First English olive harvest marks new milestone

A Lincolnshire business has completed what is believed to be the world’s most northerly commercial olive harvest, with The English Olive Co, based near Spalding, pressing its first olives this month.

The family-run company planted its 10ha grove in 2024 and is now processing the fruit through what it says is the UK’s first on-farm olive mill and bottling line.

The olives were hand-picked by family and friends and pressed within hours to preserve quality.

The business expects this to result in the first commercially pressed English olive oil.

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Farmer David Hoyles said: “We were pleased to have our first, albeit small harvest, but it does show that olive trees can flower, fruit and mature on a commercial and field scale in the UK.”

David Hoyles with some of the first crop of olives © The English Olive Co

He added that frosts, strong winds and rain reduced yields and led to smaller fruit, but said: “The taste profiles of this 2025 crop are fantastic – grassy, fresh, piney, with a very good peppery kick at your throat, due to fantastic polyphenol levels.”

Mr Hoyles said supply would be limited in the first year. “But as the trees grow and increase in maturity each year, then we hope olive numbers, and hence oil volumes, will also increase year on year.”

The decision to plant olives was driven by climate pressures on existing crops.

“We wanted long-term security in food production,” he said.

“Some of our existing crops were struggling with the hotter, drier conditions, so we looked for alternatives more suited to a warming climate… olives fit that brief.”

© The English Olive Co

The farm, which forms part of a 250-year family enterprise in the Fens, continues to produce wheat, potatoes, peas, mustard and sugar beet, supported by renewable energy, digital farming and extensive pollen, nectar and wildlife areas.

The olive grove uses low-input methods, including drip fertigation and no insecticides or fungicides.

With pressing now under way, The English Olive Co will release a limited run of cold-pressed English olive oil once extraction is complete.

The first full edition of extra virgin olive oil, produced entirely on the farm from tree to bottle, is scheduled for 2026.