"The key to producing quality olive oil is to pick the olives as soon as they fall off the tree, and then immediately bring them to the oil mill for production. This ensures freshness of the oil, and it will give the oil a very low acidic grade."
Step 1: PreparationThe Clemente olive grove has approximately 500 olive trees, many of which are over 500 years old. Typically olive are harvested once every two years. In anticipation of an olive harvest, the ground must be prepared by laying down large plastic nets under the trees. The nets cover most of the property and can take weeks to instal. Once on the ground they are sown together with metal and plastic clips.
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Step 2: Collecting the OlivesOnce the ground is prepared, the next step is to wait for the olives to ripen on the tree. Once ripe, the olives will naturally fall onto the ground and into the nets. This usually occurs during the winter months, and may be aided by winter rain and wind storms. Once enough olives have fallen onto the net they are gathered into small piles. Then the are loaded, manually, into baskets and run through a machine that separates the olives from the leaves, branches, and other debris.
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Step 3: Processing at the Oil MillAfter collecting and sorting the olives, they are ready to be taken to the olive mill for processing. As you can see in the video, the olives are washed, then crushed, and finally the oil is separated from the vegetable water and solids by means of centrifugal press (cold press). You are then left with pure olive oil, and Pomace, which is the ground flesh and pits left after the extraction process. The pomace can be taken and reprocessed again to produce a lower grade olive oil. Clemente olive oil is only ever a product of the first processing, and thus extracted from pure olives.
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Step 4: Packaging and ShippingOnce the olive oil has been produced, it is transported back to Lubrichi where the Clemente family has a storage cellar connected to their home. The olive oil is kept in stainless steel bins, which can hold up to 2,000 litres of olive oil. It is left in the bins to settle for a couple of days. Then it is ready to be packaged. Family members then drain olive oil into tins and bottles, where it is ready to be sealed and packed for shipping.
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