Hi Kevin:  Its a big subject...olive farming...a few lines is not enough to be of much help, but....

1.  Yes the olives should be ready between November and January, but like any crop they will not all be ready at the same time.!! So what the farmers do is to start to clean under the trees and do a first pick of the ones on the floor about November time, then continue to pick and take to the mill right through until February.  Now depending on how good your olives are, and how much time you want to spend and how many trees you have, the methods are..1 pick them staight from the trees...very time consuming...allow a few hours for each tree, and expect to harvest from it several times, or 2, collect using nets...invloves spreading the nets under the tree and knocking the olives off into them, angain very time consuming but again you get a better crop and a few more cents per kilo, or 3...the most common way to harvest, is to pick them from the floor using a "recollector" like a lawn mower but with spikes for picking them up. This is the most fequently used (round here), and the quickest and easiest, but as the olives are only good for oil, you get a few cents less per kilo.  The biggest thing is cleaning under the trees. Its a big job!!

2.  I think there something in the order of 90 varieties of olives...yours will probably be a mixture like ours!!

3. If you ask down at the mill they will probably give you a few sacks to get you started, not sure about boxes, but nets can be purchased from Sol d'ebre.

Hope this helps...you really need to be living out here to be able to pick a crop, then you will probably find a local farmer will be only too glad to give you the benefit of his experience!!

Good luck

Liz

This might be of help to you also

http://www.geocities.com/~gianno/angi2.html#Planting

Ian

Hi Kevin and Ruth:  The Sol d'ebre is on the roundabout at Ferreries, if you came from the Sabeco, back to the roundabout with the dancers in the middle, straight over then under the bridge and its the next roundabout, first exit, on the right. Its a cooperativa/moli, but sells all sorts of agric stuff, weedkiller sprays etc, plus a small supermarket.

Maybe you could do a small "trial" harvest with your olives this year??  just clean under a few trees...the ones which look the best...and gather the olives from the floor....if you dont have too many you could probably use a stiff brush to brush them together, then shovel them into sacks....we have seen people taking just three or four sackfuls down at the mill. Dont worry about leaves/dirt etc in with them...they get cleaned at the mill.  Just a thought...do you have any irrigation on your olives.??  This year has been so dry, that a lot of people have low crops this year unless they have been able to water.

Good luck

Liz and Trevor

ps...whereabouts are you??

Hi Kevin and Ruth:...Sent you a PM

Liz and Trevor