How we make table olives

Mardouw’s culinary table olives are made from hand-picked olives and stored for up to 12 months at the privately owned Mardouw Olive Estate in Swellendam, South Africa.

  • Mardouw Olive Estate olive trees

    1. Mardouw Olive Estate

    Fresh mountain water off the Langeberg Mountains, fertile Breede River Valley soil and a Mediterranean climate provide optimum conditions for our 50,000 olive trees to thrive happily.

  • Hand-picking olives

    2. Hand-Picking

    South Africa’s olive harvest season runs from April to June. We believe in gently hand-picking our olives, at optimal ripeness. We only use carefully selected Kalamata and Nocellara olives.

  • sorting

    3. Sorting

    Leaves and small twigs are removed from the olives before transferring them to the processing plant.

  • olive-cleaning and sorting

    4. Cleaning

    At the processing plant, olives undergo a diligent check and a good wash, while anything other than olives gets removed.

  • Mardouw culinary table olives

    Storage

    We store our table olives at Mardouw Olive Estate in a solution of water and salt for up to 12 months.

  • Mardouw culinary table olives

    Storage

    We store our table olives at Mardouw Olive Estate in a solution of water and salt for up to 12 months.