This summer’s extreme heat has not been kind to Victoria’s olive growers. Nagambie Gold is fortunate to have access to water for irrigation, so our crop was not as severely affected as some.
Our grove is not located within the fire zone which devastated so much of the state. Some of our friends were not so lucky. Kyneton Olives, where our olives are pressed, lost some 1500 trees to the fires; their olive pressing machinery was thankfully spared, so Nagambie Gold’s crop will once again be pressed there in 2009. The beautiful Terracotta Room, which had been a Nagambie Gold stockist for 12 months, was sadly destroyed in the fire which claimed Marysville. We hope to see some form of the Terracotta Room return as the town is rebuilt.
Meanwhile, the 2009 harvest is on schedule, with picking again planned for the end of April.
In September, the newly established Australian Extra Virgin group held a stand at the Royal Melbourne Show. The olive oil association is charged with the important task of educating people on the benefits of extra virgin olive oil and encourage the use of Australian products, as well as to regulate the testing and standards of extra virgin olive oil in Australia (both of local and international origin).
Australian Extra Virgin hosted several Victorian boutique olive producers during the 10-day show, of which Nagambie Gold was one. This invitation provided us with a valuable opportunity to showcase our olive oil to a diverse market.
Harvest 2008 took place on the Anzac Day weekend in a race to beat the rain… and we did, by about 10 minutes!
A mechanical harvester was employed to help friends working in the Nagambie Gold grove to strip the 1200 trees of their olives. As in every year, the Correggiola crop was the largest and most time consuming to pick. In 2008, it again produced a beautiful single varietal extra virgin olive oil, which recently won a Bronze Medal at the Golden Olive Awards
Nagambie Gold 2008 harvest.
The 2007 Season
It took several weeks and lots of patience, but Nagambie Gold now has new season’s extra virgin olive oil on the shelves!
Who would have believed that in a time of drought, rain would be to blame for three aborted attempts to harvest? In the end, a contract mechanical harvester, a group of grape pickers from Seymour, plus three very kind friends set to work on Sunday 27th May to finally harvest Nagambie Gold’s 2007 crop.
The pickers started at 7.30am and the harvester arrived at 10am, working steadily until 4pm. On Monday morning, everyone was back at work early, but alas, our bad luck was not yet at an end! At 10am, with only 100 trees left to pick, the mechanical harvester broke down! It was a hard push for all the pickers, but by 4pm they had completed picking the remaining trees, as well as their original task of stripping trees which had already been shaken by the harvester.
Finally, the last of the olives were delivered to Kyneton Olives where they were pressed and have produced very high quality extra virgin olive oil. Due to the drought and extreme summer heat, the 2007 yield has amounted to only half the previous season, however we believe the quality has improved. This is a trend which seems to have occurred across Australia’s olive growing community; it is a great year to buy Australian extra virgin olive oil!
On the Queen’s Birthday holiday, the end of the 2007 harvest was celebrated at Kyneton Olives. 100 guests from the surrounding region and from Melbourne enjoyed a four-course meal, showcasing extra virgin olive oil and local wines, seated in the processing shed (a.k.a. where it all happens) with the new processor and freshly pressed extra virgin olive oil as backdrop!
Setting for dinner at Kyneton Olives, Monday 11th June.
Susie Moscovitch (right) with Kyneton Olives’ grove manager, Elio, and his wife. Elio has been processing Nagambie Gold’s olives for the past three years.
News Flash!
We are pleased to announce that Nagambie Gold’s Premium Blend has again been awarded a Silver Medal at the NSW Northern Olive Oil Show. The 2007 Premium Blend, blended from oil of Frantoio and Manzanilla olives, was described by judges as a “balanced” oil with a “soft grassy nose” and a “milder fruit palate”. For more details on the awards, click here.
