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Olive Pressing at S. Romolo

Early on Saturday morning, November 5th. we awoke to noises in the backyard. Bob was first to investigate and I quickly followed. We found Marzi (the owner of the house) and the man who works for him in the backyard loading yellow and green plastic crates onto the bed of a small farm utility vehicle. Marzi said they were off to S. Romono, a local olive pressing cooperative, to have his annual yield pressed.

Marzi invited us to follow, so Bob rushed upstairs to make sure Jayne and Mary Ann were out of bed and ready to roll to yet another adventure in our visit to Tuscany!

We followed Marzi, who was following the tractor, over gravel roads for what seemed like miles but was only several kilometers.

 

  
S. Romolo, we assumed, is typical of small olive pressing cooperatives where small landowners can take their olive harvest to have it pressed into olive oil. This particular co-op, we learned, is only open - usually - during October and November.

First, Marzi had to offload his olives and dump them into a container that also served as a scale. Bob jumped right in to give a hand with the offloading of the olives.

Marzi was disappointed to discover that his yield this year was only 514 Kilo (about 1,131 lbs), half of what they brought in in 2004! Once the olives are weighed, they are sent through to a hopper where the leaves, twigs and
stems are separated from the olives and discarded. Then the olives are moved along to a washing bin for a final cleaning. This process reduces the presence of contaminants, especially soil which can create a particular flavor defect called “soil taste”. (Wikipedia, 2005) The washed olives are next moved into a granite lined container where, at S. Romolo, two large stone rollers, or wheels, roll in a circle to grind the olives into a thick paste. (The Olive Oil Source, 2005)
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