Olive oil's benefits for the human body are uncountable! It protects the heart, supports the brain, fights mood disorders, slows aging, helps to fight cancer and many many more. It even helps to loose weight, what more can I say :)
In short, it is an amazing food, an incredibly powerful natural medicine and on top of that, part of by job as a farmer! So now that the harvesting is over and I have had my vacations I would like to tell you a few things about how we make it.
Not far from my home there is an olive tree that is more than 3.000 years old and next to it a Minoan settlement. Among the archaeological findings there is an olive mill, indicating that people valued this exceptional fruit since the ancient times. Of course back then they were picking the olives by hand while today there are monstrous machines that literally swallow the trees and spit out the fruit! Here, in Crete, we are somewhere in the middle. We do use electric sticks to through the olives from the tree but most of the work is based on manual labor.
We lay big nets under the tree, throw the fruits and gather them from the net. We remove little branches that may have fell and put the olives into big sacks. And let me tell you, if you think that laying nets is an easy job, think again. Actually it is probably the most demanding task of the harvesting procedure especially in regions where the olive trees are on steep hillsides, like in my area for example!
After the field straight to the production plant. The sooner the extraction begins the better for the quality of the olive oil. The specific factory in the photographs, is not the more fancy one but I had worked there for a season and I felt more comfortable to wander around with a camera and a tripod than to another one!
They empty the sacks into a huge funnel and then the machine takes over! First step is the washing in order to remove the leaves and the dirt from the olives.
Then it is the crushing of the entire fruit into a paste which is transferred to a large tank, something like a gigantic blender that spins really slowly! On this stage it is added water and there is a rise in the temperature. If it is below 27°C (80.6°F) it is called cold extraction and it is in favor of the olive oil's quality. Unfortunately if it is higher it is in favor of the olive oil's quantity so you can understand that many people choose quantity over quality. After 35' to 45' the paste goes to a centrifuge to separate the olive oil from the water and the solid remains.
The last step is to measure the acidity. From 0.1 to 0.8 it is extra virgin olive oil, from 0.9 to 2.0 is virgin olive oil and above 2.0 don't eat it :)
No need to say that the extra virgin one bears the most benefits for you and if it is organic even more!
The product we take from the factory is quite different from the one you buy in the bottle. It has a light yellow-green color, a very smooth taste and gives an exceptional feeling of freshness. In order to be bottled it has to get filtered and it is then that it takes the well-known transparent look. I know that it is difficult to find fresh olive oil but you should try, it is a taste you'll live to remember!
ǝɹǝɥ sɐʍ ɹoʇɐɹnƆ pɐW ǝɥ┴
So glad to see you again :)
Thanks!
I knew that the olive trees could be old but I wouldn't guess that they could be 3000 years old! WOW!
And honestly, I didn't know about the process so I'm glad I learned about it a bit. I tend to buy the extra virgin olive oil but just because of the word 'extra' :D Now I'll buy it because of the nutrients! :)
I've watched the video and I can't believe that this stick is able to harvest olives. It looks so strange. But at least it's more friendly to the trees. I wouldn't like to see a machine swallowing the olive tree and spitting out the olives :)
Oh, and I would love to try the fresh olive oil now. Didn't know that something like that existed. How exciting!
Thank you for sharing! It's been very interesting to read :)
Thank you @delishtreats, I am glad you liked it and read it so thoroughly!
And yes, in Crete there are a few trees that old and a few dozens younger ones, around 1000 years old :)
I guess that these are protected and tourists come to see them, right?
If a rope around their perimeter can be considered as protection yes, they are protected and the tourists do come to see them :)
Hahaha :) BUT it's sad to see that the country doesn't really protect its heritage..
Whoa! Great post.
That fresh pressed oil is like liquid sunshine! We got to photograph a winery that also has an olive press, it was my first time experiencing oil that fresh, blew my mind. Beautiful skill to have Sir.
Thank you @sloe, I am glad you liked it! I would love to see some pictures from the winery you are talking about.
Thanks for the resteem, too :)
We are traveling for work right now, not sure what the website looks like but the winery is Terra Savia located in Hopland, Ca. You might really dig this place and maybe set up an exchange so you can come press in Cali and they could go there! Whoa. They are extremely sweet and passionate and love to learn. Unsung heros, just like your farming. Again, great post.
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Υπέροχες φωτογραφίες και πολύ καλό άρθρο συνολικά !
Εμείς δεν είχαμε φέτος.. Αν ο συνεταιρισμός σας είναι καλός θα τραβήξει και άλλους στον πρωτογενή τομέα , πράγμα που χρειαζόμαστε !
