Wild olive trees are scattered along the land mainly by the stone walls where machinery cannot reach since the good soil was usually cultivated with cereals or almond trees. We begin the recollection by the end of September till the beginning of Desember. The harvesting of the wild olive trees has to be done by hand and the tools have to be adapted since the fruit is much smaller than normal olives and strongly stuck to the branches. The fruit production is very irregular, out of ten trees maybe one or two have some wild olives. The amount of fruit per tree, if any, ranges from 0’5 kilos, many offer 2 kilos and 10 kilos is already a victory! As you can see, one liter of oil OR D’ULLASTRE needs more than 10 trees.

The fruit of each wild olive tree rippens at its pace since every tree is a singular individual different from the others. Being this so, the selection of trees for recollection is done daily tree by tree choosing those that present the optimal ripeness. We collect and press the fruit within 24 hours to obtain the best oil quality. The amount of fruit collected per person per days is around 20 quilos and 1 liter of oil needs 40 quilos of fruit, we organise ourselves with a group of three persons; two collecting the fruit and me at the oil press elaborating the oil OR D’ULLASTRE.

The last but not the least hurdle is the ellaboration of the oil. The percentage of oil is very low, only a 3 / 4% because 95% of the fruit is seed bone and that makes the elaboration a complicated task.

The battering time is much longer than with normal olives but at the end of the battering when you see little drops of oil gathering together is just like a little miracle…

Mechanical modifications in the oil press had to be carried out in order to adapt the oil machine to the fruit needs such as to reduce the grinder, a direct way out of the fruit paste in case it blocked the mixer and many other changes.

It took seven long seasons because modifications were necessary not only in the mechanical side but also in the methodology; time of battering, time of grinding, filtering, etc. FILTERING

The filtering is done at the very moment the oil comes out of the oil pipe, first with a cotton filter followed by a cellulose filter and then again by the so called natural decantation, that is to say let it repose for a few weeks and then rack it again.

STORAGE

Since the outcome of the whole land is 50 liters maximum, after filtering the oil is stored in an Electrical wine cooler so that its beneficial properties remain intact.

I can store the whole outcome 50 liters maximum, it allows me to keep the oil in the electrical wine cooler. There, the oil rests quietly, totally cooled, without air and in the dark and since the bottling is done by hand afer every order, it is as if it had just emerged from the oil press!