How are olives harvested?

Olives are gathered utilizing different strategies, each suited to the scale of the operation and the required quality of the natural product. Here are a few common olive gathering methods:

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Hand Picking:

This conventional strategy includes picking olives specifically from the tree by hand. It's labor-intensive but permits for selective collecting, guaranteeing as it were the leading olives are collected. This strategy is delicate on the trees and the natural product, protecting the quality of the olives¹.

Utilizing Rakes or Combs:

Collectors use small rakes or combs to strip the olives from the branches. This will be done physically or with the assistance of handheld mechanical gadgets. It's quicker than hand picking but still moderately delicate on the trees².

Tree Shakers:

Mechanical tree shakers are utilized to vibrate the branches, causing the olives to drop off. This strategy is effective for bigger forests and decreases the time and labor required for collecting. In any case, it can be less particular and may cause more bruising to the fruit².

Huge Apparatus:

For broad commercial olive forests, huge apparatus that includes the tree and shakes it to discharge the olives is utilized. This strategy is the foremost productive for large-scale generation but is as it were appropriate for forests with trees that have been prepared and pruned to suit the machinery².

Natural Drop:

Some producers pick to gather olives that have normally fallen to the ground. This strategy requires negligible labor but can result in a lower quality of olives, as the natural product may be overripe or damaged from the fall².

In any case of the strategy, it's imperative to handle the olives with care to avoid bruising and to guarantee the most noteworthy quality of the natural product for eating or oil generation. The timing of the gather moreover plays a significant part, because it influences the flavor and oil substance of the olives. Regularly, olives are collected within the late summer to drop, depending on the locale and the variety¹