Olives can be harvested green or black
With good care and plenty of sun, it shouldn't be unusual if you can also harvest fruit from your own olive tree in Germany. Many people believe that green and black olives belong to different varieties - they are just different degrees of ripeness. The darker an olive, the more ripe it is. You can therefore also harvest olives unripe - i.e. green. Green olives contain significantly less oil than black olives and therefore fewer calories. In return, however, they taste bitter. In this case, the optimal harvest time depends on your personal taste. However, olives cannot be eaten fresh, but must be pickled.
also read
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- Better not to freeze olives
- Olives - aromatic, healthy and versatile
Traditional olive harvest in the growing countries
Unless you own an olive grove in Tuscany, you probably won't get too much fruit from your olive tree. Olives are traditionally harvested by hand, and the more ripe the fruits are, the easier it is to remove them. So you can simply pick the olives from the tree. This is also done by the olive farmers in the growing countries, who often knock the fruit off the branches with rakes or sticks. The olives that fall down are caught by a tightly meshed net. A very brutal-looking method is also widespread, but it makes sense to save time: Here the farmers saw off entire fruit-bearing branches and twigs in order to loosen the fruit later. Since the olive trees are pruned after harvest,In this way, the farmers do two work steps at once.
Modern harvesting methods
In many places, however, so-called vibrating machines are used, which briefly shake the trees. The olives then fall to the ground, where they are caught again by a net. The disadvantage of the otherwise more effective machines, however, is that they can only be used on flat terrain. Otherwise, however, they are just as gentle on trees and fruit as harvesting by hand. Ultimately, the only decisive factor for the quality of table olives or olive oil is the time of harvest; the olives should be ripe, but not overripe. Ripe olives that fall to the ground alone will result in an inferior quality oil.
Tips & Tricks
To be able to pick olives yourself, you should own at least two olive trees. Although many olives are self-pollinating, significantly more fruits develop through cross-pollination.
