Encounter Olives

After varietal differences, choosing when to harvest is the biggest determinant of the flavor of the oil. Olives ripen in the fall and winter, changing in color from green to a purple so deep that it is called black.

The oil produced changes too, according to the ripeness of the olive. Early- harvest olives (usually picked between late April and early June) produce richer, fruitier oils, often with a peppery finish.

Olives picked later in the season (often so late that they aren’t picked at all, but are allowed to fall into nets or onto the ground) produce mild oils with little varietal character.

They also produce much more oil than early-harvest olives, which has led some unscrupulous producers to mix leaves in with late-harvest olives in an effort to produce oil with the green color associated with more valuable, early-harvest oils.

Generally, the best oils are made from olives harvested when they are between one-third and two-thirds black (normally between mid-May and early June).

Despite countless efforts to develop mechanized harvesting methods, olives for the best olive oils are almost always harvested by hand, which accounts for roughly half of the farming cost.

Although there are exceptions, most olive oils are blends of several varieties, and all the varieties for a particular oil tend to be planted, picked, and crushed together in what is called a field blend.

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