Olive Picking

On April 6-10 we had our annual olive picking "festival". 

The following data is from a spreadsheet that I have recently compiled:


 

		Olive Picking Diary
Date	Total Kilos	Total Liters	Pct Oil	Crusher	Crush Cost	Cost per Liter
6-10 April 2017	750	102	13.60	Jamunga	$330.00	$3.24
Picker	Dates	Picking Hrs	Percent	Liters Due	Cost
Coral	6,7,8,9 Apr	23	20.00	20.4	$66.00
Brenda	6,7,9 Apr	16	13.91	14.2	$45.91
Stephen	6,7,9 Apr	13	11.30	11.5	$37.30
Robert	6,7,9 Apr	16	13.91	14.2	$45.91
Daria	6,8 Apr	15	13.04	13.3	$43.04
Mile & Anka	6,7 Apr	32	27.83	28.4	$91.83
Total		115	100.00	102.0	$330.00
Date	Total Kilos	Total Liters	Pct Oil	Crusher	Crush Cost	Cost per Liter
2016	675	77	11.41	York	$326.70	$4.24
Picker	Dates	Picking Hours	Percent	Liters Due	Cost
Coral		23	21.00	16.2
Brenda		11	10.00	7.7
Stephen		14	13.00	10.2
Robert		19.5	18.00	13.9
David		20	19.00	14.6
Kate		20	19.00	14.6
Total		107.5	100.00	77.2	$0.00
Date	Total Kilos	Total Liters	Pct Oil	Crusher	Crush Cost	Cost per Liter
2015	830	106	12.77	Jamunga	$360.00	$3.40
Picker	Dates	Picking Hours	Percent	Liters Due	Cost
Brenda & Steph		12		12.0	$41.00
Daria		10		10.0	$34.00
Robert		15		15.0	$51.50
Salvatore		12		12.0	$41.00
Gina		12		12.0	$41.00
Stuart		15		15.0	$51.50
Kay		20		15.0	$51.50
Coral		14		14.0	$48.00
Total		110	0.00	105.0	$359.50

The 2017 data tells the story of our recent effort.  We normally have the choice of two places to have our olives crushed: York, a small town east of here, or Jamunga Olives in Yanchep, a small locality north of the city.  This year we used Jamunga, which has become our preference because it is cheaper and seems to deliver a higher percentage of oil.  Note that the prices are in Aussie dollars, currently worth about 0.75 US, and 4 liters is roughly equivalent to 1 U.S. gallon.    The picking was very good this year.  Coral identified a line of trees on the edge of a large property that had been cleared for development and we were able to work those trees for two days.  On the third day Coral, Mile, and Anka spent a few hours harvesting the olives on Coral's suburban property.     As usual, I wanted to harvest even more grapes but the fact is that we could not have carried many more olives in Coral's station wagon, my X-Trail SUV, and my trailer.   My share is 14.2 liters, about 3.7 gallons, plenty to carry me until next year's picking.

My X-Trail loaded up.  Brenda and Stephen at right

My trailer with side extensions loaded up

Coral's station wagon

Coral at  left, at Jamunga