The process of extracting olive oil during ancient times was a very different and labour intensive process. Â The type of equipment used to extract oil was an old stone mill, a series of mats and a donkey.
- Traditional Press
- A donkey would be used to turn the stone wheel which sat on top.
- Often hessian sacks were used. Nowadays vented bins are used to reduce heat and degradation of olive quality.
Here is a video of the traditional method of pressing:
- Involves spreading the harvested olives and carting them in sacks in the heat. Â The Olives are already partially shriveled which means they have lost moisture and will be subjected to stress. Â Not the most ideal conditions for obtaining a premium product. Shoveling the olives into the stone mill and using a donkey to turn the mill. Â This was the traditional way of crushing. Â Very labour intensive and as you can see the olives are exposed to the elements during the crushing phase. Â A few hours more of the donkey going around and around in circles (I wonder if donkeys get dizzy?). Â The olive paste (also known as cake) is bucketed and layered onto the mats which are then stacked into the pressed layer upon layer until the press is at capacity. Â The press then squeezes the layers together and oozes the liquid (water and oil) to the tray at the bottom. Â The oil will be later skimmed off with a jug and poured into a bucket. Â As you can see this process is very labour intensive:
Today, a modern olive oil processing plant uses very different technology, is more efficient and is made primarily of stainless steel.
Here is a video of some of the Centrifugal style olive oil processing plant
A modern Olive Producer will invest more than $350,000 for a 1 tonne per hour processing machine.
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