How do you make olive oil?

How is it possible that from such a small fruit we get this liquid gold? How healthy can olive oil be? Does it last for a long time? Those are just a few of the questions we get frequently and this article is here to answer them by explaining how an olive travels from tree to bottle!

This is how we like to call it; liquid gold. The beautiful golden colour the oil has once it’s been pressed at the factory makes the oil look fabulous. It doesn’t however all start with pressing the olives. First things first; picking the olives from the olive tree. During the month of November we start our olive picking season on Karpathos and this is when we all get together for our Olive Picking Holiday. You can join us too! A collection of trees is ready to be pruned and picked from as they have been growing their little Karpathian olives on new branches throughout the year. The branches can become so many that little to no sunlight will come through which makes for an excellent place of shade underneath an olive tree. However it also makes the olives for the next year not being able to grow as they do need sunlight. This is why we have to prune the tree. During a walk on Karpathos you’ll often find olive trees looking like they’ve been completely cut down and you’ll wonder if it can grow back but it’s for this good reason. The good news is that it does grow back!

You have several options when it comes to olive picking devices but we like to keep things simple. With a sturdy rake you can get the olives to let go from the branches if they are ripe, but you wouldn’t want to collect them by hand afterwards from the floor. To make things easy we place a big net on the ground below the tree which covers the entire area where olives might fall. Once all the olives we want to collect have fallen down (because yes we do get lazy and leave some on the top branches occasionally) we bring the ends of the net together and carry the whole thing to an olive deleafer. This is a kind of shaking device where you manually shake the deleafer to get the olives to fall into the (usually a kind of jute) bags and the leafs then stay behind to become food for the goats of your neighbour. Once all the trees are pruned and picked from and the olives have ended up in the big bags they are ready to be moved to the local olive press factory to press the olives into oil. Yay!

Once it’s time to go to the olive press you must first get an appointment where you provide the olive press with a name and the amount of bags. The heavy bags full of olives have to get to the press somehow, so a car that can handle a heavy load is of top priority. Once arrived at the press it’s time to see if it’s your turn and to off load all the bags to the first step of the factory machines. The olives travel from their bag into a giant funnel onto a conveyer belt where the first pressing starts. The last bits of twigs and leafs are removed (with some manual help). The olives then get mashed and the seeds are removed as well. It then looks like a paste you’ll surely want to put on your bread for lunch after all the hard work you’ve just done picking the olives. That’ll have to wait though as this mash goes onto the next process where it becomes liquid again. The liquid oil eventually gets squeezed out into the final funnel where a tap is connected to. You’ll have to sit ready with your buckets and storage containers as within a couple of minutes the liquid gold comes pouring down! Once all the oil is collected it goes onto a weighing scale of the olive press factory. You then interestingly enough get to decide if you’ll pay them by oil or by cash! Usually you’ll have a piece of local bread at hand to try your oil first and share it with the other olive pickers at the factory so you can try your freshly pressed olive oil directly. Yum!

Once all the oil is collected from the press you’re good to go! Now everything has to be brought back into the car (hopefully without any spilling) and then placed near your kitchen for daily use. You can store the oil in a metal can or in glass bottles. Even plastic would do, but it’s not recommended. Did you know that extra virgin olive oil is loaded with healthy fats and antioxidants? Most extra virgin olive oils will last up to 24 months! if you haven’t used it all by then that is. Once the oil is stored in your choice of bottling you can also label your oil. Once the oil is stored in your choice of bottling you can also label your oil. Places like Sticker Mule are excellent for an online design and ordering your own olive oil sticker or custom labels​. 

Sounds fun? Join us in November for our Olive Picking Holiday to make your own liquid gold!