On a beautiful fall day in early November my husband and I were invited to watch the milling of olives for olive oil with John Ribeira, owner of Copperopolis Olive Oil Company and miller of olives on the side. Seeing as how we had picked olives for over and hour a few weeks earlier in my quest for the newest adventure or experience Copper has to offer, I thought it fitting that we should witness the end product.
We went prepared to see some smooshing, some blending and then be told to come back in 6 months when it was done, much like wine. Well were we ever surprised!
We witnessed olives to olive oil in just over an hour! This may not sound fascinating to you but with my ever growing addiction to the variety of olive oils at Copperopolis Olive Oil Company I was thrilled to see how this process took place.
First buckets and buckets of olives in varying stages of ripeness are loaded into a grated stainless steel box that 'de-stems and de-leaves' them. After they are sufficiently denuded they are plunged into a vat of cold water where they are pummeled over and over to wash any earthly residue from the outer skins. From there they are 'shot' up a pipe that leads to a pulverizing machine. I am pretty sure it had a real name, but what it does is pulverizes, mashes, and smashes the whole olive, pits and all and then sends it down to a machine much like an ice cream maker with a larger paddle that slowly turns and turns the now mushy mess until a slight layer of oil lay on top of the vile looking sludge.
The sludge then is moved into a cetrifuge type machine that sperates the oil from the pumice. This is accomplished with a supply of water being added to the blend thus separating the oil and floating it to the top, as well all know oil will do. Once seperated the pumice comes out one end of the machine and the beautiful and fragrant olive oil comes out the other. Apparently in the old days granite wheels with donkeys pulling them and matts of straw with the olives smooshed between was cutting edge oil extraction technology, thankfully this machine was much more advanced.
As the 'liquid gold' slowly ran from the machine John sampled the fruits of his labor and was pleased. He offered me a sample. Being a novice I sampled. Ugh! Not my favorite garlic infused olive oil.
I learned there is a bit of waiting to this game.
John allows his olive oil to sit for two weeks allowing the sediment to separate from the oil. He then re-racks the oil and repeats the process two more times until his oil is clear, clear, clear. No sediment, no bitterness. Perfection!
John does offer milling days if a layperson would like to see the process. He also offers advice on olive orchard planting, growing and care....as well as milling of olives that you have grown and sales of olive trees. For more information contact John Ribeira at jjrib@caltel.com.
For more pictures CLICK HERE
By, Charity Maness
