Main Ridge Olive Oil Company was launched in February of 2017, when Tim and Michelle Jupp decided to make the most of an offer to take on the consignment of two olive oil farms that had olives ready for picking.

With a property in Flinders (The Burraworin Estate, which won a silver medal in last Fine Food Awards) and in Paringa Road in Red Hill, Tim has access to several types of green and black olives including Koroneiki, Piccholine and Frantoio.  “You get different flavours and different polyphenol counts from different types of olives,” explains Tim. The season for picking olives is usually around May, but the groves were ready to harvest a little earlier this year. The olives are placed in large tubs and transported to local Pressers within two hours of being harvested, where the olives are cold pressed (no chemical extraction or heat extraction), and the oil extracted at a constant temperature under 27 degrees Celsius.  The first olive oil will be ready by mid-May.  A lot of time, effort, thought and consideration has been put into the packaging design for the Main Ridge Olive Oil range.  Created by a local designer, a special paper bottle wrap features hand-drawn sketches of the complete olive oil production process so that those who enjoy the olive oil can also gain an understanding of how it came into being.  The 700ml bottles of boutique olive oil will retail for $26. Tim handles the distribution, selling to local pantry and grocer shops on the Mornington Peninsula and in the CBD, as well as direct to the consumer online.