Welcome Everyone.

Welcome to News From Italy, my blog about our Italian Adventure. Although this blog has now ceased publication I will be continuing to blog and I am sincerely hoping that my many followers here will move with me to Travel Tales blog to follow my next adventures wherever they may take me. The links to my other blogs are:-


I look forward to keeping in touch with you via them, thanks once again for all the support you have given 'News From Italy' over the years.

Monday, November 28, 2011

Olive Harvest 2011 – Milling from Olive to Oil


   
Once we had decided that five days picking was more than enough, certainly in one stretch, the next task was to get the olives to the mill. A good job we did stop when we did as we only just got them all in the X-Trail and the Smart Car would really have not been much help would it! If you have not yet read my post on our picking and would like to do so just click on this link. Olive Harvest 2011 – Picking
Loaded and ready to go!

Off we then went on a short drive to the Oleificio in Montefiascone, where they were expecting us. We had arranged to arrive with our crop sometime on the Tuesday morning when we we would be given a more precise appointment for our milling.

Arriving at the mill olives are unloaded into a large crate.

Our crate is the one in the top left hand picture and when we left on Tuesday it had been moved into the warehouse area for storage, photo top right. Before leaving we confirmed in the office that our slot for milling would be the next day, Wednesday 16th November verso (towards)2pm.

Having been through this process before we warned my sister that we were probably in for a very long afternoon at the mill. Fortunately she did not seem to mind, although she did take her book as I suggested she never actually got to read it, as she found the whole process interesting, well I she seemed to! We arrived at the appointed time and our arrival was acknowledged immediately, however it was probably half an hour later when someone decided to tell us that due to a breakdown during the night, they were running a couple of hours behind, so why not go off somewhere else for awhile. We took the advice and went off to the station to check the times for my sister’s train to Roma the next morning, we were unable to buy her ticket though as the Tabac (where they sell train tickets) was of course closed for the afternoon as were most of the local shops. There is a new branch of Todis in Montefiascone opened on 26th October which is unusually ‘orario continuato’ continuous opening with no afternoon closure, so we did a little food shopping before returning to the mill for our rescheduled appointment.
On our return we located our crate, now outside, see the bottom row in the mosaic above, just before 4pm our turn arrived. The crate was weighed we were given our ticket, for use later to pay for the milling process which is calculated by the amount of oil produced, then the olives were loaded into the hopper and the process began. The olives would appear as olive oil in approx two hours time, I followed the process as best I could in these photos. The first mosaic of photos show the olives being weighed, before being tipped into the hopper, the leaves are then separated from the olives by being blown and deposited in the basket outside, see bottom left of picture, before the olives are sent off into the milling machinery.

As mentioned above the leaves have been separated as the olives make their way into this first stage of the milling process where they are washed and ground.

In the next stage of the process the pulp is transferred into tanks, there are six in all and they are used in rotation, our olive pulp was designated to tank number two.

An impressive looking beast here are some close ups of the procedure, notice how red the pulp is going down the tube in the first photo, top left!  The operative kindly opened the lid so that I could photograph the pulp entering the chamber.

While we waited for the oil, I will took a few photos around the mill, including where the waste product from the procedure is transferred to. It appears to lose its colour looking at the last photo ‘ stuff’ which had been around for awhile maybe used as a compost product but this is just a guess.

The setting sun, Montefiascone Duomo and general environs of the mill.

The green lights indicate that the pulp is ready for the next stage and the chamber is emptied as it passes through the next batch of machinery to the final stages, the waste product is removed and ends up where I showed you in a previous collage. It gets exciting as the procedure enters the final stages as you wait for your very own olive oil to appear.

Which it finally does and to our delight the operatives told us that not only was our oil of a very good quality, but in fact even better it was excellent, they knew this because of the transparency, just take a look at the large photo!

We are very pleased with the end result and I hope you have enjoyed my very basic description of the process, any mistakes are my own!

