First press

This year was our first experience of making Olive oil at Trullo Pulcino. Like most people the closest I'd got to production before was removing a bottle from the supermarket shelf. So I couldn't wait to see how the Olives were taken from the tree, and then the process which refines them and turns them in to oil. Over the summer I was introduced to Antonio Barletta who runs PurOstuni and I asked him if he would help us with the Olive harvest. He has a very state of the art cold press on the road out of Ostuni towards the sea and I met up with him on Sunday to discuss what would be involved. As you can see in the pictures below its basically about shaking the trees and then gathering the olives as they drop on the floor. On Monday they turned up with a tractor which attaches to the tree and vibrates. i have attached a video below demonstrating. Unfortunately however the tractor broke and the job was let to two guys who with large sticks whacked the trees repeatedly, dislodging as many olives as possible. Not quite as elegant and incredibly arduous for those involved but as a bystander it was extremely to see this method, which is the more traditional method, in action.

When the olives had been gathered and placed in the van we went off to Antonio's place where the van was weighed, first with the Olives then without. This gave us a net weight of 2000kg of Olives. Not bad for our first haul. The olives were then poured in to the machine, which first washed them and then ground them up before sending the paste through four separate presses to extricate as much oil as possible. What came out the other end of the factory was the most brilliant green and pungent oil I'd ever smelt. It was fantastic and extremely exciting to know that it had been grown at Trullo Pulcino. For someone who's lived entirely in concrete jungles, the thrill of actually producing something is incredibly rewarding.

I hope you enjoy the pictures and videos.

Jacob