Please see the pictures and the beauty that is the out of doors in an olive orchard. Also note that along with the people come the porta-potties.

Families come and work together in crews. Little children laugh and play among the beautiful trees while their moms, dads, and older siblings fill the odd shaped hampers they have strapped to their chests. They all wear gloves against the cold but also to facilitate pulling their hands quickly along the limbs delivering the olives to their hampers. The leaves stay, the olives come falling off.

The olives in the bins have an extraordinary wonderful smell, portending the wonderful product that is to be produced.

When first pressed the EHM is strong and peppery and green tasting. It will rack for a few weeks so that the particles of seeds or errant leaves descend to the bottom. During that time, the oil smoothes out slightly. Real aficionados love the strong, pungent taste that is characteristic of the Early Harvest Manzanillo. The chlorophyll is strong in this oil. The hydroxiterisol is much more evident and stronger in this oil than in the others and it is much more likely to make one cough (which is the sign for really, really good olive oil.)