Your favorite olive oil?

[kenny]

We produce extra virgin organic olive oil from our own olive trees in Greece. It's pure gold...But because we don't use any pesticides, the production is small, approximately 300 kilos per year. It is nevertheless enough for our family needs and some good friends!!!

We live in Southern California and have one massive olive tree that is perhaps 80 or 90 years old.
I've never harvested olives for eating or oil but I've often considered it - just for our own personal use.
Could you recommend a website or book that does a good job at explaining the process of making oil?

On the other hand if the process is crazy complicated or the olive pressing equipment crazy expensive perhaps you could just tell me that and save me the trouble.
Keep in mind I'm a geeky guy unafraid of work others consider to be a hassle that's not worth it.
I not only bake all my own breads I even mill my own flour.

I can go goole up information, but I value your perspective since you do it.

 

[beaujolais]

Here's something interesting. They say much of what we buy may really not be olive oil or may be -has gone bad but doctored to be made passable- olive oil:

http://www.amazon.com/Extra-Virgini...UTF8&qid=1391894791&sr=1-1&keywords=olive+oil

How kewl Natty, on your olive-ing.

 

[Natylad]

We produce extra virgin organic olive oil from our own olive trees in Greece. It's pure gold...But because we don't use any pesticides, the production is small, approximately 300 kilos per year. It is nevertheless enough for our family needs and some good friends!!!

We live in Southern California and have one massive olive tree that is perhaps 80 or 90 years old.
I've never harvested olives for eating or oil but I've often considered it - just for our own personal use.
Could you recommend a website or book that does a good job at explaining the process of making oil?

On the other hand if the process is crazy complicated or the olive pressing equipment crazy expensive perhaps you could just tell me that and save me the trouble.
Keep in mind I'm a geeky guy unafraid of work others consider to be a hassle that's not worth it.
I not only bake all my own breads I even mill my own flour.

I can go goole up information, but I value your perspective since you do it.

Kenny, i'm so happy that you're very interested in the matter!
Pressing the olives and extracting the oil is a very complicated procedure, which requires professional equipment and unfortunately it's not something that you can do alone at home. We take our own olives for pressing to a dear friend, who has all the equipment installed in a huge wharehouse!
On the other hand, you can definitely make good use of your olives by...eating them! Now that, too, needs a certain procedure, because obviously the olives aren't edible, when they are just harvested from the tree, but this is something that you can do at home and i assure you it will give you great pleasure. My dad is making our olives every year and it's one of the most delicious things in the..world!
If you're interested, i could explain the method. Just let me know.
Another thing: Could you take a picture of the tree's leaves and post it? I'd like to see what kind it is...Because in Greece there are the regular olive trees (which also come in many different kinds, like the black olives, green olives, small and big, etc)and the wild ones, which usually aren't good for harvesting.

 

[Hospatogi]

We produce extra virgin organic olive oil from our own olive trees in Greece. It's pure gold...But because we don't use any pesticides, the production is small, approximately 300 kilos per year. It is nevertheless enough for our family needs and some good friends!!!

We live in Southern California and have one massive olive tree that is perhaps 80 or 90 years old.
I've never harvested olives for eating or oil but I've often considered it - just for our own personal use.
Could you recommend a website or book that does a good job at explaining the process of making oil?

On the other hand if the process is crazy complicated or the olive pressing equipment crazy expensive perhaps you could just tell me that and save me the trouble.
Keep in mind I'm a geeky guy unafraid of work others consider to be a hassle that's not worth it.
I not only bake all my own breads I even mill my own flour.

I can go goole up information, but I value your perspective since you do it.

Kenny, i'm so happy that you're very interested in the matter!
Pressing the olives and extracting the oil is a very complicated procedure, which requires professional equipment and unfortunately it's not something that you can do alone at home. We take our own olives for pressing to a dear friend, who has all the equipment installed in a huge wharehouse!
On the other hand, you can definitely make good use of your olives by...eating them! Now that, too, needs a certain procedure, because obviously the olives aren't edible, when they are just harvested from the tree, but this is something that you can do at home and i assure you it will give you great pleasure. My dad is making our olives every year and it's one of the most delicious things in the..world!
If you're interested, i could explain the method. Just let me know.
Another thing: Could you take a picture of the tree's leaves and post it? I'd like to see what kind it is...Because in Greece there are the regular olive trees (which also come in many different kinds, like the black olives, green olives, small and big, etc)and the wild ones, which usually aren't good for harvesting.

