olives

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wollie
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olives

Postby wollie » Thu Dec 27, 2018 4:50 pm

I was in a small processing plant last week and found the process interesting.
The olives are processed on the day picked?
My question is!
How long is the process of processing from A to Z?
I know they are processed immediately but the pressing and separating acete from olive may take longer.
Someone here will know.
I am sure there are loads of options and i like to know same.

Many thanks....

El Cid
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Re: olives

Postby El Cid » Thu Dec 27, 2018 5:20 pm


Gasman
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Re: olives

Postby Gasman » Fri Dec 28, 2018 7:38 pm

Good article, Sid - detailed explanation there.
Our neighbour does his own olive oil and tries to do the crushing within the 24 hours recommended after picking, but sometimes it can get to 48 hours as he tends to pick while the weather is good and then process as and when he has enough for a big batch to process together. The crushing is a quick job in his natty little machine, then the crushed olives are stacked, smoothed in layers in the basket-weave wheels, with him tightening the screw every few hours - usually lasts about 24-36 hours for this job, with the juices running down into jugs, quite quickly to begin with, then at a slower pace, and this juice is put into a barrel with a tap handily placed about 8 inches above the bottom. The liquid rests in there for a couple of days, and then can be drawn off via the tap either to a fresh barrel, or into bottles, leaving any residue in the bottom of the barrel untouched - this can be decanted separately at the end of drawing off the main liquid and left to stand in a smaller container, to get the last little bit of oil off it. The oil has now left behind most of the sludge etc and although very green and slightly cloudy, soon clears in the bottles and is ready to use after a month or so of maturing and settling, by which time it has turned a golden colour. We have kept it for as long as 2 years without any sign of it going off.
This is, of course, all artisan stuff, and not at all at an industrial rate, but may give you an idea of the process ...

wollie
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Re: olives

Postby wollie » Sat Dec 29, 2018 10:25 am

Sid, thanks for the interesting link you provided.
Does anyone know how long the process takes?
What i mean is there a resting time during the process?
I am thinking it goes through the cycle but i may be wrong.
I was there but forgot to ask....

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Enrique
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Re: olives

Postby Enrique » Sat Dec 29, 2018 11:04 am

Hi wollie,
Just returned having taken a load of our olives to out local Family run Mill............ :D

From Time olives leave input hopper to oil in holding tanks .... 2 hours

Says he can process 4000kg an hour.

Normal work pattern for locals here is to pick all day then take load to Mill where it then runs though the night processing.


Some Mills will arrange visits so well worth a look............... :idea:
All my best learning experiences start with a problem I need to solve.

wollie
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Re: olives

Postby wollie » Sat Dec 29, 2018 11:54 am

Enrique,

Thanks for that i just wanted to clarify.
I spent 7 hours picking olives last week so i know how it works.
Its bloody hard work.
My payment was tour of plant and a few beers.
I was happy to do as really good guy has being seriously ill recently.

Regards...

olive
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Re: olives

Postby olive » Fri Jan 04, 2019 9:59 pm

Gasman wrote:Good article, Sid - detailed explanation there.
Our neighbour does his own olive oil and tries to do the crushing within the 24 hours recommended after picking, but sometimes it can get to 48 hours as he tends to pick while the weather is good and then process as and when he has enough for a big batch to process together. The crushing is a quick job in his natty little machine, then the crushed olives are stacked, smoothed in layers in the basket-weave wheels, with him tightening the screw every few hours - usually lasts about 24-36 hours for this job, with the juices running down into jugs, quite quickly to begin with, then at a slower pace, and this juice is put into a barrel with a tap handily placed about 8 inches above the bottom. The liquid rests in there for a couple of days, and then can be drawn off via the tap either to a fresh barrel, or into bottles, leaving any residue in the bottom of the barrel untouched - this can be decanted separately at the end of drawing off the main liquid and left to stand in a smaller container, to get the last little bit of oil off it. The oil has now left behind most of the sludge etc and although very green and slightly cloudy, soon clears in the bottles and is ready to use after a month or so of maturing and settling, by which time it has turned a golden colour. We have kept it for as long as 2 years without any sign of it going off.
This is, of course, all artisan stuff, and not at all at an industrial rate, but may give you an idea of the process ...
Ye gods. He is stuck in the past. None of our neighbours do that anymore. Olives knocked off branches are taken when trailer is full. Usually each day. Doesnt have to be. The fallen olives are left until afterwards and then gathered up. More oil per weight but poorer quality. At the co op, every load dropped has a small sample taken at random and processed on the spot. Then the rest of the load is assumed tobe rhe same quality for later payment. Everyones olives are then mixed and processed.

