Our next workstay was at an olive grove in the Marlborough region, a place with a good climate for grapes and fruit growing.
We stayed with a wonderful, easygoing couple who recently bought the place, we had a great time.
There was some building work, but we happened to be there for the annual harvest, although it was the world's smallest olive crop!
It was just a bad year and there were only a handful of trees worth harvesting. It was good for us, because we got to see the whole process with no pressure, we picked some by hand, some by machine. The previous year took 6 weeks of work to harvest, this year it took one day!
After the olives are picked, they go into a machine that grinds them into a paste, then the paste goes through a centrifuge to separate the oil. It's a cold-process, so the oil is pure as! There's nothing like fresh oil off the press- its delicious, fruity, and very strong- it burns the back of the throat.
In the end they only got 7 liters or so, which is hardly anything, but it was still fun.
And Jill learned to ride a 4-wheeler!
The best part was they got their new chickens while we were there- we got to name the 2 Araucanas after ourselves: Chicken Jilly & Lee Chicken.
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