Guess what season it is

[NV Whino]

Yep, Olive season. It's an unusual year. Some varietals are fully ripe, while others are still green. The ideal stage is in between.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. Those are beautiful photos!

[Solly Mack]

2. Nice shots! I could eat olives all day long.

[NV Whino]

3. My client cures a few olives for his use

But most of the olives are processed into oil. Yummy stuff, and totally unlike most products in the store. Unfortunately the price reflects that. At Christmas, I usually get enough oil to get me through the year.

[Solly Mack]

4. Olive oil is about the only oil I use.

Love the stuff.

[NV Whino]

5. Yeah, me too.

[Mira]

6. Gorgeous.

I have never seen olives on a tree. Thank you for that.
The first one is especially gorgeous in its diffusion and presentation.

You know who taught me what EVO stands for?
Tangerine La Bamba - remember her? Old Leftie Lawyer was another one of her pseudonyms. She was a wickedly good cook

[NV Whino]

7. Yes, I remember her

We usually harvest the olives the first or second week of November, but with such a range of ripeness, who knows what we'll do this year.

[Nictuku]

8. I wish I could be happy about it

I have seven fruit bearing olive trees, but the last 3 years I have been infested with this damn olive fruit fly. These damn flies lay their eggs in the olives, spoiling them.

I've tried spraying, but it didn't seem to work (and I really really hate using pesticides, even 'organic' types). Last year I trimmed the trees back so they didn't bear much fruit. This year, it has become clear the problem is still there. Every single olive has had fly eggs and subsequent larva. I'm sure the local olive growers hate me since I haven't been able to eradicate the problem.

What I am doing to try and beat them back is picking all the olives and sealing them in plastic and sending that off to the dump. Not the best solution, but I'm at my wits end.

I think what I need to do is too expensive, and I can't afford it. In order to get rid of these olive fruit flys, you have to spray when the flies emerge, and to know the right time to do that, you have to get these traps. I've priced them out, and they are around $75.00 each. 75 X 7, there is no way in hell I can afford that. I'm hanging on with my fingernails right about now as it is.

So, picking and sealing them in plastic is about all I can think of to deal with the problem. Damn bugs.

[NV Whino]

9. Let me see if I can find out what my client sprays with

It's organic and seems to do the job. I'll get back to you if I find out.

[Nictuku]

10. Thank you! I look forward to hearing any possible solution.

[Curtis]

11. Here's what we used

http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn74112.html


Bait Sprays. GF-120 NF Naturalyte Fruit Fly Bait, an organically acceptable product containing the biologically produced insecticide spinosad, recently has received registration for use on olives in California. GF-120 can be purchased from a local farm chemical distributor. GF-120 attracts olive fruit fly adults, which feed on the bait, and causes adult mortality. GF-120 is concentrated and needs to be diluted with water at 1:1.5 to 1:4 (GF-120 NF: water) before application. Follow label instructions for methods of dilution. GF-120 applications should commence when olive fruit fly adults are captured on the monitoring traps or at least 2 to 3 weeks before pit hardening. Repeat applications every 7 days until harvest when flies are captured on monitoring traps. GF-120 should be applied at a 2.5 to 7.5 ounce dilute spray per tree using a 1:1.5 dilution or at a 5 to 15 ounce dilute spray per tree using a 1:4 dilution with very large droplet size. Droplets should be 5 millimeters or more in size and uniformly dispersed around the tree. The person applying the GF-120 is required to wear coveralls, waterproof gloves, shoes and socks, as well as follow all the requirements on the pesticide product label.

We had to apply the stuff every week.

In the link, there is also info about a spray you can put on the flowers that stops the development of fruit all together.

[Nictuku]

13. Thank you. Hopefully this will fit within my budget.

[NV Whino]

26. Sorry to be so late with an answer, but here it is

Spinosal is the approved compound.

Don't know a thing about this. So some research is in order.

[rocktivity]

12. I invest in a bottle of the extra light-tasting oil

Which I massage my whole chickens before seasoning and roasting, and add to my vegetable oil so it that fries at a higher temperature.


rocktivity

[CTyankee]

14. You want olive oil? Go to Lucca, Italy. Pretty much the best you will get...

I had olive oil there I wanted to pour in a glass and drink...I brought back several little tins of it for my gourmet cooking friends...it was good and it was pretty cheap...

[Demeter]

15. I was going to say, it's Whine Season

for which I self-prescribe wine, and olives would go nicely!

[NV Whino]

16. Well, that too.

I whine if I don't get my wine.

[Tom Kitten]

17. I love olives

I especially like the first picture, I've never seen black olives in a tree before (I thought olives were always green, black olives are dyed)
.
They look tempting as grapes but are not good to eat...yet!

[NV Whino]

18. The photos show pretty much all the stages olives go through

The ideal stage, according to my client, is about half and half. However, since he has several varietals and they ripen at different rates, he doesn't always get the optimum ripeness. But he picks them all at the same time, which is called field blending, and the really ripe ones mellow out the really green ones. There are a few wineries that field blend their grapes as well. Makes for an interesting, and in my mind, exciting final product. Each year brings a slightly different taste.

[annabanana]

25. (luv those gansta kitties) . . .

I can hear West Side Story in my head
♪ Boy boy, crazy boy ♫

[passiveporcupine]

19. I wish I could grow olives here

I make a green olive and caper bruschetta that is excellent on sour dough bread, sprinkled with fresh shredded Parmesan and broiled. I brush a lot of olive oil on the bread first. It's really heavenly. Oh yum, now I want some.

The bruschetta is just chopped green olives, including pimento if they are stuffed with them, chopped garlic, and capers, mixed with olive oil. Easy to make and also works great in tuna salad and pasta. I'm sure there are lots of cool ways to use it. You can try different blends of olives, including black olives too.

[NV Whino]

20. Oh, that sounds good

I want some.

[passiveporcupine]

21. So easy to make...try it

You can find recipes on-line. I bought some in a jar first and then just made my own without a recipe. I buy a big jar of green olives and mix it with about 1/3 that of capers, lots of fresh chopped garlic and enough olive oil to saturate it. Keeps great in the fridge.

Since you have access to fresh olives of various types (stages), you could probably do some wonderful things with it that my budget won't allow.

[Blue_In_AK]

22. Yummy.

I bet they're delicious.

[Lunabell]

23. Can you eat them off the tree or do they have to be processed first?

[NV Whino]

24. They have to be cured

The commercial process uses lye, and is much faster. The brine process is slower. You have to soak them in salted water and change the water frequently. Basically, it's a PIA. But when you're finished, home cured olives are a treat.

You might be interested to know that when making oil, they crush the pit and all. And, unlike wine, the only "wait time" after crushing is a couple of weeks to let any particles settle out before bottling. Instant gratification.