# Olives?



## travelling-man (Jun 17, 2011)

Many of the houses (for sale) I'm finding on the net have biggish gardens, often with 30+ olive trees in them.

Can someone tell me what one does with such a crop and if sold, who to, how & is it a sum worth having or is it not worth worrying about please?


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## mrforja (Apr 3, 2011)

The harvest time is usually early november, the people i used to help would prune and harvest at the same time, cut the branches and drop them to the ground where you pick off the olives, there is also the shake the tree and hit it with sticks method to make the olives fall off. 
In your area there should be a mill (lagar), dont know what the going rate is now but a couple of years ago the cost for pressing was around 50c per litre and you will get around 1 litre per 10 kilos of olives.


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## canoeman (Mar 3, 2011)

It's extremely hard work harvesting, pre-processing and storing olives before they go to plant, we did a deal with a local family who for 70% of proceeds did everything, we received some great oil at a cost to us of about €12 for 38ltrs.
We had in excess of 35 trees and some years better than others.


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## travelling-man (Jun 17, 2011)

Thanks, so do you get any significant income from something like 35-40 trees or is it more likely to buy you a pub lunch once a year? 

I'm also looking at a place that claims to produce enough grapes for about 1500 litres of wine a year....... again, is there any significant income from something like that or is it a pub lunch once a year sort of thing.


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## mrforja (Apr 3, 2011)

Yes you can sell to the local wine co-op, my neighbours used to do this when they had a surplus but this did not happen very often 1500 ltrs just enough for family use


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## canoeman (Mar 3, 2011)

If your doing work for olives then no it's not an income, wine with respect I wouldn't bother unless your in an area that has a very good name and central processing again the work and expertise required doesn't equate to the income.


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## travelling-man (Jun 17, 2011)

Thanks chaps. The thinking behind all these bizarre questions is my budget will probably allow me to buy somewhere with a number of olive trees OR grapes OR a river at the bottom of the gardens but probably not two or three of those features. 

If the olives/grapes will give me a significant return, I might consider them, if not, I'll go for the river and enjoy the fishing! 

I probably couldn't drink 1500 litres of wine in a decade, let alone a year!


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