June in the Olive Grove

Harvest is in full swing in Marlborough.  There seem to be good crop levels and the early fruit appears quite ripe yielding oil percentages between 14 – 18%.
The Press is fully booked up into the first two weeks in June but there is space later in the month.  Our Booking Co-ordinator is working overtime juggling requests for space and answering queries from new growers. 
We have a large number of growers on our database so that equates to many emails to be answered.  Please be succinct when you email with your request for a booking and have all the information there first up so it saves much to-ing and fro-ing with emails.  The essentials to have in your email are:
A completed Supplier Declaration – we cannot process fruit without this (food safety requirements)
An estimated volume of fruit – this is essential for fitting you into a processing slot.  We can only process a certain amount of fruit on any given day.  Small grower combined pressings (for volumes under 300kg) need careful organisation to achieve sufficient volume.
A preferred delivery date – this is the starting point and will depend on bookings but we try to oblige.
Whether or not you will be taking your pomace waste away.  It is presumed you will, but if not, we need to know as the waste stream is different.
 
When you deliver the fruit you will need to bring in your completed Supplier Delivery/Collection Declaration along with clean and appropriate receptacles for your oil and something to take away your pomace waste. All clearly labelled.
Appropriate Receptacles for oil are: food grade plastic or stainless steel storage containers.  Ideally these should be a minimum capacity of 5 litres as it is very fiddly and time consuming to fill smaller containers.  Glass is unacceptable.  We will reject inappropriate or dirty receptacles.
Pomace Waste containers: these should be leak proof and large enough to hold an amount equivalent to your fruit volume.  They could be the container you bring your fruit in if appropriate.  Pomace is sloppy so a lid may be useful.  If you are unable to take your pomace you will be charged a waste fee on top of your pressing fee.
Leaf blowing:  please ensure your fruit is as clean as possible.  If it is full of leaf, twigs and other debris it will have to go through the leaf blower and you will be charged a fee for this.  Excess leaf will be identified at weigh in.
 
Remember all this information and links to the documents needed are on our website olivepressmarlborough.co.nz
 
Happy harvesting.  We will see you at the Press.