Gold!

Fatto con mano.

Much talked about these days and we think we found our own today! Almost 350 kgs according to the scales in the frantoio! Not to bad since according to the owner of the frantoio this year will certainly not go into the books as one with a bumper crop. The frantoio’s calculate the oil percentage in the olives, ours turned out to contain around 14.8%. so this amount of olives yielded around 50 liters of oil. One big vat full of liquid gold!

We were quite lucky this year. After years we decided that the frantoio we normally go to doesn’t do our hard work pride. The oil was rancid and left a bad aftertaste. No wonder! I’ve seen them stacking the crates full with olives 12 high and leaving them in the full sun for God knows how long. Luck had it that a very good frantoio in the Perugia area could do with a few extra clients this year because of the dissapointing harvest. Even better is that they process your batch seperately, something they normally only do for people who bring in more than 400 kgs. So what we now have is really oil from our handselected, ahum, olives. The frantoio itself is set in beautiful surroundings, it is one of those places where it looks like the ticking of the clock has come to a halt. The owner of the frantoio is a very likeable guy. Chatting left and right with all the visitors to his cozy office next to the press. Machine noise in the back, laughter, an old italian stufa still going strong, the smell of burned wood mixed with that of the freshly squeezed fruits. Lovely! Where are the Bruschette and wine?
Back home we had a little taste test. Four new oils tried to beat our own product. Always incredible how different all these oils taste. All fresh, lovely green colours some bordering on gold. Which one was best? To be honest I can’t tell. They are all proper oils each with their own characteristics. The homemade oil didn’t stand out in a positive nor negative way which I consider a good thing. My fellow taster agreed we were dealing with a good product. Was it worth it? Well, it is a lot of work. Pruning the trees in February/March, clearing the weeds around the trees twice a year, picking olives, spreading them out, loading them up again, drive to the frantoio and back along those windy roads…….. Let me just tell you I find it almost unbelievable that for the small sum of around 10 euro’s you can get a bottle of good olive oil.

I must apologise for the somewhat pour quality of the accompanying pictures, my camera had a day off.