Community olive harvest
Help turn unwanted olives into delicious oil.
We need your help to bring along olives from your trees, tell us about trees that aren’t being picked and help on Saturday 31 May and Sunday 1 June to pick the olives for processing.
What’s the plan?
Register and bring freshly harvested olives to the Warrnambool Community Garden between 10-12pm on Saturday 31 May.
Tell us about your olive tree or one in your neighbourhood and our crew can try to pick it to transform the olives into oil.
We’ll have a harvest session on Sunday 1 June to pick as many olives as we can.
Olives will head to Grampians Olives Co. on 2 June to be pressed.
We’ll pick up the oil and distribute the deliciousness.
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Awesome! You need to book in below so we know how many olives to expect (it’s our first time trying this).
Pick your olives on Thursday or Friday before you bring them to the Warrnambool Community Garden on Grieve Street on Saturday 31 May between 10am-12pm.
We will confirm your details and weigh your olives. If you’d like some oil in return, you’ll need to make a $5 donation to the running costs of the project.
After the olives are pressed, we will email you to confirm the pick up date and time. Bring your container along to take home your fresh olive oil.
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Fantastic! Please fill in the details on the share a tree page so we know where to find the tree.
If it’s not your tree, we will try our best to get in touch with the relevant person to get permission to pick.
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Yay! Please fill out the application form on the volunteer page.
We will send the details about the times and locations for the olive pick the week before.
Register for olive drop-off
Drop off is between 10am and 12pm on Saturday 31 May at Warrnambool Community Garden.
Our neighbourhoods are full of olive trees and they are often left unharvested. Keep an eye out in your local parks and street verges. Trees on the nature strip may be cared for by nearby residents and to avoid upset, ask before you pick the fruit.
Pick your olives no more than two days prior to drop-off so it’s fresh and doesn’t spoil. A mix of green and black is good but discard any that are damaged.
You can pick by hand, shake the tree with something underneath to catch the olives or use a ladder. To learn more about picking your olives, use CERES guide.
On drop off, we’ll weigh your olives and if you’d like to make a $5 donation, you can receive a share of the oil based on your contribution. We won’t know exactly how much oil it will be because this varies between varieties and seasons. Your olives will be processed with the rest of the harvest, so the oil will be a blend of types. We hope it will be delicious.