2026 Olive Pressing

For those interested in the MALETS communal olive picking and processing event, here are the details for our first pressing in 2026. It is likely that there will be a second pressing in early June (details to be confirmed).

We will take olives to the press on Sunday 17th May, so we need your olives by Sunday afternoon at a common collection point.

Collection points include:

• To the MALETS stall at the Newstead Community Market on the morning of Saturday 16th May before 1 pm.
• To the Duke Street location of weekly MALETS market on Sunday 17th May at 3pm. The address is 4 Duke Street (the park opposite the Castle Motel).

We can take any quantity of olives, from a few kilograms up to hundreds of kilograms.

Olives should be picked as late as possible so they are fresh when we get them. We recommend picking no earlier than Thursday 14th. Put them in olive crates if you have them (up to 20 kg per crate). If you don’t have crates, then we prefer small cardboard boxes with no more than 10 kg per box, to make handling easier. Please write your name on your boxes and crates. This is because we have to weigh all the olives using the same set of scales, for fairness and consistency. You don’t need to weigh your own.

Your share of the oil will be in proportion to the amount of olives you contribute. The figures vary from year to year due to seasonal conditions but as a rough guide, if you contribute 10 kg of olives you can expect about 1.5 litres of oil. The cost in 2025 was approximately $6.70 per kilo of oil. MALETS members will be charged costs in pods.

If you don’t have your own olives but would like to be part of the event, there are some producers who may need help with picking. The usual arrangement is that the picker takes a 50% share of the olives and the owner of the grove takes 50%. You can reply to this post to indicate your interest in picking for someone else.