The olive trees do not like it when it rains a lot. Yet, they flourish during dry, almost drought conditions best.
When we moved to San Jacinto Valley some four years ago during summer time, the valley was dry and hot. It has not been raining throughout a period of 4-5 years prior. And the olive trees were full of really good size olives.
Late summer, may be in October 2016, the trees were loaded. Even some olives were fallen off the tree, and already cured naturally in the heat of the sun. The temperature was definitely over 105 F, and we didn't want to climb the trees. We didn't have tarp with us. So, we decided to pick only those olives that we could reach from the ground without a ladder.
That year, we had a great olive harvest. From 25 pounds of olives, we produced about three dozens of large size mason jars full of pickled olives; some brown, some green and some black. We pickled some olives only with salt, while others we pickled with olive oil. We are finishing now the last two jars.
These magnificent road side olive trees are located on the Old Mountain Avenue which runs along the foothills of San Jacinto Mountains.
This year (2019) marked the third year of heavy rains in Southern Cali. The drought is over. All fresh water reservoirs and lakes are full. Yet, the olive trees apparently don't like this much rain. They are NOT bearing much fruit at all.
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