Ευχαριστώ!
Και εμείς πολύ κακή χρονιά είχαμε αλλά τουλάχιστον έβγαλα φωτογραφίες :)
Όπως λένε, "Δες το θετικά " !
You sure you didn't play with the saturation here? This color looks like a toxic fluid 😅
But good to read about how this is made, wasn't aware of this "how it's made" actually although it is one of the most used ingredients in my kitchen life! Thanks for sharing.
Ha ha, no saturation tricks :)
This is how it is and if you ever come across this weird fluid do not hesitate to use it!
Thank you @guchtere for stopping by!
Where can I find this fake toxic fluid? And is it usable like normal olive oil?
Ha ha ha, you are funny!
It is the normal olive oil but it is unfiltered and fresh! I don't filter mine so I just keep it in a stainless barrel and in a couple of months it is transparent and there is some sediment at the bottom of the barrel. Same thing will happen if you buy a bottle of it.
The best way to try it is to be on a harvesting area while the olive oil is made. On the other hand you can google unfiltered olive oil and you'll probably find some bottled ones but note that if it is bottled for a lot of months you'll only get a normal olive oil with some dirt on the bottom of the bottle :)
Maybe you should just come to Crete next November and help me out with the harvesting and you'll taste as much as you like!
Why is it that above 2.0 you don't eat the oil? How would it get to have the different acidity?
All along I thought that the extra virgin oil would be from a first pressing and the others from subsequent pressings. Thank you for setting me straight. And I sure will look for the unfiltered version. I'm sure it is very expensive if I could find it.
Your "action" shots are wonderful. Great job with the last one. Such an interesting angle and focus :)
Thank you @fitinfunfood, I am glad you liked it!
Ok I was a little bit exaggerating when I said you don't eat it above 2.0, like a joke. You can eat it but I wanted to point out that the extra virgin is much better!
The acidity can be affected by many factors, some of them like the weather cannot be controlled by the farmer but some others like to extract the olive oil as soon as possible after the harvesting, can.
Yes.. I believe it is one of the only oils that can be extracted without any crazy chemicals ....
sadly, in asian culture, we do not consume that much olive oil. The only time we have olive oil is with italian food I guess ! and thats not very frequent (relatively)
Also extra virgin olive oil seems to have a low heat tolerance ? if u have high heat, it starts to smoke...
As for Organic or not.. Its hard to get organic anything these days... and if we are not eatly all or mostly organic, the effects of a little organic food here and there isn't going to help much with health. (unless u go full commando with Organic everything)
You have a point, a partial organic diet cannot have much effect but the olive oil is really an amazing product and can be consumed as medicine!
I now get where the extra virgin oil written on the bottle comes from. It's very expensive here, maybe because we don't have olive trees. 30ml for 2$ and minimum daily wage is $1.3 so you can imagine
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Wow man they are stealing you!
Imagine that the wholesalers buy extra virgin olive oil from here, for 3 to 4 euro per liter, the profit is outrageous! It is almost 20 times the price here!
We have no other choice
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We have a farmer here who planted olives for oil. He should be coming up on his first harvest so I may get to taste fresh olive oil. I am excited!!
That's great, I am sure you'll love it!
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STOPThat is so cool! Is that your own olive farm? I have planted about twenty five olives on my property, just enough for preserving really. Do you drink olive leaf tea? I've been meaning to make a post about it, but I still have research to do.
Thank you @riverflows!
I have rented about 8 acres mostly olives trees for olive oil production. Leaf tea no, I haven't tried it. I have read, though, about it and I would love to find some more information :)
What a great report!
We love olives and olive oil. We also missthose products. Our chrsitmas dishes have lots of them but we can't afford them any more.
WHoever still consumes olives and its oil either gets it from a relative abroad or is connected to the government in a significant way.
In December one little bag of olives cost 3 times an average salary.
It was great seeing all the detials involved in the provess of harvesting and processing olives. Thanks.
Thank you @hlezama, I am really glad that you enjoyed the post but I am so sorry to hear that oil and olives are so hard to get, in your country. I wish I could send you over, some :)
Hahaha. That would be nice. Thanks
Hi @fotostef
beautiful post! Truly a nice description of the whole process of collecting and extracting the oil and beautiful photos! It must be a really satisfying job, see how the product is transformed to obtain the final result and then taste it or sell it knowing the excellent quality and the passion with which it was made. Congratulations!
Thank you @road2horizon, yes very satisfying job indeed!