Growers and Producers of Premium Organic Table Olives, Tapenades and Preserves

Newsletter - Winter 2002 Hallo everyone and welcome back, we have indeed been a bit tardy with our newsletters but now we are online and with our new web designer we should be able to keep up to date. First the weather, as you all know 90% of the state is drought declared and Mudgee is no exception. We did however have 8" of rain in February so the sub-soil moisture wasn't too bad heading into Winter. The frosts of June/July were unbelievable...at one stage it was 11 consecutive mornings with minimums of minus 8 degrees although out here at Figtree, as we are 100m higher than Mudgee and with good air circulation it didn't get below zero!!! Tree losses were reported in various groves around Mudgee some trees being 10 yrs old. We finally got a good crop this year approx 4 kilos per tree which saw us bring in about 800 kilos with the Jumbo Kalamata being the star of the show....also lots of Verdale and Manzanilla. They're all released now except the JK,s which I can say after just tasting them... they are ready!! Most of the olives are in cold storage in a coolroom sub-let in Mudgee waiting for bottling or marinating. As you can see from the product list there are a few new lines which we introduced over the last year or so namely the Fig and Olive tapenade and the two marinated lines ...both proving very popular. We did our 1st Sydney Morning Herald Good Living Growers Market [what a mouthful!] at Pyrmont on Sat. 7 Sept and sold a whole box of the F & O Tapenade and 12 kilos of Marinated Olives. Currently negotiating with a few upmarket restaurants i.e. Belmondo and The Depot in Sydney and Selkirks of Orange....they want the Au-naturals so they have a blank canvas to work with. Also negotiating with a few delis/bakerys/foodie outlets in Sydney and Regional NSW for the bottled products so the only place you can get our marinated and rock salt olives at the moment is at the farmgate or at growers markets [they need to refrigerated] The orchard is in full glorious bloom at the moment and we are still eating winter vegetables and herbs....a lovely place to be with a glass of wine as the sun goes down. The grove won't be in blossom till late October but if you've ever been in an olive grove in full blossom it really is a sight to see. Thats all for now ....but we are probably going to revert to a monthly newsletter from now on. Richard

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