Hi Kevin,

glad you're enjoying the forum!  Well, living near Campredo you are very near to one of the 'better' olive mills.  There is one near you called 'Moli d'Oli'.  They are very friendly and helpful and speak a little bit of English (but not much!).

If you come off the new dual carriageway at the Campredo roundabout (the one on the hill that goes over the top of the dual carriage way just after the quarry) then you should find the signpost to it.

For harvesting there are (as far as I'm aware) 3 methods;
1. Make sure the ground is clean underneath and then use a 'Spiky roller' to pick them up.
2. Put down nets and hit the branches with a big stick to shake them off
3. Use a machine to shake them off either into nets or there is a machine that has a collector - it looks like an inverted umberella and wraps round the tree before it's shaken.

Make sure you keep any picked from the ground separate from any shaken from the tree as they pay less for the ones picked from the ground.

If you take a trip to Moli d'Oli then you should be able to pick up some sacks to put the olives in.

If you have carob or almond trees then they will also take these.

Nigel