Greece is full of olive groves. The Olive Tree, "the tree that feeds the children" according to Sophocles, is the protagonist of the Greek nature and history as olive oil is the protagonist of the Greek diet.
The indigenous olive tree (wild olive tree) first appeared in the eastern Mediterranean but it was in Greece that it was first cultivated. Since then, the presence of the olive tree in the Greek region has been uninterrupted and closely connected with the traditions and the culture of the Greek people.
Olive oil, as it is testified by the fossilized olive trees which are 50,000-60,000 thousand years old and were found in the volcanic rocks of Santorini, has always been a distinctive element of the country. Its systematic cultivation started in the pre-historic times - the Stone and Bronze Age.
Olive oil production held a prominent position in the Cretan Minoan and the Mycenaean society and economy as it shown by excavations and findings (earthenware jars, recordings on tablets, remains of oil mills). During the Minoan Period, olives were treated and oil was produced which in turn was stored in earthenware jars and amphorae. Quite often it was exported to the Aegean islands and mainland Greece. Apart from the financial gains, though, the olive tree was worshipped as sacred and its oil, besides being offered to the Gods and the dead, was also used in the production of perfumes, medicine and in daily life as a basic product in diet, lighting and heating.
An undoubted native of Syria and the maritime parts of Asia Minor, its abundance in Greece and the islands of the Archipelago, and the frequent allusions to it by the earliest poets, seem to indicate that the olive tree was there also indigenous; but in localities remote from the Levant it may have escaped from cultivation, reverting more or less to its primitive type. It shows a marked preference for calcareous soils and a partiality for the sea breeze, flourishing with especial luxuriance on the limestone slopes and crags that often form the shores of the Greek peninsula and adjacent islands.
The olive tree, even when free increase is unchecked by pruning, is of very slow growth; but, where allowed for ages its natural development, the trunk sometimes attains a considerable diameter. The olives in the East often receive little attention, the branches being allowed to grow freely and without curtailment by the pruning-knife; water, however, must be supplied in long droughts to ensure a crop; with this neglectful culture the trees bear abundantly only at intervals of three or four years; thus, although wild growth is favorable to the picturesque aspect of the plantation, it is not to be recommended on economic grounds. Where the olive is carefully cultivated, as in Crete, it is planted in rows at regular intervals, the distance between the trees varying in different olivettes, according to the variety grown. Careful pruning is practiced, the object being to preserve the flower-bearing shoots of the preceding year, while keeping the head of the tree low, so as to allow the easy gathering of the fruit; a dome or rounded form is generally the aim of the pruner. The spaces between the trees are occasionally manured with rotten dung or other nitrogenous matter.
The fruit when ripe is, by the careful grower, picked by hand and deposited in cloths or baskets for conveyance to the mill; but in many parts of Spain and Greece, and generally in Asia, the olives are beaten down by poles or by shaking the boughs, or even allowed to drop naturally. In Crete the olives are collected in nets, lying on the ground. In southern Europe the olive harvest is in the winter months, continuing for several weeks.
Steps to olive oil making once you've grown and picked the olives:
1. Cleaning the olives: Stems, twigs and leaves are removed and the olives may or may not be cleaned with water to remove pesticides, dirt, etc.
2. Grinding the olives to paste: Stone rollers or wheels roll in circles on a slab of granite to grind the olives into a paste, or an electric motor attached to a toothed grinder pulverizes the olives as they are flung away from the center.
3. Mixing to increase olive oil yield: Mixing or Malaxation for 20 to 40 minutes allows small oil droplets to combine into bigger ones which can be removed in the next step. It is an absolutely necessary step. The paste is often heated to 28 degrees centigrade during this process.
4. Separating the oil and water from the fruit (pomace): using a press.
5. Separating the oil from the water: the liquid is spun by a centrifuge.
6. Processing the oil, further extraction: refining, bleeching and deodorising, to reduce acidity and improve flavor .
7. Storage and Bottling considerations: Olive Oil can be stored in containers as mundane as plastic or as indestructible as stainless steel. Oil deteriorates through the action of lipase and other enzymes in the oil and the action of oxygen. Oxidation or rancidity speeds up with light and heat exposure.
8. Tasting and rating the oil: Olive oil is graded by its acidity and also by its flavor as judged by experts.
Broadly speaking, international legislation divides the various classes of olive oil into
(a) virgin olive oils (i.e. those which have not been refined) and
(b) the chemically refined oils (called “ olive oil ” or “pure olive oil”).
Virgin olive oil fit for consumption as is (i.e. “natural”) includes:
1) Extra virgin olive oil : virgin olive oil which has a free acidity, expressed as oleic acid, of not more than 1 gram per 100 grams
2) Virgin olive oil : (the qualifier “fine” may be used at the production and wholesale stage): virgin olive oil which has a free acidity, expressed as oleic acid, of not more than 2 grams per 100 grams
3) Ordinary virgin olive oil : virgin olive oil which has a free acidity, expressed as oleic acid, of not more than 3,3 grams per 100 grams.
