June 2021
Drum roll, please….
The wait is over! This year we thought we’d pay tribute to all Aussie’s who have being doing it tough over the past 12 months. We thought what better way, than to offer everyone out there Hopes and Prayers?
Our 2021 harvest oil is now on the shelves waiting for you to get your lot. Get your Hopes and Prayers here, everyone!!!
We're taking orders now on 250mL (great for gifts), 1L pouches (a great way to look after the environment), 5L jerry's and 20L cubes for the serious consumers. Message me for details on how to get your hands on some so I can send you Hopes and Prayers!!!
April 2021
We are very pleased to announce this years olive harvest is done and dusted.
Many thanks to the usual suspects (John, Ellissa and Lisa) for helping out again with this year's harvest; we couldn't have done it without you!!!
April 2021
Hello all you lovely people. We're well and truly ramping up for our 2021 harvest and after a recky of the grove we're anticipating a greater than average harvest this year! In preparation, we have great deals on our remaining 2020 olive oil stocks to make way for 2021 vintage. Great discounts for quantities 5L or more. If you're interested, please send us a message. Otherwise, watch this space for updates on our 2021 harvest!!!
September 2020
So. Back in early August, with the help of two amazeballs people, we gave a number of our trees the kindest cut. They are getting quite large now so giving them a trim allows light and air through the canopy; reducing leaf matter and allowing the trees to put their energy into setting flowers rather than leaves. They looked a little harsh afterwards, but we were confident things would pan out.
Well, checking the grove today, colour me happy with what I saw. Even though there are no flowers yet (the buds become fruit once pollinated), the volume and size of the buds on these trees compared to the trees that weren't given a haircut is obvious. So now cross your fingers, everyone. With a little more rain and some clear days, these babies should pollinate and turn into next years harvest by November.
A special mention, too to John and Dianne Kearney for lending your time, backs and knowledge with the big prune!
June 2020
So, here’s how the 2020 harvest came to be. As you’d expect; just because it’s us, this year’s harvest wasn’t totally smooth sailing. Here’s the short version of the story.
It almost didn’t happen – a number of times.
Issue 1: Finding a processor to process our olives. For various reasons, our usual processor was unable to process our olives this year. What to do? Get out the phone book (or Google) and start cold calling a number of processors in the hope that one will be available!
Issue 2: Due to a little bug called COVID-19, intrastate travel restrictions looked to put a dent in our plans to head north.
Issue 3: Getting permission for a couple of seasoned support crew to travel with us to assist with the harvest.
It all looked like it was going to go to pot, then a couple of days before the April long weekend, things started falling into place.
The lovely team at Sumich EVOO availed themselves to us to process our olives. I’m not too ashamed to say I may have shed a tear when they agreed.
Then the WA State Government released its G2G Pass app to make it easier to cross internal borders for essential work.
We applied for the exemption and were approved within a matter of hours.
Lastly, it was confirmed the lovely Lisa and brilliant Barry were also approved an exemption to travel to assist us with the harvest. They have helped out previously and are well versed in our processes and machinery (and sometimes colourful language).
All set, you say? Well, almost.
We arrived at WGO Central and proceeded to pull out the machinery to commission everything in readiness for the harvest. During the process, we find that our harvester has succumbed to a pretty serious electrical failure and needed urgent surgery to repair some pretty essential wiring. Who may you ask, are we going to find on the Saturday afternoon, of a long weekend, to do some sparky repairs for us? It looked like the gig was off. But wait, in steps brilliant Barry who turns to us and says “Hold my [Ginger] beer, I’ve got a plan.” Little did we know that in a former life, Baz boned up on electrical engineering and with a little creativity, a few choice words and the determination of a man who does not have the word ‘defeat’ in his vocabulary, spent some time on the tools and got us up and running again. Needless to say I almost had another tear in my eye and gave Baz a big ol’ elbow bump (thanks, COVID-19 restrictions) in appreciation!
As Baz was doing his magic, Brett found another [not so] minor issue that involved a dicky valve on one of the harvester wheels. After a few more choice words and whole lot of elbow grease, the tyre was eventually changed and we were finally off and running.
The next day, to our utmost surprise and relief, the harvest went surprisingly smooth. It was a bit of hard yakka as the trees didn’t really want to give up the fruit. But with some gentle persuasion (which may have included threats to bring the chainsaw out), the trees gave us a modest but satisfying yield. The olives were sent off to the processor and we ended up with a reasonable return for our efforts.
So, in honour of the man who doesn’t accept the word ‘defeat’ (unless it’s to put them in de-shoes), we have named this year’s harvest BAZINGA!
Seriously now, if it wasn’t for the wonderful assistance of Lisa and Barry, this year’s harvest would have been seriously in doubt. Thank you, guys, from the bottom of our wine-glass shaped hearts.
A special thank you, too, to the team at Sumich EVOO. Without your assistance, there would have definitely been no harvest.
Now it’s up to you, girls and boys. We have done the hard bit. Please support our little grove. Put your $ where your [heart] is and buy local when you can. Please help us out by sharing the link to our page to get the message out that buying local, matters!
Thanks, everyone x
April 2015
A huge shout out to Stephen Whitely for taking some absolutely magnificent images of the grove. You are very talented!! Click on the link for a montage of the images taken by Stephen...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxRxHZz-dR0
September 2014
So. Remember how I told you that we entered our 2014 Harvest EVOO ‘The Munificent' into the 2014 Perth Royal Show? Well, the judging has been and gone and the results are in – WE WERE AWARDED A BRONZE MEDAL!!!
We are all pretty chuffed at WGO Central considering we have only been in the game for 12 months and this was our first harvest. To celebrate, everyone who buys a 1L cask of ‘The Munificent' in September will receive a 250mL bottle of EVOO randomly selected from our range with our compliments. To purchase, just head to our website www.wirragambaolives.com.au
Don’t forget – by buying Wirra Gamba Olives EVOO, you know you are buying 100% West Aussie (award winning) produce and 100% EVOO!
July 2014
Happy days - Our 2014 EVOO is bottled and ready for sale!
May 2014
Well - what a huge weekend we've had a WGO central! We dusted off the harvester and after a shaky start (pardon the pun), we managed to take just over a tonne of olives off for the first trip to the processor. Only 4 more tonnes to go....
March 2014
Open for business, come on down! Markets Under The Pines (our first markets)