Olives

Planting of Goedgedachts olive groves started in 1991 with the first four hectares. Our first harvest was in 1996 and we produced a 8kg basket of olives. Thirteen years later we are harvesting over 60 tons of olives. Of the 60 tons which have been harvested, a third have been used for black and green table olives and the rest used in the production of our extra virgin olive oil. Our oil is produced on the farm and bottled and packed under strict food hygiene, safety conditions in a factory in Cape Town.

We became a member of SA Olive Industry Association in order to ensure that we adhered to their quality standards. The following requirements have been met; guaranteed 100% South African product, year of harvest is displayed on the bottle, adherence to the SA Code of Conduct and Practice for production and labeling and assurance that high quality standards are met with the label accurately reflecting content. A best before date and batch numbers are also visible on our products which allows for traceability.

Olive cultivars grown on Goedgedacht Farm

A total of 6 varieties of trees have been planted on Goedgedacht, namely, Frantoio, Leccino, Mission, Mansanilla, Nabali Baladi and Coratina. On Goedgedacht we produce green Manzanilla and black Mission table olives.
Manzanilla produces a very good green olive: ideal for pickling, originally from Spain. This is one of the most popular table olive cultivars and grown worldwide. It is a robust variety with a well-developed canopy. It sets single fruits of medium size that are symmetrical and apple-shaped, as indicated by the name (manzanilla – small apple).

Mission – Black Olive

Ideal for pickling and can be used for oil, originally from California. Our olives are cured for minimum of 3 months in brine, then the fun starts with flavouring them in garlic and very special herbs (sorry, our secret).

Mission is by far the most popular cultivar grown in South Africa. It can be used for oil and table use.The fruit is of medium size with a fair flesh to pit ratio, which improves as the fruit ripens. Mission is most suitable for black table olives and will give a product an attractive appearance, medium firm to plump texture and good taste when processed correctly.

At Goedgedacht we pick the green Manzanilla olives in April and the Mission olives at the end of May/ June. These olives are then size graded, sorted and then they undergo a slow natural lactic acid fermentation for a period of 3-6 months. They also undergo a natural oxidation to achieve a uniform darkening.

In the final packing brine we add some olive oil infused with herbs to acquire the unique taste true to this style of processing. Once the final brine is added to the sorted olives they are packed and pasteurised and can then be distributed.