The olive from bud to oil The olive
The olive - from bud to oil. The olive tree is known throughout the Mediterranean countries since the beginning of history. In the biblical story of the flood we are told that the dove returned to Noah with an olive leaf. Not surprisingly, in almost every archeological site from the Negev to the Galilee we find remains of oil presses alongside wine presses, oil and wine production were the mainstays of the local economy since time immemorial. The olive harvest begins in late summer-beginning of autumn: The traditionalists prefer to wait till after the first rain, but in the western Galilee the heartland of the olive farmers, some begin to harvest in the last days of summer. Whoever prefers to pickle them himself can buy olives already in the first days of September. Yet the bulk of the olive harvest is channeled into oil production which is considered not only by gourmets to be the finest and healthiest, not forgetting that in those ancient times producing oil from seeds or kernels was as yet unknown. So let's follow the olive from the tree to the oil vat.
A view of “Dir hana” valley in Lower Galilee, everywhere olive groves
Today the olive groves in Israel (including Judea and Samaria. ) cover an area of 1, 5 million dunams (abut 4 thousand acre). Traditionally olive groves are not irrigated, but depend on winter rain only. Modern plantations however are cultivated accordantly, but we will concentrate our attention on the traditional way of cultivation, since most olive groves, particularly in the Druze and Arab villages where many families have small plots, are cultivated this way, every family tends its own plot. Several olive tree verities are cultivated in Israel, the principal varieties are: The SYRIAN - which is mainly grown. Its origin is in tyre, it is well adapted to harsh soil and climatic conditions, its oil has a rich scent but its durability is poor. MANZILO - is the best variety for pickling, green black, pitted or not. BARNEEA - Has a high oil content. This tree has a high yield, already in the third year after plantation. It is considered to be one of the best. MEILLYA- a new variety developed by the Volcany institute, having a small fruit. Its oil is similar to that of the Barneea. NABALY - its origin is from Beit naballa. The fruit is pickled or pressed for oil.
The olive tree is long lived, and trees aged hundreds of years are known. The older the tree the more curiously the trunk is shaped, it is curved, and full of scars caves and tunnels and even has side trunks, a treasure for the photographer with an artistic eye. Curiously the thick trunk carries a rather small crown. A felled olive tree is eagerly sought by wood sculptors and artisans. Yet before we trace the olive's way to the oil bottle, I wish to introduce you to two olive groves with outstanding tree shapes.
Our first visit will be at the olive grove close by the Carmiel Safed road (Nr. 85), a bit east of Ramme on the north bank of the road we will see an unpaved way with a sign to the "secret pool", which merits a visit by its own, but long before reaching it about 100 meters from the road, we will see on both sides dozens of thick trunk olive trees and garlands of cyclamen around them. This happens due to the cultivation of the space between the trees which destroys the flower bulbs in the field but not those close to the tree and between its roots. Of course we have to visit when they bloom, in winter. (November through April). The pictures give only a slight impression of their beauty.
Now we are on the road Nr 805, which crosses the Sachnin (Sakhnin) valley and runs east to Dir-Hana and beyond. The bulk of Dir-Hana is situated on two hills north of the road, yet now days it has began to spread southwards: Opposite the village center we see the new road which leads to the new suburbs, (for those who are coming from the west about 100 meters after the fuel station to the right and then to left. for those coming from the east a little before the fuel station--to the left). Driving past some buildings and road curves and now we are between the olive groves, passing by (on our left) an old irrigation pool. A short distance farther (on our right) we find the entrance to an olive grove with its thick trunk old trees, which their owner Mr. Chatib Nasser claims to be of the oldest in Israel. There is a dispute as to how old an olive tree can be. The most common opinion holds that olive trees may reach an age of hundreds of years but not thousands as some tend to believe. Here are some pictures of magnificent old trees.
Mr. Nasser Chatib and his trees
Like every other fruit the olive begins its life as a flower: in the spring the olive tree is covered with a mass of flowers, neither beautiful nor fragrant.
During the summer the flower matures into a fruit, and in a plentiful you might think that the fruit full branches will succumb under their weight, As the olive tree depends only on rain it has an alternating yield, e. g. one year there is a bountiful yield and the next year the harvest is rather poor Upper right: A tree almost succumbing under the fruit load. Black olives are nothing more then green olives left to ripen and turn black Center left: an olive bunch waiting to be picked.
Harvest time!! The entire family is called up to help. The more trees a family owns the more distant family branches come to help. No matter whether you are a physician or a janitor, you take leave and come to help. The family car is loaded with food and equipment and the extended family, old and young, come to help.
Jute and plastic sheets are spread out, and the young men climb ladders and begin to shake and beat the fruit bearing branches, while the women "do" the lower branches. The grandmothers and children clear away the broken branches and leaves, heaping the fruit.
The grandmothers gather the olives into their aprons and pour them into a sieving device to clear away small debris. The sieving device is a simple inclined wire mesh construction which allows the small debris to fall through while the olives roll into baskets, which are emptied into sacks. In the end this is all the harvest work which may stretch out for days if the family owns many trees. Now to the processing stage…
At the end of the day the olives collected on the pickup truck, in sacks or bulk the olive are taken home, and on the next day they are on their way to the oil press.
In our modern age we have two distinct ways to extract the oil from the olive. 1) The cold press system, which is the oldest, although today we use modern tools to crush and press the olives. 2) The warm (hot) process, in which every stage is done in a separate closed compartment, and in the end somewhat more refined bottled oil is produced. But not only the gourmets and "savants" claim that the cold pressed olive oil is healthier and finer in taste and consistency. We will follow the various production steps in both systems observing the fine variations in each one. Left: the queue at the oil press, each one and his harvest load has to wait for his turn. No mixing or quibbling here: first come, first served.