For those of you that are new to this blog and may be interested in the previous Olive Harvest posts, here are the links.
Olive Harvest - Phase One – 2009
Olive Harvest - Phase Two - 2009
Olive Harvest 2010 - Che Disastro!Travel Tales
Olive Oil 2010
and the prequel to this post  Olive Harvest 2011 - Picking
Lots more photos can be viewed in in My Flickr Albums in the collection entitled Olives and Olive Oil.
Copyright All rights reserved by LindyLouMac Photo Collection

Mosaic Monday
This is a series which I participate in from time to time and I have done so with this post. Welcome to News From Italy to anyone who has called by from Mosaic Monday at Little Red House and of course all my supportive readers who call by and leave comments both here and on my other blogs.
LindyLouMac's Book Reviews - LindyLouMac's World in Photos  - Travel Tales
 

47 comments:

  1. Very fascinating, well-documented and illustrated. We enjoyed reading and learning about the milling process. The oil looks so delicious!

    ReplyDelete
  2. This is absolutely fascinating! Thanks so much for sharing your gruop photos and documenting the process so well!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Fantastic!!!
    So beautiful from start to finish.
    Thanks for this wonderful share:)
    -Jennifer

    ReplyDelete
  4. Love this post with so much of interest and the great photos. 60 litres of olive oil is quite a bit, do you sell any or give to friends? Diane

    ReplyDelete
  5. This is so exciting and interesting and I'm feeling really green with envy! We love olive oil and use it almost all the time. There are some really good olive oil producers right on our doorstep so we are not short on choice. I loved following the whole process with you. Your photographs are excellent, too.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Wow what a fubulous post! I am green with envy!! Your own oil...and the process was wonderful to follow with your mosaics.

    Veronica

    ReplyDelete
  7. Some process it is! WOW! And what a great colour, the oil. I can almost taste it. Love your explanation of it all.

    ReplyDelete
  8. what an incredible olive harvest you had! our olives got badly damaged during a hailstorm back in july, slowly rotted, and then fell down during the storms that hit liguria earlier on this month.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Well, that was very interesting for us today Linda, to see how your freshly picked olives ended up as Olive Oil, and how marvellous to be told that it was of excellent quality! That must have made you feel very proud! Thanks for sharing with us today and I really enjoyed looking at the photos of the whole process.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Ohhhh! All that yummy, fresh olive oil! You're so lucky, but then again, YOU DID do the hard work of harvesting!! How much did they charge you to mill your olives?

    ReplyDelete
  11. What an experience it must be to grow and have your own olive oil processed. I am impressed. You did a great job on the photos essay. Could follow the entire process.
    QMM

    ReplyDelete
  12. I have to admit that I found this entire process fascinating! I never knew any of the processing or harvesting information before. Now I can sound so intelligent when talking about olive oil! I love it!

    ReplyDelete
  13. Lindy What an educational and interesting post. I think it is awesome to be able to process one's own olive oil. Was I correct in thinking that you got 60 liters of olive oil? That is amazing. Thanks for sharing this process. Blessings,

    ReplyDelete
  14. How exciting to see your very own olive oil being produced. Bet it tastes delicious!

    ReplyDelete
  15. Goodness, how exciting and interesting. What an achievement!

    ReplyDelete
  16. I had no idea how olive oil was made! What a great post!

    ReplyDelete
  17. That really is an amazing process! I've learned so much about it from your blog! And you put together some wonderful mosaics! I love visiting your blog...hope to visit your country some day! ♥

    ReplyDelete
  18. Lindy, pics are so beautiful!Love the sunset and the Duomo and of course your oil...
    I really would like to taste it on a slice of good, Italian, bread
    Buona Notte

    ReplyDelete
  19. What a great post and such much new information. I learn a lottoday. i am so happy for you about your oil and its quality, I know you must be very pleased. Wonderful photos, thanks for sharing.

    ReplyDelete
  20. That is so interesting and beautifully illustrated. I'm sorry to say that I need to pick up some olive oil, but that it will be from a nearby grocery store!
    -Karen

    ReplyDelete
  21. My first ever to see olive picking and then turn to oil. Thanks for sharing.

    Advent Tablesetting

    ReplyDelete
  22. This is one of the most interesting and fascinating posts I have read in a long time. I have always wondered how olive oil was made, and now I have learned there is LOTS more to it than meets the eye. What a long, drawn out process. Your mosaics are super. I am so impressed with all you went through to put this post together. Thanks so much. It was wonderful. genie

    ReplyDelete
  23. That was so very interesting! Your post was like a field trip, and I enjoyed it very much.

