Knowing that olive trees bear better on alternate years, planting at Skilly Hills was over a three year period, beginning in 1997. Some 1000 trees were ultimately planted (See "Skilly Hills History" page).

In 2001 we cropped for the first time some 150 Frantoio (Paragon) trees extruding some 20% of oil. It was all a trial of how to do it, when to pick, and who to extrude for us. Dr Michael Burr was our guiding light and it was a thrill to have him part of our humble beginnings. We used his extrusion plant at 'Beetaloo', which is some 80 kilometers north of us here in the Clare Valley. The homework was to stand us in good stead for the first of the 'real' crops to begin the following year when many more of our trees would come into bear for the first time.

The 2002 Crop of the 3 year old Leccino's (88 trees were bearing) was completed on 5th June 2002. It was extruded on 6th June 2002 at Tucci Bros. plant at Cavan, Outer Adelaide, South Australia. We managed 312 kilos off the 3 year old trees and that equated to 50 liters of oil - 16.95% oil.

The weather then turned to winter with temperatures plummeting (without rain as yet: 7th June 2002). the five year old Frantoio are waiting to be picked, but many are just not ripening so it was decided not to pick until the end of June. A report will be compiled then.

It took five days of crushing with some 560k of Leccino/Pendolino olives being crushed at least a month before the Frantoio. They are on a slope facing East which clearly, is the better sun as the ripening time happens much quicker. The trees are 3 years old and we managed to extrude 45 L at 25% oil extrusion.

With the Frantoio we averaged picking 630k per day. Picked that morning and crushed that afternoon. In Total 2520kg of Frantoio were crushed. The Pieralisi crusher's water was at 38oC and the oil paste prior to padding out, 26oC. The crusher was at 5200lb per sq inch pressure and the output averaged out at 28% oil extraction. The variety was all Frantoio and the age of the trees was 5 years. Friends assisted the crush and the camaraderie in the plant was wonderful. At the end of the five - six hour crush day, to see the oil flow was huge reward for us all. 690L of oil is now sitting in the tank settling down prior to selling to customers.

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