Olive pickle or press success

APULIA Grove gave visitors to this year’s Heathcote on Show a chance to pick their own olives and either learn how to dry pickle them or have them turned into olive oil.

Co-owner Ceilidh Meo said the experience had been great for everyone involved.

“We’ve met some amazing people and we’ve had a ball,” she said. “I think people have particularly responded the dry pickling method that we’ve done.

“It’s not something that a lot of people are familiar with so it’s a different process that they’ve learnt, and the oil making has been really well received too.”

Charles and Ceilidh Meo bought the Toolleen property in 2007 when they were looking for a change of pace.

Ms Meo said she grew up in Victoria’s Western District, near Hamilton.

“We had a little hobby farm out there and my mum was very much into permaculture,” she said

“I moved to Melbourne for uni, met my husband, had enough of the city and decided that I would like to go farming.

“Now I was thinking sheep, because that’s what the Western District has, and I spin and I knit and I crochet, but my husband’s dad was Italian and he had just passed away.

“So Charles said ‘let’s grow olives in his honour.’”

Ms Meo said the couple went looking for a property which already had trees.

“We saw this place at the base of Mount Camel, fell in love, and then very quickly realised that 2500 trees are a lot of work for two people,” she said.

But Apulia Grove is still small by commercial standards and Ms Meo said they were unable to find anyone willing to process their fruit into oil.

“We bought our first press in 2009,” she said. “We opened that up to other people in 2012 because we figured that there were those in the same situation who had a few thousand olive trees and couldn’t get enough together to go to the big guys.

“A lot of those processes need at least half a tonne of fruit, and we do between 50 and 200 kilos.”