Enzo's Extra Virgin Olive Oil

... another pot of Paradise

When we moved to our Italian 'Paradise' in October, the olives were already hanging off of the numberous trees that we found around the garden.  So Enzo was very excited about ripping them from the trees, giving them a good squeeze and making them into olive oil.  However, the season for olives in the area of Gaeta was not October.  In fact in this area the olive picking season goes from November through to February although everyone seems to have their own ideas on this.

Antonio who lives with his wife and family in Supino some 45 Km from where we are, picks his olives in November which others would say was far too early.  Antonio's family have been picking olives earlier than most for years and he sees no reason for changing the habit of generations.  Antonio says that picking the olives earlier in the season yields less oil  but that the oil is of higher quality.  So egar to learn all we could about olives, that we headed north to help Antonio bring his harvest in.

Antonio's Olives

The first thing we learned is how hard it is to gather olives.  It is extremely labour intensive and so, if like Antonio you have a lot of trees, you need a lot of help.  You'll soon discover that those gathered around the tree are either family members or people who have olives to gather themselves, and so everyone helps eachother when it comes to picking season.  No one is being paid pick but are happily bantering, singing and feeling at one with the countryside.  It's a wonderful way of bringing people together.

Laying the nets

The next thing we learned is that every olive counts so it is necessary to lay large, nylon netting around the trees regardless of terrain undulations and slopes.  Many people lay out their nets ahead of picking in order to catch those already dropping from the trees.   While picking Antonios', the nets were laid at the point of picking. 

Picking has become easier these days with the advent of handy pieces of equipment designed to ease the job.  Antonio had a large collection of olive tongs.  To use them you clutch the branch between the 2 bars and gently sweep them down towards the tip of each branch, urging all the olives off onto the nets regardless of their size or colour with a pleasant sounding 'PLOP' as they hit terra firma.  Using a combination of the olive tongs and good old fashioned hand-stripping, the olives are removed from the trees.

Antonios' crop proved difficult to bring in because his picking coincided with a bad spell of rain which would roll in early each afternoon.  As a result it took about 2 weeks to finish all his trees because picking in the rain is not an option.  Moisture can cause the olives to rot and spoil before they reach the press or 'Frantoio', afterall you are looking to achieve a good yield for all your efforts.  Antonio was expecting to get 45 quintal from his harvest (100 kg / 220 lb per quintal).  That's a lot of bottles!

Enzo was so busy helping Antonio with his olives, Vincenzo with his grapes and tomatoes and Tonino with his grapes, that his olives were put on hold.  Actually, we had forgotten all about them what with the heavy rains throughout November, then Christmas, then the snow in December and January.  It was impossible to find the time or the inclination to get into the garden. However, spurred on by the need for some garden maintenance in Paradise, Enzo's attention finally turned to his own fruits. And so it came to pass that he started picking ....

After days of being hidden down in the gardens of Paradise, Enzo, picking by hand, finally emerged with two and a half cases of little black olives and announced that he was taking them to the 'frantoio' (fran-toy-yo).  

Our local frantoio has been in Zangrillo family for many generations and is presently under the care of Antoinetta who was kind enough to take Enzo's and other local producers cases and put them through the presses.

The olives go through a few processes at the frantoio: weighing, washing, grinding, pressing, separating and bottling.

• The whole olives are sucked into a bowl where they are ground beneath heavy, slowly rolling stones to produce a paste.  This paste is then mixed and prepared for pressing.
• The paste is spread onto round, fiberglass discs which are stacked in fours between stainless steel plates.
• 
  

• These stacks are then placed in a press where oil and water is extracted.
• As the pressing continues the stacks become less deep until finally no more can be extracted.
  
• 
  

• The remaining pulp is not dealt with at the Zangrillo frantoio, rather it is taken to another processor where chemicals are added to the pulp to further extract the oil.
• The oil and water from the pressing is collected in a large 'basket' and is piped to a centrifuge where the heavier water is removed from the oil.
• The remaining oil is further filtered into a large steel container where it can be poured into awaiting storage containers.

The oil extracted from Enzo's olives is 'extra virgin olive oil' that has come from the first press. 

"My babies!"

Our video HERE

Extra-virgin olive oil is considered to be one of the healthy mono-unsaturated fats containing a high amount of antioxidant and low cholesterol.  It is believed that the large amounts of extra virgin olive oil consumed as part of the Mediterranean diet in this and other Mediterranean areas, will reduce your risk of heart disease as well as result in other well documented medicinal benefits.

For many Italians, olive oil is as essential to their lives, diet and general wellbeing as wine, pasta and in Enzo's case, Nutella. 

For Enzo, the olive trees in 'Paradise' have and will become part of a new Italian life-stlye that we are lucky to be able to share.  We hope you too enjoyed a drizzle of Enzo's Paradise and look forward to sharing some more with you soon.