If there’s one thing we’ve learned at Gladstone Olives, it’s that a great harvest doesn’t always need perfect weather – just great people, plenty of laughs, and a good BBQ. Our 2025 harvest had all of that and more, and capped off our best ever year!

This year we kicked things off a little later than usual, waiting until June so the fruit could reach absolute peak perfection. And while the olives and trees did their part, the weather had other plans.

We had everything from steady rain to snow dusting the mountain tops – beautiful to look at, slightly less beautiful when you’re standing in muddy boots with water trickling down your back. But despite the rain spirits were high, and we kept ourselves going with Hadleigh’s eclectic playlist featuring the likes of Queen, Britney Spears and Metallica.

2025 also marked a big milestone: our very first attempt at using a mechanical harvester, and what a difference it made! When it was running smoothly, we were able to pick significantly more olives than ever before, making this our biggest harvest to date.

Of course, with any new piece of equipment, there were one or two mechanical hiccups (noth Seth’s fault this time). Nothing like the thrill of troubleshooting hydraulic hoses in the rain! But thanks to persistence (and a bit of trial and error), we got through it and kept the harvester rolling.

Alongside the machine, we also had two fantastic manual-picking teams working nonstop throughout the week. Add in our large crew of children – who somehow managed to help and not get in the way too much – and we had one of the most energetic, enthusiastic harvest groups we’ve ever assembled.

Friends and family members showed up in force as well, turning each day into a little festival of teamwork and muddy boots. The BBQ helped too – turns out nothing fuels olive pickers quite like sausages, steak, and the promise of a cold drink at the end of the day.

All that effort paid off. By the end of the week, we’d picked more olives than ever before and pressed a staggering 1,200 litres of incredible extra virgin olive oil.

The flavour this year is outstanding: rich and bursting with the kind of fresh flavour you only get when the fruit is picked at exactly the right moment. We couldn’t be happier with the result. A good yield for olives to oil is around 12-14% – that means you’re getting 12-14 litres for every 100kg of olives you press.

Well, ours peaked at 16.4% – one of the highest yields in the region and a sign the fruit was just right!

After more than a week of rain, hard-work, machinery mishaps, and a record-breaking haul, we’re thrilled to share this year’s oil with you. Our 2025 extra virgin olive oil is now available online, and we’d love for you to try it.

Order your bottle (or two) here.

Bring on 2026! 🌿✨