A quick introduction
Kathy and I purchased our 20 acres in Gooramadda ( North East Victoria, Australia)
in 1993. Initially just as a place to live when commuting daily to and from our 8 to 5 jobs.
In those days I was working as an engineer in the food industry and Kathy was gainfully
employed as a draftsperson, both spending all day indoors, in meetings and behind
the computer....in our book-of-life not a good way to use the hours that life had handed to us.
Besides that, the industry we worked in became engaged in down-sizing, restructuring,
efficiency improvements, lean manufacturing ...any other fancy words?..got the message?
It was about time to take control of our own destiny !
What could we do with the 20 acres (8 hectares) to provide us with an income?
We figured that if 10% of the visitors visiting the Rutherglen district each year
are interested in Olives and olive products and 25% of those will visit us and buy
something, then we could have a viable business...of course given that the product
is of excellent quality and the price-is-right.
Initially we decided that we should only do table olives, as everyone else was planting
trees for olive oil...and..table olives, being a bit more difficult to process and
being confident of our ability to make things happen, we embarked in September 1998 with the
planting our first lot of 500 trees.
We took annual leave and armed with the post hole digger and a trailer full of trees,
water and a big bag of blood-and-bone off we went.
On our best day we planted 180 trees, working from sun up to sun down.
This is what we had in mind...blissfully ignorant of all the difficulties we would
encounter over the years to come
A year later in 1999 we planted the second lot of 500 trees, again aiming at the
table fruit market.
Well....the trees grew...and grew...and there was orchard maintenance to be done,
slashing the grass, pruning trees...and spraying against insects and black scale.
In 2001 Kathy decided that enough is enough and resigned from her job to work full
time in the olives.
She loves the outdoor work and, being a ex-drafs-person, she makes sure that everything
is done properly and on time...here you can see her slashing the grass in between the trees.
Our first harvest in 2000 produced 60 kilo's, it all fitted on the back of the ATV.
The small amount of olives was excellent to get the table olive process developed,
ready for upscaling when the factory would be ready.
The in the year 2000, the main factory got build, out of second hand insulation panels.
A big job, not only the construction of the building but we also needed three phase power,
water storage and hot and cold water reticulation, sinks, waste water disposal and so
it goes on..and on...and on..
Our harvest in 2001 produced a grand total of 1050 kg of olives, a big improvement from
the 60 Kg in previous year.
Most of this was converted into table fruit but we discovered that by end of the
harvesting season there were still olives on the trees, not ripe enough for black table fruit.
Kathy decided to bring a couple of hundred kilo to the olive press in Wagga Wagga and
she came home with our first Extra Virgin Olive Oil. Magic oil, full of flavour...and
...from our own trees!
We figured that this would be a common activity in the years to come and the decision was
made, on the spot, to get our own olive press in order to deal with the olives unsuitable
or unwanted for table fruit.
As a result, in September 2001 an order was placed with MOT of Firenze ( Florence-Italy) for a tandem
hydraulic traditional cold press.
Having done a bit of study in the different extraction methods we decided to concentrate
on The Best method to extract optimum qualityolive oil and not the most
efficient and lowest labour cost method, more about this in the chapter about
olive oil extraction
The press finally arrived, on the back of a truck, all the way from Italy.
In October 2001 my job came to a grinding halt, I got struck with the dreaded
"down-sizing"... and now we had to live from he olives....sorry, come again...
we have to live from the olives??....but full of confidence we continued on
our path of becoming producers, processors and retailers of olive products.
By now we were selling olives from a steel table in the factory.
Sales from a table in the factory was not such a good idea long term and, after much
deliberation, kathy and I decided to build a purpose tasting and sales outlet,
just below the factory, with good views over the Murray Valley and the olive groves.
As with the press, the tasting room arrived "on the back of a truck"
The may/june 2002 harvest produced a total of 3100 kg of olives.
Things started to improve !
By now we had acquired one hundred 200 liter vessels for fermentation of olives,
ready to start processing olives.
Commissioning of the press was done with olives from a local grower...unfortunately Kathy and
I had zero experience with olive oil making,... we never ran an olive press before and now we
want to press someone else's precious olives?...hi risk!
Equipment malfunction during commissioning and lack of experience made for an
interesting commissioning period, but the customer was understanding and after
24 hour's of cleaning and repairs we were ready for the second run.
This time with better results!
