Lay My Hat Forum

[olive]

Does anybody in Italy produce their own olive oil? If so, I'd like to exchange tips on how to (try to) reduce millers "creaming off" oil before it is delivered to the producer.
Just the latest scam I'm trying to understand.
I have found it impossible to stay with the oil throughout the process (I am in France) - what happens in Italy?
(Why they do it in France is quite simple: they sell oil at up to 30€ a litre. Our local miller used to buy oil from the locals to sell but hasn't done so for 3 years. Mysteriously, he still sells it! ...and our "rendement" - oil per kilo - has dropped by a third in that time.)

[Titti]

Hi Olive, how much olives do you produce?

Our older olive trees make maximum 400 kg olives. We only have to spend a couple of hours at the mill before getting the oil as all mills here take you only on an appointment basis.

If you ask around, you will find out that every year the yield of oil/olives is generally the same for all growers in an area.

For example our olives produced 14% oil last year (i.e. 56 kg oil), this year we got 16 %

So if you neighbor is getting 16% and you are getting 10% then you should go to another mill.

[olive]

Hello Titti,
In 2007 our yield was 22.48%! This dropped to 17.74% in 2008 and is only 15% this year - a third less than 2 years ago.
Some mills here won't press the oil while you wait - you have to come back the next day.

In France the olives are picked when they are at least half "turned", but my Italian friends tell me that in Italy they are often picked green - is that true in your area? Is it true that they keep longer if picked green?

BTW - B(y)T(he)W(ay) - we never use chemicals on the land (or the trees). We lost the whole crop in 2006, when the olive fly, which is moving north with climate change, contaminated them.

[Vera]

We're in Spain and our local mill has upped the weight you need for your own single pressing to 1000Kg. We had around 750 Kg so went with 2 neighbours which gave us 1114Kg from which we got 220 Litres of oil, about 19.8%, we have usually been just above 20% so slightly down.
But still a lot of oil and it's lovely, sweet, peppery and slightly grassy.

[olive]

Titti and Vera,
How do you pick your olives? Our trees are babies (20 years old) and we used to hand pick them. We get friends to pick them now - they use their hands or small rakes. They keep half & we get half, but we still have to try to give it away. It's not enough to sell commercially. If you sell them (& I guess you must) is it profitable? You can buy non-French olive oil for 4€ a litre in France but good quality local oil sells for up to 30€ litre. The way we grow olives (no chemicals) & the way we pick them makes it impossible to make a profit.
Still, it's a lot less work than grape vines and the oil is delicious.

[Mountain Goat]

Olive, I think the thread has to be retitled - Olive's Oil.

Anyone old enough to remember when the only olive oil sold in the UK was sold in tiny medicinal bottles in Boots' chemists? For cleaning ears or something horrible like that.

MG
_________________
HolidayPad - Site of the Year / Leysin Chalet Rental

[HelenB]

Yes, and pharmacies still sell it.

[Mountain Goat]

Virgin, first pressing, I hope, these days?

Didn't we have to take it as a kid, as a medicine, plus something ghastly called Radio Malt? What on earth was that?

MG
_________________
HolidayPad - Site of the Year / Leysin Chalet Rental

[HelenB]

Don't you mean Cod Liver oil and Malt extract?

[Mountain Goat]

Aaagh. Maybe, it was a long time ago. Radio Malt was a thick, gloopy stuff we all had to take for some reason.

MG
_________________
HolidayPad - Site of the Year / Leysin Chalet Rental

[olive]

First pressings don't exist any more.

[Mountain Goat]

Olive, you disappoint me. I imagine you trotting around a vast wooden barrel in your pink wellies.

Or even barefoot?

MG
_________________
HolidayPad - Site of the Year / Leysin Chalet Rental

[Titti]

Hi Olive
22.5% in our area is just impossible! In Umbria olive trees grow very slowly as we are at the limit of the olive growing conditions because of cold and altitude. So while we have no olive fly, we also have relatively little product and yield. 16 % here is already very good, 14% is more normal.

Olives are better picked at half maturation, when the fruits change from green to deep purple. In that particular moment the oil is at its best for low acidity and flavor.

Picking olives completely green is a fashionable mistake. The resulting oil is intensely peppery but might be also unbearably bitter. This depends of course on the variety of olives. Our moraiolo variety here in Assisi is already slightly bitter at mid maturation.

Picking olives completely ripe or overripe is an old style mistake. Ripe olives loose flavor and increase acidity and sugars, all stuff you do not need in a good olive oil. In addition overripe olives will mould fast if kept in storage and this will contribute an undesirable taste to the oil.

As for your mill, if you have the feeling that they are taking your product, I would change anyway if you have a choice. However I still think that if you know the weight of your product and the average yield of the year they cannot steal more than a few liters.

People in the countryside gossip all the time. If they know you are asking around, they will be more careful

[A-two]

Please send olive trees. I am now completely sold on the idea. We have natural olive trees here which produce the most fragrant scent of Jasmine in the Spring, but no fruit. I grow my tomatoes, my basil and my garlic, so it's time to plant the olive trees. Where do I get the trees?
_________________
Waves from America

[olive]

Would you like to adopt one of ours, A2?
I can send you a full geneology and the adoption papers.