EXTRA VIRGIN OLIVE OIL

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When we first started coming to Tuscany a few years back,  I was a virgin in the olive oil knowledge area. I knew there were Extra Virgin, Virgin, and olive oil. In Loro Ciuffena near the cottage IL Poggilino where we were staying (a place we both love) there was a olive oil co-op that we visited.  They offered to educate us on olive oil and set up little shot glasses of oil to taste.  First I thought "are these people nuts wanting me to do oil shooters!" Wow! I never realized what a difference there could be in olive oils.  No matter what price we have paid since then in the U.S., we cannot get olive equal to what you get here at the source.

That is why I wanted to come one time and experience the whole process from harvesting to eating.

Villa Ceppeto, outside of Monte San Savino, where we are staying now, has 750 olive trees.  They are not harvested in the way I am used to. When I was young working on the farm you would start at the beginning of the row and finish at the other end. In the olives, not every tree is harvested and not every tree in a row is ready at the same time. It is, to me, sort of a mystical event.  Manuela, the "Olive Boss", loves her trees and I think has some type of mental connection with them. When we finish a tree she will walk around pulling the big net until the next tree calls out to her.  It may the right next to the last one or up the hill or on the other side of the orchard. The color of the olive is not the important part, it is how oily the olive is. Once you pick a tree every olive comes off and I mean every olive. We just wait for her to say "come on boys" and we grab our gear and follow her dragging the net.

 "Come on boys"

Harvest is not difficult but it is tiring if you do it all day long. But every day is a social event, chatting and talking. Some times to me in English and a lot between Daniel and Manuela in Italian. . About the weather, the trees, the harvest, our next adventure. (They are off to NY city for Christmas and New Year's. You should see what you can get in a NY city home exchange when you have apartments in Tuscany. Daniel says I should buy one just for the home exchanges). It is basically Manuela and Daniel harvesting, except on weekends their friends may come from around Italy to help and visit. A lot of times I have seen Manuela working by herself all day.

 Manuela, Spotty and me.

 This tree is over 250 years old. Spotty is making sure I do it right.

Daniel working on the ladder

With 750 olive trees you would think a lost olive here or there would not be a big deal.  It is. To the "Olive Boss", every olive counts. It can take as long as two hours to harvest a really good tree and I will admit that by end of the day on the last couple of trees, we may leave a olive or two and hope she doesn't see them.

There are fun moments like having lunch in the field or,when near the house, Manuela brought out fresh cakes and vin sante for an afternoon break. The other couple, Molly and Rick, are staying here for a few days and also helped harvest between tours of the countryside.

Once the you have a large enough harvest, you load it and take it to the local co-op for pressing. We loaded, with Spotty the "supervisor", 40 crates that equaled 625 kg or about 1,375 pounds. 

At the co-op they are dumped in the hopper and the process begins. It is a six step process.

They are shaken to get trash out. Then washed and shaken to get more trash out. Then they go to a machine that  pulverizes them into a paste. From there they go into a big auger that helps separate out the liquid.  The liquid then goes into a big rotating vat that separates more of the particle matter.  The final stage is a centrifuge that separates out the water and there it is ......extra virgin olive oil. This a very loud noisy process that takes about 2 hours. 

 Into the hopper to start the process

 Daniel inspecting the olives along the process

 The washer

 The auger.

 The auger turning the olives into paste and separating the liquid.

 Liquid from the separator

 The first flow of our new oil.

Hurray the oil is flowing.

So, where does virgin oil and regular oil come from......

 ...here...

..... and here.

The remains of the product is dumped into a big dumpster and sold where it will be pressed again to produce Virgin Olive oil and pressed again for just plain olive oil.

Daniel loaded the oil in his care and headed back to Villa Cepetto where Vicki and I were allowed into the "vault" where the wine is made and stored along with the olive oil.  We poured the barrels into the big stainless steel vats.

 Vicki and Daniel in the secret cave

The last year Manuela's father made wine.

Then by tradition, you warm Tuscan bread (no salt) on a wood stove, rub garlic on the warm bread, pour on the fresh, still warm from the pressing, extra virgin olive oil, sprinkle a little salt and bite down. Let me tell you....it is great. 

Oh yea, add wine.

For me it was a wonderful experience. Harvesting olives all day and dragging home pleasantly tired and tasting the fruits of your work is a wonderful experience. There is a lot of work that goes into producing extra virgin oil. In Tuscany it is all done by hand. No tree shakers or any of that modern stuff. No spreading nets and letting the olives fall off the tree.  They are all picked by hand.  In the end, I think it is a much superior product.

 The view from our apartment in the morning when I go to work.

The view when you come home.