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Preparing Your Olives

Please Read Carefully:

We will be ready to receive your olives from 10:00 AM (no earlier) until 3:00 PM. This is a wonderful opportunity for the person with only one or maybe a few trees to press their own olives into olive oil. The Community Press days are for the homeowner with only a few trees. We will NOT accept loads over 300 lbs. If you have more than a few trees, please call us to be paired with other growers (to meet our 800 lb. minimum) for a small group press, on another previously arranged day.

Most important, we prefer that you pick olives in varying degrees of ripeness/color; 80% purple to black and 20% green is ideal. (Do not bring 100% green olives! They have a high degree of bitterness and dramatically effect the flavor of the oil).

We will only accept olives that are freshly picked no more than 24 hours before you bring them to the press; do not leave them in the sun to ferment and mold. Please DO NOT pick fruit that has fallen to the ground (use a tarp under your tree when picking). We will inspect your olives when you bring them in, if in our opinion your olives are not desirable, we will not include them.
This also includes olives that are infested with the Olive Fruit Fly. This pest has made its way throughout California. It causes damage to olives by laying an egg in a healthy olive. The larvae then eats it way through making the olives unsuitable for olive oil. If you are not aware or informed about the Olive Fruit Fly, consult your local Agricultural Adviser or log on to www.cooc.com for up-to-date information. We will not accept olives from counties considered 100% infested. Call your Ag. Advisor.

The cost is $0.50 / lb.

Bring your olives in an appropriate container, no paper or plastic bags, please! Inexpensive plastic tubs are ideal. The container weight will be subtracted from the weight of the olives giving us the net weight in pounds. All of the olives will be pressed together as they arrive throughout the day. Each person will receive back the amount of oil in the percentage of weight they brought in. In other words, if your olives represent 10% of the total weight of the olives, you will receive 10% of the oil produced. We cannot guarantee a certain percentage yield.

We will bottle your oil in a new, clean container (either plastic or glass) that you will pay for when you pick up your oil. We will no longer be able to accept customer supplied containers for bottling.

You can pick up your portion of oil 2 weeks after processing. We will post the pick up dates the day of the Community Press.
SEE YOU THERE!
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