Would you mind explaining the process of curing them? We live in an apartment complex full of olive trees. The olives were so numerous that they fell everywhere . I plucked one from the tree and it was Soooo bitter! My dog however loved eating them off the ground!

 

[kenny]

natyLad, I'll give up on considering making oil.
Thanks for saving me the time of researching it.

I've lowered my salt intake and I assume lots of salt is used to process the olives.
Do you know whether the salt can be reduced or even omitted?
IWO, is salt just for flavor or essential for making the olives safe to eat?

To threadjack, I read it takes about a month to adjust your tastebuds to low-salt or no-salt diet.
I've been doing it 6 weeks and it's true.
Now 'regular' food tastes offensively salty to me.

Below is a pic of a sprig from our tree.
Do you need other pics showing a close up of the leaves or other things?

 

[Natylad]

Kenny: Your tree must be beautiful... Judging from the picture, it is a very good species and it should produce good olives.
I will ask for my father's consultation about the salt issue and i will let you know. But from what i know, the procedure of treating and curing the olives requires salt and not just for the taste.

Hospatogi: Yes, i will explain the procedure in detail a little later,because my baby daughter is driving me crazy right now. Just wanted to inform you that you should be careful with your dog, because if he eats the olives from the ground, he might be swallowing their seeds and this could cause him intestinal problems.

 

[Hospatogi]

Kenny: Your tree must be beautiful... Judging from the picture, it is a very good species and it should produce good olives.
I will ask for my father's consultation about the salt issue and i will let you know. But from what i know, the procedure of treating and curing the olives requires salt and not just for the taste.

Hospatogi: Yes, i will explain the procedure in detail a little later,because my baby daughter is driving me crazy right now. Just wanted to inform you that you should be careful with your dog, because if he eats the olives from the ground, he might be swallowing their seeds and this could cause him intestinal problems.

Thanks for the heads up! Actually my dog never eats the seed. She just nibbles a piece and moves on to the next one! She's a beagle mix so she has a very strong stomach . You would be surprised the things she ate as a puppy! I do try to keep her away because I wouldnt want her to develop an intestinal blockage but it shocks me that she doesn't mind how bitter it is! Her coat is very shiny though wonder if the olives have anything to do with that!

 

[Natylad]

Kenny: Your tree must be beautiful... Judging from the picture, it is a very good species and it should produce good olives.
I will ask for my father's consultation about the salt issue and i will let you know. But from what i know, the procedure of treating and curing the olives requires salt and not just for the taste.

Hospatogi: Yes, i will explain the procedure in detail a little later,because my baby daughter is driving me crazy right now. Just wanted to inform you that you should be careful with your dog, because if he eats the olives from the ground, he might be swallowing their seeds and this could cause him intestinal problems.

Thanks for the heads up! Actually my dog never eats the seed. She just nibbles a piece and moves on to the next one! She's a beagle mix so she has a very strong stomach . You would be surprised the things she ate as a puppy! I do try to keep her away because I wouldnt want her to develop an intestinal blockage but it shocks me that she doesn't mind how bitter it is! Her coat is very shiny though wonder if the olives have anything to do with that!

Olives and olive oil are extremely beneficial, both for your health and your beauty and i'm sure that your doggy's shiny fur is also due to the olive snack that she's taking, hehehe!!!
As a greek family, we have always been eating a lot of olive oil and olives but my mother didn't stop only at...eating! She was using olive oil to make masks for my hair and she was applying it once per month, at night, all over my long hair, covering it with a plastic cup and afterwards with a towel and in the morning she'd wash my hair with traditional green soap, made of olive oil too. Afterwards, i'd go out to the bright greek sun and my hair would shine sooooo much!!! It was also thicker and healthier. I remember once i was at the beach in the summer and a lady came to me and asked me how come my hair was so extremely shiny

 

[Hospatogi]

Kenny: Your tree must be beautiful... Judging from the picture, it is a very good species and it should produce good olives.
I will ask for my father's consultation about the salt issue and i will let you know. But from what i know, the procedure of treating and curing the olives requires salt and not just for the taste.

