It’s been wet and cold here on Saturna and that means olives in pots are slow to wake up from winter. The slow growth makes it hard to estimate which trees will be suitable for sale by early June. 

This six year old Maurino is showing a better fruit set this year than last:

and its companion Leccino shows a little less fruit but also better than last year:

Stop by our table at Victoria Seedy Saturday—in addition to featured cultivars such as Amphissa, Cailletier and Frantoio we’ll have some one-offs such as Boutellian—a wonderful French variety. And this 3 gallon Carolea pictured below. Carolea is a hard to find but very good variety for our growing region. It’s cold hardy and produces early ripening fat olives. Later this year a few more trees will come available but for now this the only one I have ready for sale.

Come visit our table at Victoria’s Seedy Saturday. We’ll have some of our usual suspects such as Frantoio and Leccino on hand but we will also have one or two special varieties we don’t offer online. More info to follow…

Seedy Saturday 2016

The harvest on my trees planted in the ground was light compared to last year but here are some cured olives harvested from the potted trees at the nursery:

Saturna Olive Consortium will be at the Saturna Saturday Market. And on Monday afternoon at Wild Thyme Bus for the ferry lineup

Stop by for a visit and take home a tree…or two…or…

Our inventory grew by a bit last week with the arrival of these 5 gallon trees. On average they’re about five feet tall. Picture below are Frantoio and Nocellara: 

Amphissa and Cailletier (Nicoise) to be exact. SOC will add a number of Amphissa and a few Cailletier by July. Taking orders now at the online store.

Amphissa produce medium to large sized table olives, often brined green.  And Cailletier is where delicious Nicoise olives come from. 

In case you missed it, a couple days ago we added five gallon Maurino trees to the online store inventory. These are in very limited supply—right now there are six listed in stock…not sure if we’ll get any more than that this year.

Still sorting out the details as to arrival times and how many of which varieties but check out the SOC online store for a limited selection of our future inventory. We also haven’t settled on final pricing due to uncertainty on exchange rates and transport costs but for now we are keeping the old price of $110—if you want some of these trees order now and get on the waiting list at this price. So far, confirmed cultivars include Frantoio, Leccino, Maurino and Nocellara del Belice.