Labor is typically in short supply around here so we have to be as efficient as we can. Years ago, on a trip to visit the cider/calvados region of France I saw a tractor mounted apricot harvester being used on apple trees. It was attached to the front-end loader. The driver drove up, hydraulically unfurled an inverted umbrella and then used hydraulic clamp to shake the trunk and drop into the funnel. I scoured the internet to find something similar that would work on a smaller scale. I found this thing (an olive harvester) for sale in Australia. 8 months later, it arrived. No hydraulics and we still use an old fashioned "panking pole" to shake the limbs but this thing sure does speed things up.