In march 2003 we opened The Olivery, a purpose build olive and olive oil tasting room.
and the local politician, Ken Jasper, did the honors
Now we were selling Table Olives and Extra Virgin Olive Oil...and our customers love
the product
This positive feedback from our "visitors", as we call them, gave us the encouragement
needed to continue.
Then...the drought started to hit...it does not matter how much irrigation you put on,
the trees need rain water to grow and produce fruit.
The 2003 harvest produced a total of 2850 kg of olives !...less than previous year...
and we wondered about how can we could make a living out of those things?.
To supplement our meager harvest we found other groves in the North East.
We offered the owners a good price for their olives and we went about harvesting.
That's what we did, almost every day, from sun up to sun down, travel to groves,
harvest and travel back home, with a truck full of olives.
Good that our visitors liked the produce and kept our morale up!
By now it is december 2005, the trees have grown, producing more and more olives.
Not only have the trees grown, so has the business.
We now manufacture and sell not only table olives and extra virgin olive oil but also
Kathy makes an excellent Tapenade and I make olive oil soap, skin cream,and lip balm.
Our visitors can now relax in the shade on the deck of the OLIVERY and soak
in the olive grove atmosphere, nibble on olives, dip bread in olive oil and DUKKAH and
have a sip of our "GOORAMADDA Grove" wine while overlooking the Murray Valley.
Magic...put your feet up and ....enjoy.
Well, we did not stop after most of the infrastructure was established, there was
a need to put Gooramadda Olives on the map and into the public eye, and the best
way to do this is, we found, was to achieve recognition in the industry.
That was the start of many and many Medals and Awards, the list further down the page
gives you an idea of how our products are valued by the judges in the different competitions.
...we must be doing something right ?..
Now we write November 2009. Over 11 years ago we started this adventure.
It has been a great journey, with up's and down's, but mainly up's.
Last crop was 16.000 kg, of which we converted 4.000 kg into table fruit and 12.000 kg into oil
, which gave us a bout 2.000 litre.
This amount of table fruit and olive oil is what we can sell on a 4 day basis through our "olivery" tasting room.
Sales is still increasing, business is doing fine and there is a strong demand for our products.
Kathy and I struggle a bit to keep up with the demand, ...so the question is, do
we want to grow bigger? Or do we stay stay small?
The other issue is, we have achieved The Best Possible from a quality perspective,
for our type of industry and from now on the aim could be to maintain what we do.
Kathy and I are not maintainers, we like to create, innovate, establish something new,
something different, so what should we do?
Olive supply is not a problem, besides our own grove there are several olive growers
in the area who are happy to sell us their olives, the process is well established and so is the the customer base.
So, Kathy and I made the decision to put Gooramadda Olives on the market, we both
love what we do, have achieved what we set out to achieve and now it is time to
look at a new adventure, and if somebody is interested to take it over from us, please talk to us.
Plenty of potential!, a good little business with quality net profits and a desirable lifestyle.
The Tally so far...watch this space !
Accomplishments
( only Best in Show and Gold Medals are mentioned here)
2009
National Golden Olive Awards:
Best Extra Virgin Olive Oil in Show
2 Gold Medals
Australian Olive Association, National Extra Virgin Olive Oil Show
1 Gold Medal
2008
National Golden Olive Awards:
Best Extra Virgin Olive Oil in Show
Best Table Olives in Show
5 Gold Medals
Australian Olive Association, National Extra Virgin Olive Oil Show
1 Gold Medal
Northern New South Wales Olive Growers:
Best Extra Virgin Olive Oil in Show
2007
National Golden Olive Awards:
4 Gold Medals
Australian Olive Association, National Extra Virgin Olive Oil Show
1 Gold Medal
2006
National Golden Olive Awards
Best Extra Virgin Olive Oil in Show
3 Gold Medals
Australian Olive Association, National Extra Virgin Olive Oil Show
Best Extra Virgin Olive Oil in Show
2005
National Golden Olive Awards:
Best Extra Virgin Olive Oil in Show
Best Table Olives in Show
5 Gold medals
2004
National Golden Olive Awards
Best Extra Virgin Olives Oil in Show
Best Table Olives in Show
2 Gold medals
2003
National Golden Olives Awards:
Best Table Olives in Show
Peoples Choice Award for Extra Virgin Olive Oil
2001
Golden Olive Awards:
Annual award for Excellence for Black Ripe Olives
Annual Award for Excellence for Gourmet Olives
Well...how'z that !
Two little people on a hill in Gooramadda, taking away Australia's most wanted
trophy's