    ReplyDelete
  24. How awesome, to have your own olive oil!

    My uncle has olive trees too, and they have just finished picking and are about to bring it over to the "frantoio". His olive oil is soooo good :-)

    ReplyDelete
  25. Fantastic! and I shall think of this next time I go to buy a bottle of olive oil - a lot of hard work from your end and then the getting to the mill and waiting for the process to be completed - very interesting!

    ReplyDelete
  26. I love this post, but I have lots of questions. What type of olive oil is yours? Does the type depend more on the type of olive, or the process? I think it would be so much fun to watch. Thanks for sharing with us! Your mosaics are fantastic.

    xoxoxoxo,
    Ricki Jill

    ReplyDelete
  27. Lindy, the oil making process is a bit smelly, isn't it? But the end product... WOW!

    I love the way you explained the process through images. Looks like fun! And all those lovely bottles of oil!

    CIAO

    ANNA

    ReplyDelete
  28. Very interesting ! I never thought that it's so much work to make olive oil ! I just open the bottle, lol !

    ReplyDelete
  29. Such an interesting olive adventure! Certainly not happening in MY neighborhood! haha! Thanks so much for your visits!

    ReplyDelete
  30. You did a wonderful job showing and describing the whole process, Linda! I've seen this done in a more rustic way in my husband's hometown in Calabria. The by products were used by the local potter who fired up his kiln with the discards. In Italy it is so wonderful that nothing goes to waste.

    Your pure olive oil must taste so wonderful...enjoy!

    ReplyDelete
  31. Oh, what a great post and pictures. Never seen how they do this before.
    Extra virgin for me:-)

    ReplyDelete
  32. Wow!! What an interesting process to see!! Thanks so much for taking pictures along the way and sharing!!

    ReplyDelete
  33. That color of green is what I'd like for a scarf. Beautiful.

    ReplyDelete
  34. Completely fascinating. I am so impressed with this detailed documentary blogpost! So glad your oil is of such lovely quality, must be so rewarding!

    ReplyDelete
  35. Amazing process -- and those olive photos are just beautiful.

    ReplyDelete
  36. Lindy -- just wanted to comment that blogspot has changed their comment form so that I can comment now -- with a link to my blog. Sure makes it easier.

    ReplyDelete
  37. Hi Linda - I just love your olive posts. I really enjoyed looking through your photos an learning more about the olive oil making process. And how exciting to come out of it with a excellent quality oil! Cheers to you!
    Alissa

    ReplyDelete
  38. Great report Linda! Shame for all that modern stuff! Thank you for sharing!
    Enjoy your delicious salads now!
    x

    ReplyDelete
  39. SO fantastic, dear Linda! :-) I loved seeing and reading about this amazing process. Your oil looks gorgeous - such bright color. :-)

    ReplyDelete
  40. The whole series f blogs about the harvest process is fascinating! Thank You for sharing! I volunteer to help with the harvest next year!

    ReplyDelete
  41. I adore your posts about the olive harvest. I am absolutely thrilled for you. I bet you just can't wait to cook with your own olive oil :)

    ReplyDelete
  42. Enjoyed so much my visit to your world. Just listened to a radio show on olive oil today-how wonderful to find this blog. Thanks for sharing!

    ReplyDelete
  43. Always informative and fun, just as it was when I grew up and followed my dad to the mill and hung around the old grinder all day.

    ReplyDelete
  44. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  45. what gorgeous photos! thank you so much for sharing. what a fabulous life you lead. i can't help but be envious. xox T

    ReplyDelete
  46. I was impressed how fast they can process the whole thing! And that's a LOT of olive oil my dear!!! Enough to cook everything for one whole year. I loved the color of that oil when it came out.
    Beuatiful post, thanks for sharing.

    ReplyDelete
  47. this is amazing, I had no idea how they make olive oil... thanks for all this info and photos. i love that last collage...

    ReplyDelete

Thank you so much for visiting my blog and taking the time to leave a comment. I really appreciate it and enjoy reading them all. I now only respond to comments via email, so please make sure your comment is linked to your account, if you would like a response. Otherwise I will not be able to respond!