Every step of the olive production process is completed by hand and onsite at Telegraph Hill Olivery. The processing of table olives requires practice and patience!
This week we are grading olives which requires all hands on deck a couple of times a month. The olives are graded for the first time at harvest and then again once we are satisfied they have reached optimal flavour through processing. They are hand graded for size and quality before they reach our production kitchen, ensuring only the largest olives of our harvest reach our table olive products.
Olives are taken straight from the barrel and tipped into a large hopper and then fed out along a conveyor belt which gives us time to inspect each olive as it rolls past. Then they run through a sizer which separates small, medium and large olives.
Most mass-produced olives are ripened using ripening/chemical agents which gives them a even black colour. You might notice Telegraph Hill olives have some variation in their colour. This is the quid pro quo for better flavours that only tree-ripened olives can produce.
