Homeleigh Grove continues its award-winning ride

Homeleigh Grove is on a 41-acre farm at Wallaroo, on the NSW/ACT border, in an area Peter describes as almost marginal for olive-growing.

Homeleigh Grove continues its awardwinning ride

Homeleigh Grove owners Peter and Caroline O’Clery light-heartly blame ponies for their entry into olive growing, having planted their grove, the story goes, so their daughters couldn’t deposit more on the property. The decision certainly set them on a winning ride, with ongoing industry accolades culminating most recently in two Australian International Olive Awards (AIOA) Champion of Class trophies.

The 2021 AIOA saw the Homeleigh Grove Family Harvest awarded Silver and the Best of ACT EVOO trophy, while the Homeleigh Grove Lemon Myrtle Infused won Gold and the trophy for Champion Flavoured and/or Infused Olive Oil. Awarded 90/100 points by the judges, the Lemon Myrtle Infused was among the top five flavoured oils of the competition.

Homeleigh Grove’s Early Harvest EVOO also earned a Bronze medal, making it a clean medal sweep for all oils entered.

Background

The O’Clerys established the Homeleigh grove in 1999 on their 41-acre farm at Wallaroo on the NSW/ACT border. They’d lived on the property since 1984 and, with Peter in consultancy mode after a hectic career in the tourism industry and with a co-operative research centre, they were “looking for something additional to do”. They contemplated a few crop options and decided on olives.

“We had the land and a licensed irrigation bore but still didn’t feel we had enough water to be doing something like grapes, so rather we went for olives,” Peter said.

“The information available at the time was totally inaccurate - that they’re easy to plant, come on quickly, fruit prolifically, and so on and so on. It was quite persuasive. We now know that very little of it was actually correct - for any climate, let alone ours - but it seemed to make sense.

“We planted the first 40 trees as a trial and then thought it really wasn’t worth sitting for a few years and seeing what happened to them, so we might as well get on and plant a few more. We ended up with about 2000.

“Overall there are about 15 varieties but some are only a few trees - 10 of this and five of that. Those are mostly table olive varietals. Our main varieties are Leccino, Corregiolo and Frantoio.

“The principal varieties are Tuscan, chosen because the climatic

The good and the bad … Very few jobs are completely enjoyable, even when they’re successful and satisfying. Life as an olive producer is no different, with tasks some enjoy but others dislike and just get on with. And then there are those tasks that nearly everyone struggles to feel positive about. We asked the O’Clerys what the pros and cons of life in olives are for them. “The best things is that it keeps us active. “The worst is pruning in the middle of winter. Pruning is probably the worst part of the whole exercise, because of when you have to do it.” It’s interesting - although not really surprising - how many of our profiled growers share that sentiment!

Peter and Caroline are able to manage their grove and business themselves, with a little extra help at harvest time.

factors were somewhat similar to Tuscany. That came out of a discussion with other growers at the time, most of whom then went and planted other exotic varieties, which died.

“And interestingly, only a few of the people in that original group of about 35 are still in the industry.”

Listening and learning

While in hindsight some of the initial information they were given was questionable, the O’Clerys then set about learning how to care for olives from the experts - established growers.

“We went to a number of seminars, first to one held in Melbourne in the late 90s and then later to several of the ones run by Jayne Bentivoglio at Rylstone,” Peter said.

“You got the opportunity to talk with other growers, and gained from their experiences. We were sufficiently behind the first group who planted to see where some of the mistakes had been made and to learn from them.

“So it was lots of listening and asking questions and looking over notes. And then making decisions. In particular, there was a lot of controversy at the time about how many trees people could manage and how much water you needed.

“Someone recommended 3500 trees for us but I’m glad we didn’t plant that many or we wouldn’t have been able to manage them. For a husband and wife doing it all themselves, I think over a few thousand is just too much.

“You’ve got to make your decisions about what you can do and whether it is viable to employ third parties. If you get over a size where you can manage most things yourselves, you may find you can’t really afford to pay someone to do it for you.

“So, right from the start, if you plan to develop an olive grove you’ve got to be hard-headed and make practical decisions. For example: even in a good location, with ideal terrain, if you don’t have adequate water available, it’s just not going to work.” to manage their grove and business by themselves - with a little extra help at harvest time. While most of the work is shared, some areas of the production process are clearly delineated.

“I do the oils and Caroline does the table olives. We even have his and hers sheds,” Peter said.

“It’s mostly just the two of us, but when we get around to harvest (and some years when pruning) our son, Hugh, comes to help. If we have a big harvest we get a contractor in, if it’s small we have our own Tornado tractor-driven harvester, which is much slower.

“Last year it took two and a half days to harvest the 2000 trees. We got 35 tonnes and there was a still a massive amount on them. The next biggest crop we’ve had was about 30-something tonnes. However, in the year of the drought, after the smoke and the fires, we got nothing. This year it will be right down again, as a very bad

“When you win awards it gives retailers more confidence that you are producing a product they can readily sell.”