Donkeys and other animals driving the oil press are not a common sight (at least in Israel), yet my friend Elias in Meillya still uses one, thought more for demonstrating to tourists and school children, the oil production stages. This way he produces excellent oil which I enjoy using. In the picture we can see the olives strewn on the "sea" which is a horizontal stone lying on the floor; standing vertically we see the huge round crushing stone with a driving shaft through its center, and as in this picture a donkey harnessed to it supplying the driving power.
The crushed olives are gathered into special wickerwork baskets (a'qaall in Arabic) and transferred to the press to strain the "last" possible oil drops. As we can see (right: in the picture) my friend Elias has a hand driven screw press, yet we will see others too. The screw is tightened now and then, increasing the pressure and squeezing out the last possible oil drop. It takes two to three hours to press a certain amount of baskets full with olives. At the foot of the press we see a receptacle collecting of the oil. Now comes the final collecting by hand, the oil is passed through a fine meshed funnel into bottles, plastic cans or any suitable container provided.
We are at the gates of a more up to date oil press; yesterday's harvest is unloaded into the receiving pit and taken by conveyer to be processed.
Inside the half automated oil press. The oil extracting process is still cold pressing, yet the donkey has been replaced by some electric motors and the work is, as already mentioned semi automated. The olives which have been emptied into the receiving pit, as we in have seen in the previous slides are taken by a conveyer to be rinsed. A second conveyer takes them to the crushing device (on the right) and as you can see it isn't of stone any more but of heavy metal, and driven by electric motors (on the left). After some turns a small side door opens and the crushed olives fall onto a dispensing conveyer which in its turn deposits the crushed mass onto the wickers. (a'qallim).
Above the a'qqall filling device. Right: the filling device stops its motion to enable the worker to remove the full a'qall and pile it one on the other.
The filled a'qallim are gathered in a special device and packed into the press…. . this time a hydraulic press which is capable of developing a continuous force of 300 metric tons.
This is the last stage: an electric pump draws the oil-water mixture (as any other fruit the olive contains water) into a centrifuge to separate out the water and any other contamination from the oil which flows under close watch into the ready vat. (In this picture a barrel).
Now all that remains to do is to crumble the pressed residue mass and remove it via a conveyer outside the work shop, and to prepare-clean the a'qallim for the next production cycle. The residue is not wasted but sold either as fuel or food for cattle
The residue piles up outside the workshop, and is removed when necessary or on request.
Now we have arrived at a warm olive oil production line. Here too the olives are dumped into a pit and a conveyer takes them to the washing line and from here to the processing line, yet from this moment we don't see them any more, . Each production stage is automated, and all the workers have to do is to control the gauges. At the end we see the refined oil. All done in minutes, and no human hand interferes.
Washing and sieving.
This is the interior view of small warm oil extracting facility, clean, efficient, sterile, and quick, yet the "gourmet" and "savant", claim that oil pressed in this way has somehow a different taste, and prefer cold pressed oil.
Here is the end of the “hot proces” – the oil “runs” in a thick stream to the nonrusting collection container, and from it to the distribution cans.
Before returning to history let us have a look at the olive grove and see How the trees are treated-cultivated after the rough treatment during the harvest. Usually the trees are pruned. All broken and pruned branches, leaves, debris are gathered in a pile and cleared off or burned. Once every few years the trees are given well rotted organic manure, in addition the soil is broken up and raked over every year before the rainy season.
A moment before we conclude our tour let us throw a quick glance at the ancient methods of our forefathers. As already mentioned, olive oil production was one of the main branches of their economy thousands of years ago. Above left: An old magnificent underground oil press, discovered in the Tel Maresha (a city probably founded during the reign of King Rehaba'm circ. 900 B. C. flourished in the Hellenistic area circ 200 B. C. ). Its construction proves that it is from the period before the invention of the pressing, screw. Note the vertical slots where the pressing lever beams (vanished long ago) were anchored (red arrows in the picture), below them we see where the right: Underground storage a'qallim were placed, the oil collecting conduit and the heavy Wight stones used to pull down room. Note the round the pressuring levers. . depressions in the floor to steady the amphorae, note also the conduits connecting the depressions: their purpose was to collect spilled oil, if an amphora were to break, not a drop will be lost!!!!!
Do it yourself! Two types of home oil presses, discovered while excavating Castra at the foot of Mount Carmel, dating from the Byzantine period (4 th century A. D. ). Below : The round pressing place and the oil conduit to the collecting pit. To the Left and right of it we observe two rectangular holes which served as anchoring For two supporting beams for the nut through which the squeezing screw run. Above : A similar device, only that the beam was secured on the right and Instead a squeezing screw (which was rather expensive), they used a simple Iever and heavy stones (note the strapping holes), to increase pressure. In the next picture we will see reconstructions of ancient oil pressing devices
Below t: The magnificent remains of a double oil press at Chirbet Q'arqara near Eylon (western Galilee). Below: Reconstruction of an ancient oil press at the Haaretz Museum, using the lever beam & screw method. . The wooden screw anchored to the floor, passing through a wooden nut which when turned pushes the forked lever beam down, and in this way applies pressure on the aq'aallim, squeezing out the oil. The older method used heavy stones to apply pressure on the a'qaallim
Ig’al morag-i@013. net. il You are welcome to visit my site, pleas click the link below : http: //morag. artvision. co. il English version – Uriel stern
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