THE STORY of Gwydir Grove began 21 years ago, when local women Margi Kirkby and Jenni Birch bought themselves a second-hand olive press and proceeded to harvest every local olive tree they could find, unlocking an undeniable passion that remains even today.
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For the first few years, they picked olives from the Queensland border to the Hunter Valley. When Margi recalled the back breaking work when they first began, she remembered it as being labour intensive but worthwhile.
“Mind you, we were 21 years younger then too. It was a labor of love. It was so exciting to see this extra virgin olive oil coming off the press,” Margi said.
With several newly established olive trees, and a press busily producing oil, the pair started selling to the tourism information centre and local shops. At the time, both families had olive groves on the river of the Gwydir and the ladies, proud of their region, felt it made sense to embrace the region in the naming. Gwydir Grove was born. From picking, to packing, to pressing, the two women did it all.
“The oil would ooze out of the sides of these mats in the press. It was really quite beautiful, the flower of the oil it was called.”
It was a labor of love.
- Margi Kirkby
Throughout the last 21 years Margi and Jenni travelled overseas to gauge what others were doing through Italy, Spain and Turkey. They became involved with the International Olive Oil Council, and with tasting, which led to bringing home an accredited tasting here in Australia.
After four years of back-breaking work the Gwydir Grove processing moved to Inverell and a one tonne processing plant for eight years. Eventually, due to the high volume of produce, the ladies decided to head to Italy to bring home a five tonne per hour processing plant.
“Quality, quality, quality is the important thing,” Margi said.
Beyond extra virgin olive oil Gwydir Grove also sells olives, vinegar, pate, and handmade soaps as well as utilising the citrus grown on the farm to venture into Agrumato, where the blood oranges, mandarins, lemons and limes are pressed along with olives. After many years of doing it all themselves, literally walking the pavement Gwydir Grove now has distributors throughout the east coast, with price prohibitive to freighting to Western Australia, although they have done it.
Quality, quality, quality is the important thing.
- Margi Kirkby
Agricultural and food markets are still profitable marketing exercises with Gwydir Grove showcased at three Sydney Markets a week, as well as Gourmet in Gundy and of course Moree on A Plate.
The unseasonably warm weather brought an early harvest for this year for Gwydir Grove. Olives generally prefer the cooler climate.
“There are so many parallels to wine. The only difference is when you come to consuming it you don't sit down and have a bottle of olive oil at dinner,” Margi said.
There are now some 85,000 trees spread over 260 hectares at the grove. For Gwydir Groves’ 21st birthday celebrations, Margi and Jenni were joined by their family, friends, chefs and retailers for lunch in the grove.
Margi and Jenni continue to press, blend, market and distribute 21 years later with the same zest they set out with, and bottles full of knowledge and experience they have gained, along the way.