Hospatogi: Yes, i will explain the procedure in detail a little later,because my baby daughter is driving me crazy right now. Just wanted to inform you that you should be careful with your dog, because if he eats the olives from the ground, he might be swallowing their seeds and this could cause him intestinal problems.

Thanks for the heads up! Actually my dog never eats the seed. She just nibbles a piece and moves on to the next one! She's a beagle mix so she has a very strong stomach . You would be surprised the things she ate as a puppy! I do try to keep her away because I wouldnt want her to develop an intestinal blockage but it shocks me that she doesn't mind how bitter it is! Her coat is very shiny though wonder if the olives have anything to do with that!

Olives and olive oil are extremely beneficial, both for your health and your beauty and i'm sure that your doggy's shiny fur is also due to the olive snack that she's taking, hehehe!!!
As a greek family, we have always been eating a lot of olive oil and olives but my mother didn't stop only at...eating! She was using olive oil to make masks for my hair and she was applying it once per month, at night, all over my long hair, covering it with a plastic cup and afterwards with a towel and in the morning she'd wash my hair with traditional green soap, made of olive oil too. Afterwards, i'd go out to the bright greek sun and my hair would shine sooooo much!!! It was also thicker and healthier. I remember once i was at the beach in the summer and a lady came to me and asked me how come my hair was so extremely shiny

I will definitely have to try that ! I do a weekly coconut oil mask which can be a pain because it becomes solid in colder weather. I heard that olive oil is a great skin moisturizer too! By the way I bet you make wonderful baklava ! My best friend is Greek and I loved going to her parents house for dinner just for dessert!

 

[Natylad]

Alright, so i'm back with the recipe for the olives' curing.
My dad said that there are ways to treat them, using a lot of salt and another way to use much less, but there's no way to totally avoid it. He asked me though to point out to you Kenny, that if there is no serious health issue, that made you exclude salt from your diet, preparing home made olives, with less salt than people usually do and consuming them, will be much, MUCH more beneficial for your health than...avoiding them!

So, first of all, somebody needs to make sure that the olives don't have on their surface any holes or spots, because this means that they have been infected by a bug, which is called dakos in greek but i don't know the term in english (sorry!). This applies especially to olives, which have grown in a totally biological way, without pesticides (is the spelling correct? ).

After you have collected the olives (approximately 5 kilos for this recipe) and made sure that they're good to go, you wash them very well and then you make an incision through their length, but not deep enough to reach the seed (this would make them become extremely soft, which is bad).
You need to put them in a plastic container and cover them fully with lots of water. You need to change the water every day, if possible twice per day. This will remove the bitterness from the olives.After 12-15 days, you need to taste one and check whether the bitterness is gone and if the olives are to your liking (i really hope that my english is not terrible ).
Afterwards, you remove all the water and you place the olives in the plastic container, with one kilo of hard grained salt and approximately 500 ml of vinegar. You leave them in this mix for at least 12 hours but during that time you need to stir them with your hands, 6-7 times. My dad says that he likes leaving them for more, like a day or so.
Then you need to put them in glass containers, which have been boiled (for sanitization). After you filled the glass container to the top, you add olive oil, which needs to cover the olives. You can add two or three slices of lemon, two-three bay leaves, a little rosemary or a small branch of oreganon. These give a nice flavor to the olives.
If the olives are prepared as explained above and kept in sealed sanitized vases in a cool and totally dark environment, they should last out of the fridge up to two years. Nevertheless, i like keeping them in the fridge, since it can get very hot here and i'm a little crazy with taking precautions "just in case..."!!!

I believe that with this recipe, Kenny won't have problems with his salt intake. There are other recipes that require MUCH more salt!

