NOVA rejuvenation reaps harvest rewards

This year’s harvest says it all: the rejuvenation of the University of Adelaide’s NOVA olive grove has been an unmitigated success.

After more than two years of hard work and dedication by Olives South Australia (OSA) members and friends, early June saw the first harvest in the 1100-tree grove in more than 20 years. And what a harvest it was, yielding well over 22 tonnes of impressively high-quality fruit.

OSA’s Michael Harbison has been at the helm of the rejuvenation project since its inception, responsible for the repair and reinstatement of the irrigation system and a constant at the ongoing pruning and maintenance working days. He also took charge of this year’s harvest, which he said was consistently remarkable across the entire grove.

“All the trees were laden and the fruit was huge,” he said.

“Healthy too, not one bad olive - I’ve never seen the like of it before. There were no pests or disease whatsoever.”

That, Harbison said, is due to the obviously well-chosen location of the experimental grove.

“I used to have a cereal farm near there. The climate is very dry and there are no olive trees anywhere near the grove, so it’s quarantined from any spread of olive pests,” he said.

“It’s so dry, and sometimes so hot, that there is no black scale on the trees at all and no other pests either.”

Ripening range

The grove was harvested by contractor John Daniel over three days, with the resulting 22 tonnes of fruit yielding 4441 litres of oil. And Harbison said that was only part of the crop.

“There was still plenty there. Because there are over 100 varieties all up in the grove, the range of ripening times is very broad,” he said.

“This was measured over a number of years by (RICD researcher) Sue Sweeney and it stretches over three months. So it’s a bit of a frustrating grove to harvest because you’re trying to pick at the best time, when you’ll get the best number of olives with the best quality, but there’s so much variation.

“So we’ll probably go back and do some hand picks and John may come through again as well.

Renewed interest

Harbison said the bulk of the oil went to the harvesting and crushing contractors as payment for their work, while Olives SA kept some and the rest went to the University.

“They’re going sell it in the cafeteria as a promotion of the grove,” he said.

“We do seem to have sparked a new interest in the grove at the University: the manager of the college farm and the dean of the college both worked had on the hand rakes during an early trial harvest and I’m confident that they’re hooked. They’re actually thinking of starting an olive club to look after the grove.

“That’s exactly the result I was hoping for, particularly as we’ve seen how it responds to proper management. We’ve spent two years rejuvenating the grove and the first winter there was no fruit at all, but we’ve done massive pruning and watering and this season we’ve really been rewarded.

“It was an absolute joy to see the crop this year, and fascinating to see all the different varieties of fruit in the one grove.”

Education potential

Olives SA is also hoping that the successful rejuvenation of the grove could be the impetus for a previously-discussed course in olive production.

“University of Adelaide researcher Ben Pike is advancing that as best he can,” Harbison said.

“There are currently no horticulture units

Picked for you by John and Pat Harbison from the Australian

Olive Collection at Roseworthy College and bottled to celebrate John's 95th birthday, Monday 10th of

May 2021

500ml Always good but best before 10/6/23

John Henry's 2021 Extra Virgin Olive Oil

within the university at the moment. Ben is keen that there should be and that olive oil production, pickling and olive cultivation should be part of it.

“But these trees wait for no man, which is where the olive club would fit in the meantime. I’m hoping that the college will take the grove up, with or without a horticultural course. The strength of that interest will emerge as

we get into pruning and cleaning up in the next few months but it’s certainly strong now from the college people.”

No matter what happens from here, though, Harbison said the project has brought him much personal satisfaction.

“It’s been great for me especially, since my parents live in Gawler and they’ve come out on many occasions to prune and pick.

The National Olive Variety Assessment (NOVA) project was established to help resolve the confusion in olive variety identity and to evaluate the performance, in different climatic regions of Australia, of the majority of known commercial olive varieties. There were two major components to the project:

The National Olive Collection was established at the Roseworthy Campus of the University of Adelaide, north of Adelaide. The replicated experimental trial was planted with most of the known olive varieties available in Australia at the time. One hundred accessions were sourced from nurseries and government collections across Australia and 87 of these were provisionally regarded as different olive varieties. Planting was done in two stages, in late 1998 and 1999, in what is now known as the NOVA grove.

The evaluation of varieties utilised trees grown in commercial situations on properties across Australia. From 2000-2004, olive growers from different regions in Australia submitted fruit samples from their olive varieties for analysis of fatty acid profiles and fruit characteristics. For the purpose of this study, agro-climatic classifications were used to designate different olive growing regions in Australia. Unfortunately, in 2006 both funding and the principal investigators moved on to Picked for you by John and Pat Harbison from the Australian Olive Collection at Roseworthy College and bottled to celebrate John's 95th birthday, Monday 10th of May 2021 500ml Always good but best before 10/6/23 95th year! John Henry's 2021 Extra Virgin Olive Oil We’ve had a lot of wonderful family outings,” he said. “Personally, I’ve really enjoyed it. I can’t continue to put in the same amount of time but I love the cultivation of olives, and the creation of oil and table olives, and it feels great to have helped achieve such a successful outcome for this important industry resource.” other projects and there was no further activity until OSA ‘adopted’ the grove and commenced its rejuvenation several years ago. Source: Susan Sweeney, RIRDC (now AgriFutures Australia). The full project report can be downloaded at www.agrifutures.com.au. Go to the Publications drop-down and search for NOVA. 95th year! John Henry's 2021 Extra Virgin Olive Oil Picked for you by John and Pat Harbison from the Australian Olive Collection at Roseworthy College and bottled to celebrate John's 95th birthday, Monday 10th of May 2021 500ml Always good but best before 10/6/23

Picked for you by John and Pat Harbison from the Australian

Olive Collection at Roseworthy College and 95th year!bottled to celebrate John's 95th birthday, Monday 10th of May 2021 John Henry's 2021 500ml Always good but best before 10/6/23 Extra Virgin Olive Oil

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