Custom Milling

No, unfortunately due to safety issues, we will not be able to allow anyone on the premises while we are milling the olives. There are too many moving parts, equipment moving, etc. that can lead to someone getting hurt. Only Olivina staff will be on the premises during the olive milling.

before placing you on the milling calendar, we will ask you what cultivar(s) of olives you have. There are some cultivars that we will only mill at the end of the harvest year, such as Manzinillo ("Manzy") olives.

We will inspect all of the olives as they come in that morning to attempt to identify the type (cultivar) of olive, condition of the olives and then weigh them for record keeping.

Yes, please complete as much of the Custom Milling Agreement as you can and bring with you. We will work with you to complete the last remaining lines, such as weight and condition.

You can get the agreement by clicking this link to pre-fill in before coming with your olives. Preferably emailing a copy to us prior to milling date to Charles@TheOlivina.com. 

Please bring clean sanitized containers that can be sealed. We will only have a few extra containers on hand, so to ensure that your oil will be ready for you, please bring a container with you. Also please place your name on containers to help us determine yours from the other containers.

Depending on the size of your tree(s), you can either hand pick them into a bucket by gently pulling down on the olive branches, without ripping leaves or twigs from your trees, to bring the olives off. If the tree is taller, then lay out a tarp under the tree branches and then use a pole such as a length of plastic pipe to tap the limbs to shake them. The olives will fall on to the tarp, then you can fold up the tarp and place the olives into a container. Please try to remove as many of the leaves, stems and twigs from your olive containers.

Store the olives in an open container that allows the olives to stay cool till you bring them to Olivina.

If they olives are dried or shriveled up, then they may not have received enough water or the tree was not supplying enough energy to that branch. If the olives appear to have little pin prick marks on the olive, it might be an indication of the olive fruit fly planting it’s larvae into the olive. You may want to cut open a few of your olives to see if you see damaged olive, maybe a little trail, like an ant trail, inside the olive where the larvae was eating his way through the olive. If there is substantial damage of your olives, there is a chance that we would reject your olives and not mill them, asking you to take them home and put in your recycle bin for composting. 

It is best to pick your olives just before we mill them. You will find that the olives will be green, burgundy and black in color. It is the inside of the olive that will reflect the maturity of the olive, not necessarily the exterior color.

We are looking at the condition of the olive to make sure that they are in satisfactory condition, free of olive fly damage, minimal leaves or twigs. There can be NO dirt, pebbles, rocks, etc. that can damage the olive mill.

Directions are available on our website for those that are not familiar with where we are. Please DO NOT stop at the historic Olivina arch, but go further down Arroyo Road about 1.3 miles till you see our wrought iron gates.