 

[Natylad]

Kenny: Your tree must be beautiful... Judging from the picture, it is a very good species and it should produce good olives.
I will ask for my father's consultation about the salt issue and i will let you know. But from what i know, the procedure of treating and curing the olives requires salt and not just for the taste.

Hospatogi: Yes, i will explain the procedure in detail a little later,because my baby daughter is driving me crazy right now. Just wanted to inform you that you should be careful with your dog, because if he eats the olives from the ground, he might be swallowing their seeds and this could cause him intestinal problems.

Thanks for the heads up! Actually my dog never eats the seed. She just nibbles a piece and moves on to the next one! She's a beagle mix so she has a very strong stomach . You would be surprised the things she ate as a puppy! I do try to keep her away because I wouldnt want her to develop an intestinal blockage but it shocks me that she doesn't mind how bitter it is! Her coat is very shiny though wonder if the olives have anything to do with that!

Olives and olive oil are extremely beneficial, both for your health and your beauty and i'm sure that your doggy's shiny fur is also due to the olive snack that she's taking, hehehe!!!
As a greek family, we have always been eating a lot of olive oil and olives but my mother didn't stop only at...eating! She was using olive oil to make masks for my hair and she was applying it once per month, at night, all over my long hair, covering it with a plastic cup and afterwards with a towel and in the morning she'd wash my hair with traditional green soap, made of olive oil too. Afterwards, i'd go out to the bright greek sun and my hair would shine sooooo much!!! It was also thicker and healthier. I remember once i was at the beach in the summer and a lady came to me and asked me how come my hair was so extremely shiny

I will definitely have to try that ! I do a weekly coconut oil mask which can be a pain because it becomes solid in colder weather. I heard that olive oil is a great skin moisturizer too! By the way I bet you make wonderful baklava ! My best friend is Greek and I loved going to her parents house for dinner just for dessert!

Hehehehe!!! Oh, yes! Baklava, galaktomboureko and other, not so great for my diet, stuf!!!

 

[kenny]

NatyLad, thank you so much for this.
I'm going to try curing my olives this fall.

When is the optimum time and best technique to pick them?

 

[Natylad]

NatyLad, thank you so much for this.
I'm going to try curing my olives this fall.

When is the optimum time and best technique to pick them?

Kenny, you're very welcome

In Greece, we consider the best time for harvesting between mid-Noevember and mid- December. There are some people who pick the olives until late December-early January, but personally i don't recommend it at all, because by then, many of the good olives have fallen to the ground and the ones which are still on the trees have become very dark and end up very soft after being cured.
I assume that the same time will be good for you to pick your own olives Kenny.

About the picking technique...
Picking olives from one tree, regardless of its size, is a totally different thing than picking from hundrends of trees in a big estate (the latter is the rule in my country). I will skip the loooong description of how we pick the olives and i will get to the point about this specific case: Kenny, wear a cross-body bag, grab your ladder and start picking

 

[recordaras]

natyLad, I live in cold New England where we can only dream of growing our own olives, but nonetheless I just want to thank you for taking the time to write about the process in such detail - it was incredibly interesting to read!

 

[Natylad]

natyLad, I live in cold New England where we can only dream of growing our own olives, but nonetheless I just want to thank you for taking the time to write about the process in such detail - it was incredibly interesting to read!

You're welcome recordaras!!!

