How to Make Olive Oil ?

Harvesting Olives and Making Olive Oil

Olive oil is the best and safest of all oils.
It tastes good, too.
- Andrew Weil, M.D

How to make olive oil... Growing olives.

The best olives for oil come from low growing trees, which need a lot of room and sun so that the fruit can mature correctly.

If it is a traditional olive grove, there are only about 60 trees per acre, so that each tree may receive sufficient moisture and nutrients from the soil.

Traditional as well as organic growers typically use only horse manure as a fertilizer. Watering is carried out sparingly, sometimes with a drip system which delivers the necessary water directly to the roots.

If this procedure is used, more quality trees may be planted per acre.

How to make olive oil... Harvesting olives

Only hand-picked, fully ripe, undamaged olives are used for the finest olive oils. Rejected are unripe or over-ripe olives because they reduce the fruitiness of the oil and contribute to its acidity. Windfall olives are usually over-ripe or bruised and only used for bulk oil.

How to make olive oil... Making olive oil

First, large blowers remove leaves and twigs. Then, the olives with their pits intact are ground to a paste by granite rollers, or by a worm gear mechanism. The traditional manner which is virtually unchanged since medieval times, is to press the ground olive mash between circular mats.

The resulting juice is a mixture of oil and natural fruit water. After sitting for an hour the oil rises to the top and is siphoned to another container where any particles that came from the skins and fruit will eventually settle to the bottom. The olive oil is decanted into bottles from the top. No filtration is involved; the oil is slightly cloudy due to microscopic fiber.

How to make olive oil... Modern process of making olive oil

Often, the slightly cloudy oil is often passed through a series of large settling tanks where it is clarified by gravity, and eventually placed in containers that are maintained at a constant cool temperature.

A few producers pass the oil through diatomaceous sand-like filter, instead of the gravity process. The result is a sparkling bright oil, which is beautiful to behold, but has lost much of its natural flavor.