Harvest was a few weeks back. I've had a few people get in touch and ask me if they can purchase oil. Its a weird feeling to say it, but the answer is "Sorry, no."

This year I sold our entire crop to someone else. Wandiring Olives in Wandiligong are new players in the olive business. They have planted trees and are building a house and facilities for their newly minted olive business. The idea is that they buy my crop and market it under their own label, and establish their business, so that in a few years when their own trees come online they will have a solid clientele. Its in everyone's interest that this works!

I was over there a couple of weekends ago showing the process of racking off the oil into new barrels to separate out the sediment that drops out of freshly pressed olive oil. They are quick learners, applying practical smarts readily to the process, and I left before it was finished, and they completed the work themselves. Hailley has been coming here to participate in the process of pruning. Hand-on is a great way to learn a practical skill!

The decision to wholesale it was a pragmatic one. We would do better with more retail sales, but by wholesaling it most of the weekly workload has disappeared. I am not sitting in the shed filling bottles, packing orders and doing deliveries locally. I was spending a good four days a week doing that when we had the retail side of things going. No more markets!

Wandiring Olives have entered their products into some of the competitions that relate to olive oil. Part of that process involves getting lab test done on the quality of the oil. Hailley showed me the results sheet this week. This year's oil, despite all the problems we had at harvest, is of an amazing standard....one of the best results we have seen.

I can't wait to see how it goes in the competitions, and what it looks like bottled and with new labels.