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, to achieve recognition in the industry.
We did this by entering our produce in the "Golden Olive Awards",
Australia's second largest Olive and Olive Oil competition
These are the results ...so far.....watch this space !
2001
Golden Olive Awards (the first year we entered )
Gooramadda Olives received the following:
* Annual Award for Excellence for Black Ripe Olives
* Annual Award for Excellence for Gourmet Olives
* Annual Award for Excellence for Gourmet Olives
2002 Golden Olive Awards
We did not enter our produce in the competition.
2003 Golden Olive Awards
Gooramadda Olives received the following:
* Major Award for Best Table Olive in Show
* Best in Class Award for Table Olives Class 2, Green Table Olives.
* Best in Class Award for Extra Virgin Olive Oil , Class 3, New Exhibitor.
* Peoples Choice Award for Extra Virgin Olive Oil. ( shared )
2004 Golden Olive Awards
Gooramadda Olives received the following:
* Trophy for overall best Extra Virgin Olive Oil in Show
* Trophy for overall best Table Olive in Show
* 2 Gold Medals
* 2 Silver Medals
* 3 Bronze medals
here we are..proud of the achievements:
and so it goes on...and on...
The list is getting a bit long
2005 Golden Olive Awards
Gooramadda Olives received the following:
* Trophy for overall best Extra Virgin Olive Oil in Show.
* Trophy for overall best Table Olive in Show
* 5 gold medals
* 1 Silver medals
* 3 Bronze medals
it just fitted on the wall in the shop
We must be doing something right!
We were wondering....What will the future bring??
Well let me tell you.....
It is now November 2006.
As usual, we had entered our table olives and olive oils in the Golden Olive Awards
After much deliberation, we also had entered two of our best oils in the largest competition,
organised by The Australian Olive Association (AOA)
In early October we got an email from the secretary of the AOA that it would be
nice if we would turn up
at the dinner event in Canberra where the prize winners would be announced.
Kathy and I took a few days off and went to the Canberra
And...we came home from the Australian Olive Association presentation dinner
with Best in Class..and Best In Show
for our Extra Virgin Olive Oils.
Well...how'z that !
Two little people on a hill in Gooramadda, taking away Australia's most wanted
olive oil trophy
CRICKEY !
I all starts to sound a bit boring, but our two oils ( Hardy's Mammoth and UC13A6)
entered into the AOA comp were battling it out for the top position.
But I should not forget the Golden Olive Awards 2006
2006 Golden Olive Awards 2006
Gooramadda Olives received the following:
* Trophy for Overall Best Extra Virgin Olive Oil in Show.
* 3 gold medals
* 5 Silver medals
* 10 Bronze medals
Here we have a picture of the Golden Olive Awards 2006 winnings
Now it is December 2007, another year gone by.
The seasons have been dry but thanks to the irrigation from the Murray river, the
trees are doing well and producing a good quantity and quality of olives.
The Golden Olive Awards 2007 have been held, here are the results:
2007 Golden Olive Awards 2007
Gooramadda Olives received the following:
* 4 Gold medals
* 3 Silver medals
* 1 Bronze medals
Of course we entered our best olive oils into the Australian Olive Association
competition and Kathy and I went again to Canberra to collect the winnings:
Not "Best in Show", but nevertheless : GOLD,SILVER and BRONZE !
These achievements bring about a new sort of problem.....
It is now almost year ten in our olive adventure.
Sales is rapidly increasing and there is a huge demand for our products.
We are unable to keep up with the demand, ...so the question is, do we want to grow bigger?
Or stay small?
If we want to meet demand we will need to expand, more infrastructure and most
likely start hiring personnel.
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.
So, Kathy and I made the decision to keep it small, a "two-person-band", and if somebody
in the future is willing to take over the business and expand...welcome.
Plenty of potential!
.
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