The cultivation of the olive grove and therefore the harvesting of its fruit, the olive, has been carried out for thousands of years throughout the Mediterranean, combining ancient and modern methods.
The most suitable harvest is the one that allows the olive to be milled at the desired stage of ripeness in the shortest possible time so that all the transport and delivery tasks at the mill are carried out with minimal degradation.
The chosen harvesting method depends on the type of olive grove, whether traditional, intensive, or super-intensive, as the latter two allow a high degree of automation, enabling the harvesting of olives using harvesters, significantly reducing labor and time required for this task.
Most plantations are still traditional olive groves, many on irregular or sloping terrain, making automation of harvesting very difficult.
How are the olives harvested to produce extra virgin olive oil? Let’s look at the most common techniques where tradition and modernity coexist.
Shaking (Vareo)
This method is one of the oldest, in which the olive grower uses a stick or pole, previously made of wood and now usually fiberglass, to knock the olives down by striking the tree branches with a technique that tries to minimize damage to the branches and fruit. Despite this, many growers consider that the olive tree suffers significantly as it loses many branches, leaves, and shoots, potentially reducing the next harvest, which can be mitigated using other techniques.
After shaking, the olives fall onto a tarp or mat placed to collect them and are then placed in baskets for sorting to separate leaves, stones, and dirt from the fruit.
Hand Picking (Ordeño)
With this method, also very old, olives are picked by hand, one by one, directly from the tree, ensuring maximum utilization of the fruit for the current and next harvests while keeping the olives whole and undamaged. This technique is used for table olives and for high-quality oils, such as extra virgin olive oil, since it prevents contact with the ground. Ladders or platforms are used to reach higher branches. The harvested olives are placed in containers for transport to the mill for milling, preserving the olives from any mechanical damage and the olive tree suffers no harm, making it the ideal technique for producing extra virgin olive oils.
Vibration
This method is relatively new compared to traditional shaking and hand-picking. It involves using machinery in the harvesting process, where a clamp, usually tractor-driven, grips the trunk and vibrates it to make the olives fall. This system includes a canopy around the tree to catch olives before they hit the ground.
This process is usually combined with shaking, as vibration alone is not sufficient to make all olives fall, but it reduces the number of blows and the stress on the tree, considerably lowering the damage compared to traditional shaking.
Handheld motorized vibrators are also used, an evolution of traditional shaking, where branches were manually agitated to detach olives.
Ground Collection
This basically involves collecting olives that have naturally fallen to the ground at full ripeness. The ground under the trees must be clean, flat, and free of slopes so the olives don’t roll downhill; this preparation is known as “making the ground.”
The simplest ground collection method is manual picking, one by one of the olives. They can also be swept, vacuumed, or blown into piles for loading, although special machinery such as spike harvesters can damage the fruit, and sweepers are ineffective on wet ground and collect stones, sand, and other impurities that degrade the fruit, requiring sorting and washing at the mill.
For all these reasons, ground olives should not be used for producing extra virgin olive oils.