Ask questions, and get involved Having started their successful olive business literally from the ground up, Peter and Caroline have learned a lot of important lessons along the way. We asked what advice they’d give to other producers starting out in the industry. “One of the most important things for a new producer is to do a business plan. You will never get all the elements right, but it provides an excellent base on which to build and a reminder and reference point along the journey,” Peter said. “The plan needs to be pretty comprehensive and with an agricultural bias, taking into account climatic factors, soil factors, as grove management, testing, etc. But critically, it must (at least try) to set out how you might sell your products. What is your strategy and is it really feasible? “A lot of those who went into olives at the time we did had no realistic plan for either managing the grove or marketing the eventual product. As time and droughts went by, they didn’t have anything to work to, lost heart and didn’t prune, didn’t fertilise, and their groves didn’t survive. “Nature didn’t follow our plan but it still gave us the elements to consider when inevitably things did not go according to plan. “It gives you a baseline to fall back on and provides a modicum of discipline to the way you approach issues. Having done a plan and still going ahead and establishing an olive grove - you are probably a bit mad - but to just go into the establishment of a grove without good planning, as a lot of people did in the early days, is an expensive folly.”

hailstorm came straight in over us and we lost a lot.

“It’s another area where you need to take stock of the crop you’ve got and make practical decisions.”

Big range, small market

Homeleigh Grove produces both oil and table olives, and a surprisingly wide range of each given their boutique size. They sell three EVOOs and eight infused flavoured oils, more than six different table olive products, and their own branded dukkah and olive oil soap.

Peter said that luckily, selling their products isn’t the hardest part of their business.

“We now attend one market each week, the Capital Region Farmers Market in Canberra, and we supply to a limited number of shops, restaurants and outlets,” he said.

“We do have an online presence but it’s never been big. The only time it got really active is during COVID lockdowns and that was mainly established clientele asking for deliveries.

“We’ve always been in a position where we’ve been able to sell what we produce, so we don’t need to push.”

Marginal area

Consistently winning awards for their products helps, of course, but the O’Clerys say they can’t pinpoint exactly why their oils are so good.

“We’re almost into a marginal area for olive growing,” Peter said.

“The soil is somewhat acidic, just reasonable and variable. In fact, in the areas that have the deepest soil the trees have been slower. Our water has a high calcium level and is more alkaline, so that counterbalances to some extent the acidic nature of the soil.

“But olive growing is “horticulture”, and sometimes things are very good and sometimes they’re not. For example, this year we got plenty of rain but not enough sunshine. Sometimes all the factors balance. Other times disaster strikes when the frosts come early.

“So it’s more a question of working with what were given. I don’t think we do anything particularly different to other producers.

“With pruning, we’ve found it’s better to do some each year. We fertilise, and that’s a mix of fertilisers. This area is deficient in boron, so that is really important. We periodically do leaf tests and give them what is needed, but that’s really it.”

There was, however, something different about their winning ‘Family Harvest EVOO’ this year.

“The ‘family harvest’ this year was unusual,” Peter said.

“After two days on the job, the contract harvester went to bed at about 4am on the Saturday, and we took a few hours rest then took out our Tornado harvester to finish the job. Three trees in and the hydraulics jammed, so we left it sitting on the tree. Unfortunately, not one of the local hydraulics guys was available that particular weekend, and in the meantime, we had a couple of half bins of olives and 120 trees to go.

“We were supposedly having an end-of-harvest family BBQ that day so instead of relaxing, we all got in with six of our ‘retired’ Yamastik hand-held electric olive rakes and mats and picked what was left. It was that fruit which went into the successful ‘family harvest’.”

Medals mean something

Along with consistent medals at the AIOA and the Sydney Royal, Homeleigh Grove has also won silver in London and Paris, and a trophy in Rome. Nonetheless, their double-champion win at last year’s AIOA was particularly affirming.

“It means we’re doing something right,” Peter said.

“We go into the awards more as a way of benchmarking: they tell you whether you are actually doing things right and meeting the expectations of your customers. We’ve got customers who come along and say ‘what have you won recently?’, and ‘two champion trophies’ is a great answer!

“There’s no doubt that it boosts sales too. While some just buy what they want to buy, if some of your products have medals on them it really helps - and if they’re buying it for presents, they seem to like it covered in medals.

“And for people buying without tasting - like during the COVID lockdowns when tasting at markets had to stop - that medal means something, even if that medal is on another product. The fact that your products have received medals and awards gives your brand an extra level of credibility.

“That also goes for finding outlets. When we started out and did need to find retailers and customers, there were some who thought we were too small and unknown. But then you win awards and it gives retailers a degree of confidence that you are producing a product they can readily sell.

“I think in all industries quality competitions are very important. They provide a level of benchmarking across the industry, and give people entering the industry in particular some aspirations and targets.

“Competitions like the AIOA are also important in terms of national exports, in the way in which Australian oils have been presented on the world stage.”

The Homeleigh Grove product range includes both table olives and oils, including eight infused flavoured oils.