09 Nov From the tree to the oil mill: between colors and scents
From olives carefully cultivated to ensure the best quality for our extra virgin olive oil, everything that happens between the tree and the mill is crucial.
What do our olive trees communicate to us? Proper extraction allows us to safeguard the year-long work in the field.
Excellence originates on the plant, but to be preserved, all subsequent processes must be managed with the utmost care. The fruits must be harvested at the right point of their ripening and for this, we are guided by colors.
In the olive tree, the degree of fruit ripening is called “invaiatura” and is revealed when the color of the olives, from the initial intense green, begins to shift towards darker shades, ranging from violet to purple or black.
For us, the moment to start harvesting is determined by the chromatic balance when different colors are present simultaneously on the crown, the olive is firm and healthy, and still attached to its branch with the right tenacity.
We alternate different harvesting methods, manual combing with mechanical vibration, allowing us to find the right balance between working times and production sustainability, minimizing fatigue for the plant.
The fallen olives settle on large nets placed under the trees, ready for transport to the mill and to be processed immediately, as we habitually do, within a few hours of harvesting. This haste is crucial to not spoil their freshness or risk losing valuable nutrients and precious organoleptic characteristics
Beyond sight, even the sense of smell is intoxicated.
Impressions remain like images, the scent of dew at dawn mixed with the many essences of wet grass because many spontaneous herbs populate the olive grove in October and November. Marigold, wild gourd, dandelion, fennel, chicory, wild mint, asparagus, and purslane. The dry stone walls surrounding our fields are inhabited by spontaneous bushes of myrtle and mastic. A concert of fragrances envelops you. Among the many positive aspects of organic olive farming, there is also this, the ability to experience many sensations of fragrances and colors. To tell how taste is also involved, we find ourselves in the mill, in one of the next pages