“MOVE over Tuscany, we’re coming through.”
That is the message from Annetta (Annie) Paterson, who harvests olive oil in Victoria’s Alpine mountains.
Mrs Paterson has produced award-winning olive oil for the past 20 years and believes her environment or terrain, similar to Greek landscapes, helps shape the flavour and colour of her product.
Travelling in Greece as a young woman piqued Mrs Paterson’s first interest in growing olive trees.
The young woman from the Alpine high country of East Gippsland, whose family grazed cattle on the Nunniong high plains, was spreading her wings and seeking new experiences.
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“I went to Greece and immediately noticed how similar the country was to Mt Stawell – hot, dry, hungry country,” Mrs Paterson said.
She noted the extensive olive groves and her love affair with the oil began. In 1998, when her father was looking to retire, Mrs Paterson bought part of the property on Mt Stawell, in the old Tongio settlement.
“My family asked why I wanted to buy the farm. I said I wanted to grow olives,” Mrs Paterson said.
She remembers their disbelief “because a lot of the block is unusable because it’s sheer” and earmarked the remaining 35 per cent for her pioneer venture.
“It’s 37 degrees latitude of the equator and my theory is, it’s a good olive growing climate,” Mrs Paterson said.
The olive oil industry was still in its infancy and she “did lots of reading and research, joined the Australian Olive Association where we all helped each other and learnt by doing”.
With a Springtime pumping licence from the nearby Tambo River to provide off-river water storage nine months of the year and the similarity in soil type and climate “except the winters aren’t as cold as Tuscany,” she began planning and planting her olive grove.
The water is critical. “I couldn’t grow the trees without irrigation,” Mrs Paterson said.
“Rainfall here is unreliable. The average year-round total is good but you can never rely on it to rain when you need it.”
Twenty years later, there are 3500 olive trees planted in a series of groves on the foothills and river flats.
Varieties of Frantoio, Correggiola and Leccino are cross-pollinated with Pendelino. The trees are all bi-annual bearing.
“Traditionally, they say olive trees are wind pollinators, but we also allow beekeepers to bring in hives,” Mrs Paterson said.
She grows with organic principles, uses a seaweed foliar fertiliser monthly and applies compost regularly to the trees, pruned into a vase shape.
The waste from the pressing process is composted and used on the grove. A mechanical auditory bird scarer has been used for many years to keep birds out of the trees.
“Pruning is the biggest job – the trees get very thick in the middle. I prune in the traditional Tuscan way, in the vase shape,” Mrs Paterson said.
Harvest is in May, using two mechanical shakers and electric rakes. The business has a loyal and skilled local workforce, with three people employed fulltime year-round and up to 15 seasonally.
From the start, Mrs Paterson’s plans included processing olive oil on site, within four hours of picking to the completed pressing, to retain the extra-virgin status.
She has used two presses – the second one, to press 2.5t/hour, was brought from Italy and installed by its designer and engineer over a period of 10 days.
“It’s my pride and joy,” she said, admitting she is solely responsible for pressing the olives.
A recent acquisition is the deleafer, to “shake” the leaves from the olives along a conveyor belt, on their way into the shed for pressing.
Mrs Paterson said the deleafing process was the most problematic element in the production line.
“Most olives in Australia are machine-harvested and this means vastly more leaf matter in the bins than if they were harvested by hand, which is more common overseas,” she said.
“The deleafer is a recent development and is a marvellous bit of equipment. It has done a great deal to speed the process of oil production.”
Annual olive oil harvest at Nullamunjie is 8000 – 10,000 litres or 48-60 tonnes of a golden, peppery olive oil, with a balance of fruit and bitterness.
“From the start, I entered the oil in the Australian Olive Association’s awards and we’ve never been out of the medals since 2004,” Mrs Paterson said.
“Nullamunjie won the association’s gold medal in 2012 and numerous silver and bronze medals.
“We’ve won the Melbourne Show Fine Food Awards silver medal for extra virgin olive oil.
“Victoria produces about 44pc of the national olive oil harvest, so I was keen to support the Victorian awards.”
Mrs Paterson began marketing the single estate olive oil in 2004 at farmers markets and door-to-door sales.
While looking for overseas markets, she encountered her biggest customer – and today exports 80pc of production to America.
“My problem is distribution. The advantage of exporting is, it is one bulk delivery,” Mrs Paterson said from her mountain farm.
“And American labelling regulations enable my oil to be sold under the Nullamunjie label.”
The remaining 20pc is sold to private customers and used in the on-site restaurant.
The Pressing Shed Café “came about because the pressing shed was sitting there unused for much of the year and I thought it was an opportunity to educate people about using olive oil,” Mrs Paterson said.
Adding an extensive kitchen garden and using fruit from the orchard planted after World War II and other local produce, Mrs Paterson uses olive oil in all the food she makes “and nothing leaves the kitchen without a drizzle on top”.
Diners can enjoy the ambience of the olive groves, the mountain views and scenery down the Tambo Valley and, closer to their feet, the chickens scratching in the garden – and food containing a peppery drop of sunshine.
This year, Mrs Paterson organised an inaugural harvest festival, attracting a large crowd on a brilliantly sunny mountaintop day at the end of May.
Nullamunjie oil sought by consumers
NULLAMUNJIE produces the good oil that customers label premium, according to olive oil broker, TJ Robinson of the Fresh Pressed Olive Oil Club.
“Our goal as a club is to find the world’s freshest olive oil and we follow the global harvest,” he said.
That means Chile in May, Australia in July, Italy in November and Spain and Portugal in January. The 14,000 members globally receive three bottles each quarter of olive oil.
Nullamunjie Olive Oil is a highly sought product.
“You’re pretty blessed in Australia in that you have pretty strong standards for producing olive oil and controlling herbicide use,” Mr Robinson said.
“I like the use of science in Australia. Your growers produce incredible high flavour oils out of challenging landscapes.”
He said he visits the groves at harvest time to taste the oil at pressing, which is flown directly to America for bottling and labelling.
“Annie is one of my favourite farmers in the world. Her passion for olive oil and her farm and her team – her story – and her mostly organic practices; she has her own harvest machine and her own mill so she has a lot of control over her production – she is one of my go-to farms.
“Nullamunjie has its own fan base among my customers.”
