Olive groves across southern Europe have suffered scorching heat, drought and disease in recent years, and the price of olive oil has gone through the roof, but now commercial farms are beginning to bear fruit in England and produce homegrown virgin olive oil thanks to the warming climate.
Peter Thompson has an olive grove of about 2,000 trees at Great Oakley on a peninsula on the Essex coast, near Harwich. This area is believed to have the driest climate in the UK. “We’re not as hot as the Mediterranean but our growing season here is getting longer,” Thompson explained. “And being on a peninsula surrounded by the sea on three sides gives us a mild maritime climate, with the sunlight reflected off the surrounding water helping to make the olive trees feel like they are back in Catalonia in Spain.”
Olive trees also flower in summer so they avoid any late spring frosts, and at the end of the season the olive fruits are ready for picking in November and avoid late autumn frosts. But Essex doesn’t quite have the heat levels of southern Europe, so the olives are smaller and picked a little earlier in the ripening process, although they are still full of flavour, possibly helped by the salty sea air.
Thompson is embarking on making extra virgin olive using special presses to squeeze the oil out of the fruits without the aid of any extra heat or chemical extraction. But he is realistic that Essex-grown olive oil will not come cheap, although it will have the peppery and grassy flavour of European virgin oil, as well as high levels of health-giving polyphenols.
The olive trees have thrived in this year’s weather, with record hours of sunshine and warmth in spring, followed by the dry sunny weather in summer with bursts of very hot weather in the recent heatwaves. And unlike most other British crops, the olive trees haven’t been affected by the lack of rain this year, although any prolonged severe drought would be a problem.