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With temperatures dropping below freezing, and with snow on the ground you might be surprised to find olives growing in Essex. 

More than 400 trees grown over 3 acres

But, Todd's Botanics in Coggeshall is home to the largest olive grove in the country, with more than 400 trees grown over three acres.

The nursery stocks trees of all ages - from two-year-old saplings which have been grown from cuttings, to the oldest tree they've supplied to a customer which was 700-years-old.  The majority of trees are about 100-years-old, with a trunk of about one foot across. 

It is a common misconception that olives are a not hardy trees, as owner Mark Macdonald explains:  "Where we get our trees from in Spain, they hit -8º to -10º every year, [so] to come here is quite normal for them.

"The coldest we've tested them is -14º and they've shown no signs of having problems."

The trees have been planted in two batches.  One half is of about four to five-years-old trees, the other half are a year younger.  When they first arrived the trees were about 12ft tall, they now have been cut down to about half that height.

Olives can be grown outdoors in the UK

Last summer they enjoyed a bumper crop of olives at the nursery.  Some of the trees still have olives, slightly withering in the cold, hanging from the branches.  Those olives were too small to be harvested.

"We've harvested olives off our bigger trees ever since we started.  Of the trees we planted this is the first year we've harvested," says Mark.  "They were quite small fruit.  August was a bit of a non-starter so we didn't get the heat to get decent sized fruit."

Todd's Botanics is 'technically' the only olive farm in the country - having more than 250 trees, any number below that it, it becomes an olive grove.

Initially, Mark hoped to produce enough olives to make enough oil to run their Land Rovers.  However, the volume of oil they're going to get isn't going to be enough, so they've decided to grow the olives for the fruit and sell them.

"The whole concept was done for a bit of fun.  I always wanted to have a planting of trees -  it seemed a bit dull to plant apples or pears," says Mark.  "It started with 50 trees and just grew."