Wollie. Glad you found it hard work. Nothing prepares you for strafing branches all day with a fibreglass pole. Good on you.

I sat having a drink woth a local in The nearby village. He whistfully pointed to where a block of flats are now and said when he was young that is where the olive mill was. The machinery was powered by donkeys that walked endlessly around the stones.day on and day off.

Gasman
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Re: olives

Postby Gasman » Sat Jan 05, 2019 7:44 pm

Olive - yes, apart from him investing in the grinding machine for crushing the olives and their stones, it really is artisan stuff, but then it is just for himself and a couple of neighbours. This year's innovation is a blowing machine which wafts across the olives as they tip down a ramp to blow off spare leaves and any other debris picked up in the nets --- getting more advanced each year!

Otherwise those who do not have access to our good neighbour, send them to the cooperative down the road, and that is mostly by the waggon load, crushed when they get round to it, and on busy times that can mean a good long wait for the olives, mouldering a bit too I would not be surprised, and then either a quota of oil or an agreed price, or usually a mix of both, is doled out to the producer.

Wollie - we picked ours by hand, with forks and fingers, ladders for the higher branches, and a net below to catch the fallen ones, in two days of solid picking with a short stop for lunch ... which produced 18 litres of oil for us ... And the oil really is good ....

wollie
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Re: olives

Postby wollie » Sun Jan 06, 2019 10:44 am

Yes we were picking by hand also, well we had the strimmer thing which i was using but half way through i slipped and the head fell off.
We finished manually.
I am curious to know how many kilos of olives it took to make 18 litres, we picked 300+ kilo.

Gasman
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Re: olives

Postby Gasman » Mon Jan 07, 2019 11:21 am

We had about 10 tubs of about 20 kilos each - we usually reckon on an average of 10 kilos to one litre of oil but it varies enormously with variety - ours are mostly not oil-friendly types - and ripeness - half of ours were really ripe and the other half rather green - etc etc- so 18 litres is just below average for this year. But not too bad for two days hard labour, pruning once a year, with some trimmings in between, and 3-4 sessions of squirting anti-fungi and/or anti-fruit-fly sprays.
We have 22 trees of varying variety, age, and soil types! One mature tree produced nearly two big tubs on its own, and some just have a few as they are quite young.

wollie
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Re: olives

Postby wollie » Mon Jan 07, 2019 11:59 am

Thanks Gasman,
I assume people count trees differently as the guy i helped counted it as 5 trees but there were 3 separate trunks and he counted this as one tree.
we had 300 kilos but it may be you count each one as tree.
He also told me that 22/23% of olives is actual oil but i guessing it may not all be suitable for olive oil as the figure you mention says 10 kilo for litre which be 10%.
I did enjoy my day and hope to do again, i had no problem doing but i had mussel pains for a few days.
I find interesting and like to know these things...

Gasman
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Re: olives

Postby Gasman » Mon Jan 07, 2019 7:05 pm

It was common practice in the old days, and still in some plantations now - particularly in France! - to plant three or four saplings together, each leaning out a bit, so you eventually get a group of mature trees masquerading as one big tree. Another method is to grow one single tree but to prune it when young so that four main branches are kept, all growing outwards, so you get the same effect but from one root. As to which is the best method, who knows. You may notice in new plantations some where they are growing them like hedges - this is a new method which has, I think, started off in modern plantations in Portugal - it is a new variety of olives, especially for oil, with LOTs of fruit on, and they literally trim them like hedges after gathering each year's crop, so they are not expected to grow in the majestic old gnarled trees that you expect to see ... the also harvest them much like grapes are picked with a machine that goes up the rows and hoovers them off. These new ones are supposed to be bug-resistant, drought-resistant, etc etc, and to produce a HUGE crop!


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