Staying small, thinking big

Micro food businesses abound in Tasmania, and Bruny Island Olives has its hand up for being the smallest and most exclusive of them all. Owen and Dianne Carington Smith are weekend farmers, caring for a tiny crop of table olives sold at only two shops. I joined a group of 18 family and friends and in three hours we picked half the crop one olive at time, no grabbing fistfuls and no mechanical assistance. There was a prize for the picker on the day who best guessed the size of the pick. Marge Direen’s guess of 165.5kg was only 14g above the 165.36kg correct weight.