I may have had nothing to do with putting them there, as my olive trees were already mature, and some of them are probably a good deal older than me, but from a self-sufficiency perspective they really are an A1, top notch ecological-asset in that they produce A LOT of calories (tasty calories with some essential vitamins too) for hardly any maintenance, albeit if harvesting and processing them is a bit of effort!
The calorific maths of my olives - olive oil...
Last year only around 25 of my 45 trees were productive (due I think, to prior years of neglect), and that yielded me around 30 litres of oil, I think.
I say I think, I didn't keep track of how many olives came off my trees, having done a pool for oil with four other quintas - my share came out at 50 litres, but I think some of the other farms were much more productive than mine, so I'm being conservative, and it was apparently a very good year too, so a typical year might produce less.
Still, with only around 60% of my trees productive last year I think it's safe to say that, following a good (but not harsh) pruning this year, I should be on for 40 litres of oil per year going forwards.
Anyway, onto the math....
- 1 litre of olive oil has approximately 8000 calories in.
- With my trees producing 40 Litres a year, that's 320 000 calories
- 320 000/ 365 (days of the year) = 876 Calories a day.
- 876 calories = around 2628 calories, which is sufficient for me to lead a reasonably active life.
I wouldn't want to consume more than a third of my calories in olive oil ordinarily, although apparently there are no health disadvantages to doing so (according to the famous Crete study which followed fishermen who got one third of their daily calories from drinking olive oil and they lived longer than people who didn't on average!).
Normally I like to eat a wider range of food, but if the shit hits the fan and global food supplies go tits up, I could do a lot worse than drinking a small glass of olive oil a day, that's for sure!
Maintenance, Harvesting, Processing...
Olive Trees take very little maintenance, at least once you're done clearing up after years of neglect, an hour a tree in winter will be sufficient easily, AND you get some kindling into the bargain.
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They don't need watering, they don't need feeding, although this year I've opted to give them some manure, but it's not necessary.
Harvesting is a bit of a pain - you really need a team of people to make it fun, on your own it would be PAINFUL, but you don't need too much capital outlay on equipment, but it has to be factored in!
And processing... here one is dependent on the local presses, so that makes one not 100% self-sufficient, but outsourcing this particular process is more cost efficient than buying your own press, they are EXPENSIVE!
Final thoughts....
I've been thinking a lot recently about what trees I can plant and what food I can store to buffer myself against future price-shocks, and it's nice to know that I've already got one of the best food producing plants up and running, and the oil is delicious too!
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What’s the difference between the “cloudy” bottle and the “clear” one? We’re they processed differently?
No - same process, same press, just the two different batches - it's just the different balance of olives from different farms.
Surprisingly different, but both amazing!
Interesting. I was going to ask the same question. 😁
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I was picturing you having olive oil cocktails lol consuming your daily calorie intake. Really lucky even though it does mean some hard work on your part helping out during harvesting. Olive oil is not cheap here and I suppose being in the region is fairly cheap there or am I presuming wrong? Here I pay around $10 per liter and the quality varies if you shop for specials.
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Ah it's cheaper here, I guess because of the plentiful supply, you can get 5 Litres for 30 EU no problem, top quality too.
Ours is insane!
It's great that you are thinking ahead about inflation and relating that back to what you can produce yourself. Well done with your harvest!
Haha, you've got me searching on whether olives will grow here in Mexico. As always, the best time to plant a tree is 7 years ago 😂.
I'm sure they would do OK - especially down south?!??
Apple trees are always a good option. Can make apple pie and freeze it, Jars of apple sauce or just eat as is.
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Ah and I love apples - don't have any... yet!
What an awesome source of calories!
They really are, especially as the trees grow on relatively marginal land, and survive 40 degree heat and no rain for a couple of months in the summer!
Yeah that is so amazing! That is such a small amount of water requirements and maintenance for what you get.
Olive oil stores so well which makes it even better as a calorie source to stock up on.
Ah yes I forgot to mention the storage, more than a year, and then the next lot come along, and of course you can store things in it too!
More than a year is really good! Ha, I did not even consider storing stuff in it.
Now that I think about it olive oil is very handy between the food uses, the ability to oil tools with it and I guess it would even work as lamp oil if need be.
This pictures brings back memories of when I once worked on an olive farm. I never knew of this properties of Olive tree, thanks for sharing :-)
That's interesting, and yes they are great trees!
That's awesome! I'd love to have some olive trees one day if I can get the land for it
Do you also do all the processing to obtain the oil or do you have a third party doing that for ya?
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Ah it's much easier to send it to the presses, much more cost efficient.
I hope you get some land soon!
That's pretty awesome. Here in the United States you have to be careful because so many brands of olive oil that aren't actually olive oil but fake. You are lucky to have the freshest you can get. This is year #1 on our new farm and we are planting as many perennial food trees/plants as we can. The current state of the world definitely has us thinking about what we eat and what we can produce ourselves because of the prices and shortages.
Oh go for olives for sure! You can just eat them straight as well, of course!
I'm in the same situation - what do I need to plant to survive?!?