Little did Sydney-born Chris Iacono know at 19 that he would own and operate an olive grove at Vacy.
The motor mechanic had an eye for business opportunities, which included an import/export business he operated for 25 years.
“Despite being a motor mechanic I was always interested in building,” the father of four said.
“When I bought my first business I had to renovate the premises and this started my love of building.
“I sold my export business in 1993 and did a building and renovating full-time course at TAFE.
“I don’t build houses, but I do renovations such as bathrooms and kitchens.”
Chris and wife Irma and their four children had been coming to the Gresford area for 24 years prior to buying Bunna Bunoo Olive Grove in 2002.
“I was good friends with Phil Edmonds– we used to sail together.
“His father owned Camyr Allyn before it was split up and sold and we loved coming up to this area.
“I think I was born with the bush in me which is rather unusual as I was North Shore-born and bred.
“Irma and I got to like it and started spending weekends up here.
“Then my mother passed away and left me some money and we looked at buying something up here.
“We found this place in the paper and we loved it.
“But it just happened to have 3500 olive trees on it and I didn’t know a thing about olives except how to eat them.”
Irma was a chef and knew how to process the olives in a domestic capacity.
“But commercially was a whole new ball game,” Chris said.
“It was a real learning curve and we learnt as we went.
“Slowly but surely the business started to grow and before we knew it we started labeling and selling our products both locally, around the Hunter and overseas.
“We would do well in Sydney but we are just so busy around here.”
The family grows five varieties of olives.
The oil varities are frantoio and correggiola and table olives come from jumbo kalamata, kalamata and manzanillo trees.
The olive oil is cold pressed locally and then returned to the property for bottling and labeling.
The table olives are bottles, labeled and packed in a new purpose-built facility on-site.
“The olives are harvested once a year – anywhere between April and June,” Chris said.
“Timing of the harvest depends on the weather – if it is a hot summer it is brought forward, cooler it gets put back.
“The earliest we have harvested was March 18 and the latest was late June.”
The family business, which includes sons Greg and Richard, are agents for the harvester which picks the oil varieties of olives.
“I looked all around the world for one and eventually bought it in Italy,” Chris said.
“I work closely with the manufacturer and have made innovations over the last five years.
“The table olives, however, are picked by hand.”
Chris is expecting a bumper harvest this season has spent a lot of money getting the trees to their optimum.
“The trees are 13-years-old now and will mature in two years time.
“I am aiming at 70 kilograms of oil per tree when they are mature.
“It should be a very good crop with most producers in the Hunter expecting the same.”
The future is looking bright for the Iacono family with a development application for a bed and breakfast recently approved by Dungog Council.
“The shop, which will be made a lot bigger, will be moved into the shed and that space utilised for the b and b.
“There is a big demand for accommodation in this area and I think people would enjoy staying at the grove.
“Last year we had 35 buses visit. The people spend about two hours here, having a tour of the processing plant and enjoying morning tea.
“While we have increased our products to include chutneys and jams, there are other products we would like to make which will complement our current range.
“If we just relied on oils and olives we would go broke – we have to keep reinventing ourselves.
“I will be 74 next month – I hate it as there is so much I want to do.
“I’m too busy, I can’t afford to die – I just wish I was 40 again.
“But I am really happy with the progress we have made – we do the lot ourselves.”
Bunna Bunoo Olive Grove received the Hospitality Award at the recent Dungog District Chamber of Awards presentation.
They were also named best of the best, receiving the Dungog Chronicle’s Overall Business Excellence Award.
Email a friend
Favourites
Del.icio.us
Facebook
Digg
StumbleUpon
MySpace
Reddit
Newsvine
LinkedIn
Kwoff
Twitter