Thursday, November 26, 2015

An Overview On Central Coast California Olive Farm

By Brenda Warner


There are many forms of economic activities all round the world farming being one of them. A number of people actually live on farming. They do it for to meet their basic needs. In addition to provision of income, farming is beneficial for provision of food. This leads to healthy living. Various cash crops are grown at various places. This is to feed both the local and worldwide market. A good example is the central coast California olive farm.

The source of olive is the its tree. This tree has been growing in the coast of California for a long period of time. The product of this plant is olive oil. The oil is known worldwide and has many applications. The tree is short, squatted and always green. They bore long, thin fleshed and small fruits. An indication of ripe fruits is when they turn purple or green. Managing the crops can be described to be both easy and at the same time difficult.

These plants can survive in almost all the climatic conditions making them able to grow at the coast. They can grow at both sunny and moderate environs. They also adapt by retaining or not dropping their leaves surviving in almost all the types of soils. With fruit bearing, they can have fruits for almost the entire season. Since they are not tall, harvesting is a simple task.

Currently, many cash crops have developed a mechanized system of harvest. This however is not true when it comes to this plant. Mechanization does not go well with its harvest. It is even proven that the quality of the resultant oil goes down with an increase in mechanization systems used. This means therefore that high quality oil results from manual work of picking them manually with the use of hands.

There are two methods of harvesting by hand. The first one involves use of a basket. Here, the workers pick the fruits by hand and placing them into the baskets. It is the best method but less effective and more costly. The second method is by picking with a net. In this method, fruits are picked using long sticks and plastic rakes and collected into the net. It is more efficient compared to the first method.

Mechanized methods for harvesting exist but are not commonly used. This is because they can injure branches and leaves of the tree. These machines work by shaking the tree making the fruits to fall off. Other machines work by enveloping the tree and suck off all the oil. Weather conditions during the harvesting seasons are of great importance. Farmers therefore should start harvesting when the right weather conditions prevail.

Experienced farmers will always not fall out identifying the correct season to harvest. This involves noting the season when rains are not heavy, there is moderate cold and less fog that may hinder the harvesting process. During harvesting, three people are enough to deal with one tree.

Small scale olive farmers usually employ the use of family labor during the harvesting period. Large plantations with many trees will require external source of labor to help during this period. With them however, they are faced with a challenge of inadequate labor as many persons do not enjoy farm work.




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