For years, I assumed olives would not be winter hardy in our formerly Zone 7b garden, but after killing several clones in our attempts to confirm this, we finally found success in 2006 with the self-fertile, Olea ‘Arbequina’. The name Arbequina, comes from the Spanish village Arbeca, where this hardy olive cultivar originated in the 17th century. It took several years for our plant to begin producing a decent crop, which we enjoyed for two years, before an unwelcomed beaver with an axe to grind took our plant to the ground. Shortly thereafter, the beaver took an extended leave of absence due to terminal injury. It took almost five years, but our plant is back up to 10′ tall 10′ wide, with at least a gallon of harvestable olives this years. We offered this for a while, but it may be time to propagate some more.
Olives are not something the eat fresh. Due to the high levels of the bitter tasting, Oleuropein, they require processing to break down the chemicals that cause the bitterness. It typically takes 80-100 lbs of olives to produce 1 gallon of olive oil. We expect to harvest around 10 lbs. this year, so our plant should yield about 1 pint of olive oil. Since we only have one plant, I’ll guess it qualifies as an Extra Virgin.
I love the way you write, Tony
Congrats on the harvest! I have had the pleasure of bringing home olives from a hotel yard in Albuquerque once….and decided to salt-cure them. It’s way easier than brining or pressing, and you just need rock/very coarse salt. I enjoyed them for a LONG time. If you don’t want to do them all that way, you might just do a jarful. : )
lol! Very cool to have a hardy olive in the SE. a