It has finally arrived, we have harvested our olives. After years of growing and pruning we wanted to know what the yield was.

At first we thought that it was too little to get oil pressured, but it soon became clear during picking that the kilos quickly accumulated. Fairness to say that we also added the olives of Villa Alegria. El molino del Rio Fahala is an olive mill located directly below our mountain and the owner does not set a minimum amount of kilos of the olives to be delivered. A basket was assigned to us right away and every time after a day of picking we were able to deliver our olives.

Everyone wants to have their own olives pressed as quickly as possible, so an appointment at 22:00 would be our turn. Our bin was about half full, very proud of the result but with jealous glances we looked around at the full boxes of others. Ah, who knows …

The olives are stripped of leaves, twigs and stalks, after which they are washed, then the total weighted was 365 kilos!

In modern steel drum mills the grinding process takes about 20 minutes. After grinding, the paste is stirred slowly for another 20 to 30 minutes in a particular container (malaxation), where the microscopic oil drops unite into bigger drops, which facilitates the mechanical extraction. The paste is then pressed by centrifugation the water is thereafter separated from the oil. After this the oil is centrifuged vertically, which shows that from one pipe the water comes and the other the pure olive oil. Ultimately, we have two large cans in total 55 liters.

We have the oil pure and that is unfiltered, so not clear. This makes the oil not suitable for frying (because then the small particles burn olive) but can be used for dipping, for salads and dressings. But yes, then you have 55 liters, what do you do with it and I hear our guests saying,  are you going to bottle it?

In the meantime we bottled our olive oil and used our own labels, If you also want a bottle then you have to pick it up yourself…