Olivegrower profile – 2021 AIOA Champion
The Arkwright Estate team with their eye-catching mobile marketing tool, the Kalamata Kruiser: (from left) Andy Young, Brian Swanson, Amanda Arkwright and Richard Arkwright.
Patience the key to Arkwright Estate’s champion Kalamata Arkwright Estate Master Pickler Brian Swanson has spent 37 years in the olive industry, many of them honing the craft of table olive production. Last year he ticked one of his big career boxes, winning the Champion Kalamata award at the Australian International Olive Awards (AIOA). In a change of format from our usual Olivegrower Profiles, Brian tells us his own olive story and what the AIOA win means to him and the Arkwright Estate business. Brian Swanson
Introduction to olives
I have been involved in the olive industry since around 1985, when I stumbled across an old olive grove in McLaren Vale SA while looking for seasonal work and was offered a job handpicking Kalamata olives. I liked the carefree lifestyle of harvest work, having previously picked oranges in Israel, tobacco in Canada and grapes in Mildura, but working in an olive grove was something special. To be able to take a fruit which is totally inedible from a tree – it tastes terrible! – and be able to transform it into something incredibly delicious I found amazing. And olive oil – you take a look at an olive the size of a pea and then look at a jug of fresh golden fragrant olive oil, and you’re tempted just to drink the lot. But how does it happen? The transformation …
Early industry days
I was fortunate enough to begin my olive journey in the last years of the ancient mat press technique. There were only two presses in the entire region, and there were not many olive growers. People and restaurants generally didn’t use olive oil then – they didn’t know how or why. They cooked with Sunday
roast fat leftovers, margarine, butter and vegetable oil. My fondest memories of that era is the smell of slightly warmed, freshly crushed olives spread on the woven mats (still cold pressed) to separate the oil from the pomace, then pressed and put through the centrifuge. Then magic: out comes the olive oil – the aroma, the warmth, the smell, the taste - and the smiles!
Opportunity to learn
That particular olive grove was established in McLaren Vale in the 1960s by a couple of Greek mates, Emmanuel and George. Emmanuel (Giakoumis) was managing it when I turned up but suddenly retired the next year. The new owners appointed Aussie manager Norm - but who was going to make the oil and pickle the olives? I put up my hand and said “I think I can”. So there was much to learn. The Australian industry was still in its infancy - or dormancy at the time. Only the Mediterranean migrant families had a handle on it, and I learned so much from Emmanuel and them. They were always so willing to share their knowledge and their culture.
20 • Australian & New Zealand Olivegrower & Processor • March 2022 • Issue 123
Brian’s Olives …
I then opened up my own store, The Olive Shop (also known as Brian’s Olives), in the main street of McLaren Vale, which I operated for 14 years. During this time I sold olives and olive related products, offered free tastings of both olives and olive oil, and also ran education and appreciation sessions. After 14 years of running the shop I closed it down and was doing smaller scale pickling from my shed at home, supplying a small number of local retailers and restaurants. I was looking down the barrel of retirement when a lifelong family friend and his wife approached me to lament about not being able to get a hold of my olives anymore.
… then Arkwright Estate
Those friends, Richard and Amanda Arkwright, talked me right back into it a few years ago and we joined forces. They share my passion about continuing to supply our friends and customers with world class Kalamata olives of the highest standard - and here we are today, winning an AIOA Champion of Class award! My official title is that of Master Pickler and in 2020, Andy Young came on board as our Sales and Account Manager (as well
