Pressing and Bottling
Within 24 hours after harvesting the olives, the pressing should be complete. Olives not pressed immediately begin to oxidise and ferment, which causes rising acidity.
After harvesting, olives are washed to remove soil and leaves. The olives are then pressed through rotating steel hammers to get olive paste, rotating slightly in another unit, and finally a seperation unit for oil where the paste is decanted and centrifuged, which simply means spinning the paste around at high speed. This method produces olive oil known as first cold pressed olive oil. No heat or chemicals have been applied.
4 kilos of olive are required to produce 1 litre of oil. It is the cold press method that enables olive oil to maintain its flavour, colour, and nutritional value.
The resulting extra virgin olive oil, after storage in appropriate stores, is filtered naturally to remove sediment and produce extra virgin olive oil with an acidity of less than 1. No solvent or heat is applied through the process.
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Freshly pressed olive oil.
Liquid gold.
Olives waiting in line to be pressed at the olive mill.
Inside the olive mill.
Another view inside the olive mill.
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