The olive grove at Jandra is about 25 years old. It has been owned by the Buchanan family since 2015. There are some 750 trees, predominantly frantoio.

Previously we have onsold our crop to another orchard. Since 2020 we have managed the harvest and the subsequent oil ourselves.

The harvest is in late autumn each year. Interestingly, each year our olives ripen here in Eurobin about 2-4 weeks later than in Melbourne. The olives are mechanically harvested and then processed into oil overnight.

Freshly pressed new oil can be spicy and even hot to the palette. In 2021, because of the later harvest, the more riper olives produced an oil that had a more mellow, buttery taste. When its fresh its a changing experience each time it is tasted. The spicy, peppery kick mellowed over the subsequent twelve months, becoming much smoother and more subtle in its flavours.

In 2021 we had a bumper crop, and in fact didn't get to pick all the available olives. On top of that, the later pick gave us a better percentage of oil than usual....so we had plenty of oil to sell!

And it turns out it was also of a very high quality. In the 2021 Australian Golden Olive Awards it received a gold medal, best in class, best in show and we were named best new producer! A few weeks later we received another gold medal in the Australian International Olive Awards.

In 2022 we received two silver awards for our Extra Virgin Olive Oil, and a silver and gold award in a separate judging. (The OPNEV Golden Olive Awards and the Australian International Olive Awards.) Again, we had a fiery green oil with a buttery middle palate.

We received similar results for the 2023 harvest, and have collected gold and silver at the Golden Olive Awards, gold at the Australian International Olive Awards. On points our oil was in the top 20 in Australia..

Season 2024 has been a disaster for us and most of north east Victoria. We lost our crop due to severe lace big infestation, and were forced to cancel our harvest.

We have currently almost sold out of oil from 2023, and it will be some time before we have oil again.