The popular community event ‘Olives to Oil’ will be hosted at the Newport Community Hub, in partnership with the Hobsons Bay Festival of food, this Sunday.
‘Olives to Oil’ brings people across Melbourne to harvest their backyard olives and have them pressed into olive oil.
CERES Community food systems manager Merrin Layden said it’s exciting to be taking the ‘Olives to Oil’ project back to where it all began.
“Since our first Olives to Oil event in Hobsons Bay in 2018, the program has grown in popularity and is now a well-loved annual tradition for hundreds of people across Melbourne,” she said.
Participants are encouraged to celebrate the harvest with a festival day of music, food and culture.
The event is on June 4 and participants need to register online to book a time to drop off their olives.
Participants will then need to harvest and bring their olives on the day, Ms Layden recommends the olives be harvested no earlier than June 2, so the oil doesn’t spoil.
“You can pick the olives by hand individually or in handfuls, shake the branches or use a rake to pull the olives down from the tree,” she said.
Now in its sixth year, the project has collected and pressed nearly 10 tonnes of backyard olives since 2018.
“We collect the fruit, take it to Barfold Olives near Kyneton to be pressed, then deliver the olive oil back to participants later in the year,” Ms Layden said.
Details: eres.org.au/olives-to-oil
Jennifer Pittorino
