ANDREW & HELEN LILEY Juno Olives

Andrew Liley co-owns Juno Olives with his wife, Helen Liley. Originally born in the UK, Liley qualified as a doctor in 1986 and trained as an anaesthetist for 20 years as a consultant at the Birmingham Children’s Hospital and in New Zealand at Starship with an interest in paediatric cardiac anaesthesia and acute pain management.

Liley had wanted for a long time to be involved in the primary industry, and in 2020, he retired early from the health system and bought Juno Olives, which was a good fit for his background in medicine of being able to grow and produce a product that had been shown to have positive health benefits.

Liley aims to produce olives sustainably, minimising fertilisers by returning the solid waste from olive oil production to the grove, improving canopy management to minimise fungal spraying, and having olives harvested and pressed by local contractors.

He continued that Juno Olives agrumato oils are flavoured using local New Zealand produce, including rosemary and some blood oranges from Liley’s garden.

“Growing olives is a carbon sink which also minimises our carbon footprint,” said Liley.

Liley follows the guidance from a project undertaken by Olives New Zealand, which innovates canopy management to improve olive yields and try to minimise biannually what is a problem with many pip fruit.

“Whilst we have not yet got rid of the tendency for some of our olive varieties to have an on and off-season, we are slowly seeing an increase in the overall volume of olives taken off the grove, and some varieties are showing more consistent olive fruit production.”

He explained that olives do not like ‘wet feet’ and Juno Olive has been fortunate to have a well-draining soil type, which Liley said had been robustly tested this year.

The harvest of 2023 has been both Liley’s best and most challenging harvest; the heavy and large amounts of rain made keeping the fungal disease in the grove under control very difficult, and yet Liley has had the biggest harvest in his grove since it was established 20 years ago.

However, the oil yield has been meagre, meaning the high fruit volume had not translated into litres for Juno Olives.

Liley added that on top of the wet weather, olives also need cold periods over winter to stimulate fruit the following year. Therefore, general warming temperatures threatens groves such as Juno Olives.

“If you look at the northern hemisphere, they have had several years of drought, and Spain has produced only half of their normal volume of olive oil.”

Juno Olives sells its oils through its online shop, the groves on-site shop, Farmers Markets, Moore Wilsons, and the Welly Collective.

Having only been in the business for three years, Liley is just beginning to understand how different varieties produce very differenttasting olive oils; he added it was that any variety would produce a different-tasting oil each year, which he assumed was due to changing weather conditions, but also by when growers are forced to harvest.

“Last year, my favourite was our Picholine, and I am favouring our Frantoio this year.”

As a relative “newbie” to the olive growing and oil-producing scene, Liley wanted to thank the many people who had helped with advice and practical support along his three-year journey.

“They are too many to name individually, but I would like to thank them all.”