AS predicted by the Broken Hill Gourmet Products Co-Operative in March, its 600-tree olive grove’s fruit was perfectly ripe and ready to harvest this Easter, with the harvest beginning on Monday.
Co-op chair Steve Flecknoe-Brown was joined by volunteers on Easter Monday, April 21, to brave the wind and get picking, with the olives transported directly from the grove – located under the overpass off Gypsum Street – straight to the oil press in town.
The good crop is welcomed with open arms by Mr Flecknoe-Brown following the tiny crop of 2024.
“It’s going to be as good a crop as our best crop,” he said.
“I wasn’t sure if the crop was good because I hadn’t been out here looking at the trees, but the weather’s been kind to us and the trees that have dropped fruit on them are really nicely loaded.
“They love the heat, as long as we keep the watering up, they don’t mind.”
The grove is situated on a lot that had a rehabilitation order on it, which the mining company that owned it was struggling to make happen until the Co-op took over.
“We planted the trees 20 years ago, we planted 800 trees,” Mr Flecknoe-Brown said.
He also said that one of the best things about the olive oil harvested from the grove – which has been specifically planted with oil-bearing olive breeds – is the fact that lead in the soil has never been an issue.
“No matter how much lead is in the pulp itself it doesn’t get into the oil, which is harvested through a process that separates the oil from the pulp,” he said.
“Once you’ve got crystal clear olive oil, it’s just fat; there’s no water in it at all, so no lead.”
Not just famous in the hill, a few years ago the Broken Hill-made olive oil won prizes in Europe, however Mr Flecknoe-Brown said there’s no immediate plans for an international tour this time around – instead focusing more locally this year.
“We found it was a pretty expensive exercise,” he said.
“One of the directors wants to exhibit the oil locally, which might get a bit more consciousness of it around,” he said.
“Back then hardly anybody was doing olive oil and certainly there weren’t many olive oil competitions in Australia.
“So we had the opportunity to compete with the best in the world and we came up very well.”
