Milling, Pressing, and Finally Tasting the Olive Oil

The harvest is slowly coming to a close and the smell of freshly-milled olives still lingers in the factory. Biolea uses the traditional stone-mill process, an olive-oil production method considered to yield the sweetest, mildest, and healthiest of olive oils. The interns had a unique opportunity to work with this method which has now been abandoned in most Greek villages and in different olive oil producing regions of Europe. Many tourists and journalists from all over the world have visited the factory for this reason; the interns even had the chance to meet a very interesting crew from the National Geographic who visited the factory to film the production of stone-milled olive oil.

After the olives are transferred from the field they are separated from the leaves, washed and weighed before being dropped into the mill. The huge stones, made from granite from the Alps, and each weighing from 2 to 2 1/2 tons, then roll over the olives forming a thick paste. As the interns learned for themselves, the milling process is quite complicated and requires constant observation and decision making; if the paste is not milled enough or is milled for too long we are not able to get the maximum quantity of olive oil from it. The paste is then spread onto the pressing mats and

transferred to the presses, which in turn squeeze the mats to release the liquids inside the paste.These liquids, which consist of vegetable water and olive oil, are stored in containers until they separate naturally so that finally the olive oil can be gathered.In contrast to other production methods this method of separating the olive oil from the vegetable water may be slow, yet it is the most beneficial as the oil retains all of its health benefits.

The interns took part in all aspects of the olive oil production and were especially pleased to taste the final product!