How to produce extra virgin olive oil? (1) The olive grove

To our knowledge, the "best oil in the world" does not exist - except when it comes to the oil of the producer with whom you are in his facilities!

However, thanks to the technological and scientific evolution in this area, we now know that to consume quality extra virgin olive oil, four steps are essential and all absolutely necessary (like the links of a chain). If one is missed, everything collapses!

Unlike the maintenance of the olive grove (which lasts throughout the year and requires a constant presence in the olive grove), the harvest is a more punctual activity, but just as crucial in the process of obtaining olive oil and what's more is the most expensive, since it represents 60% of the total cost of production.

Olives are harvested manually or mechanised: manual harvesting is applied to table olives to avoid damaging fruits, thus degrading the quality, but it takes more time and is very expensive. Mechanical harvesting is carried out in olive groves where olive trees are generally younger, and where the morphology of the terrain allows it: traditional olive groves, also known as mountain groves, are very rarely mechanisable, and therefore at risk of abandonment.

Traditional and organic olive grove on the island of Paxos in the Ionian Sea in Greece