I just wanted to take this opportunity to add a few more things which, i believe, are important and interesting...
For the Greek people, the cultivation and harvesting of the olives and the process of extracting the oil from them, is a sacred ritual that goes back to our ancestors...
In fact, according to the ancient greek myth, the city of Athens was called Kekropia, after its King, Kekropas. At the times of his reign, Godess Athina and God Poseidon have competed for the right to be the protectors of the city and to name it after their own name. The two opponents went up to the top of the holy cliff of the Acropolis and they were joined by another ten gods, plus King Kekropas. Poseidon, hit the rock with his trident and a spring of salty water jumped out, creating a big lake. Also, a beautiful white horse came out of the rock, a gift to the city. At that point, Godess Athina stepped forward and planted in the rock, what - according to the myth - was considered to be the first olive tree in the world. The tree immediately grew deep roots in the stone and olives started appearing all over its branches. After this, god Zeus, the father of all gods, proclaimed the end of the contest and asked the king to express his opinion.
King Kekropas, looked all around him and saw the big blue salty sea surrounding them and realized that Poseidon's gift wasn't as precious and rare as the olive tree that godess Athina had offered to the city. So he chose Athina as the winner and from that moment after, the city was named Athina (Athens in english) and it was protected by the glorious godess, who was considered the wisest and bravest of all gods.
The olive tree became the sacred tree, not only of the city of Athens but of the entire Greece and even the Olympic Games winners had the privilege of winning as their only prize a wreath, made of olive tree branches, called kotinos...
I attach a picture from an ancient greek vase, called amphoreas with a beautiful painting which represents the competition between Poseidon and Athina...

 

[Natylad]

The greeks today, respecting their ancient traditions, continue to love and cultivate the olive trees, they produce olive oil, they cure olives, they use the leftovers of the oil to make wonderful green soaps and they even produce food for the animals from the seed of the olive, called pyrinas.
When the time of the harvest comes, it's a huge celebration all around the country... Entire families gather all together for the picking of olives and the best part is when we take the huge sacks with the olives to the extracting factory and we watch the process of the olives being thrown in the first part of the machine, being washed, being smashed, then extracting their juices and then the most important part comes...the part when the machine devides the pure olive oil from the water of the juice and we see the golden green oil coming out, so precious and so wonderful...
The occasion is celebrated with live music, wine drinking, dancing and eating grilled, home made bread, covered with fresh olive oil that has just been produced (spicy and bitter at the beginning!), tomato and oreganon...

Kenny, i would like to thank you so much, for giving me the opportunity to talk about all those things, which are so important to me...

I attach a picture of the oldest olive tree in the world. Its age is approximately 3.000 years old and it lives in the beautiful island of Crete in Greece...

 

[partgypsy]

Natylad, what part of Greece are you from? My father is from Greece (Kalamata). Growing up they were basically farmers, with olive trees as well as orange orchard, with a plot where they grew and sold vegetables at market. He explained that for many plots of land, the borders are measured by the individual olive trees that live there, because they are generations and generations old. The fires that Greece had (this was a few years ago) not only being tragic, were bad because those olive trees once they had burned down, people didn't know where their land began and ended.
He moved to the US many many years ago, but from all his stories I would love to visit Greece someday.

 

[Natylad]

Natylad, what part of Greece are you from? My father is from Greece (Kalamata). Growing up they were basically farmers, with olive trees as well as orange orchard, with a plot where they grew and sold vegetables at market. He explained that for many plots of land, the borders are measured by the individual olive trees that live there, because they are generations and generations old. The fires that Greece had (this was a few years ago) not only being tragic, were bad because those olive trees once they had burned down, people didn't know where their land began and ended.
He moved to the US many many years ago, but from all his stories I would love to visit Greece someday.

My family is from that area as well

The fires that you are referring to, were truly very bad, but they hit mainly the area of Arcadia and not the area of Messinia (where Kalamata is). I'm sure that you will be happy to know, that the people of that area, being strong and determined, have managed to replant most of the lost trees and rebuilt the houses, which were burnt.
Your father was right about older people using specific, very old, olive trees, as the borders of their estate. In fact, my dad, who grew up in Messinia until the age of 18, once took me to a piece of land in the middle of...nowhere and said: Our estate's border is from this olive tree and reaches down the cliff to that bla bla bla olive tree....etc, etc... Hehehehe! That was soooo funny!!!

On another note, you SHOULD visit your homeland... Take the decision and do it. But i'm warning you...If you ever come, you will always want to come back

 

[partgypsy]

I am kind of kicking myself I haven't gone sooner! I wish I had gone when my Dad was younger. Now he is in his 80's. He has been back maybe 3 times, but don't think he is up for any long trips, plus they sold their plot of land when my yiayia passed. And then all the economic turmoil was happening so I put it off.

but you are right if I want to go, need to plan for it, and decide if adult only or bring the whole family deal.