This is a guest post by someone who loves Terra Savia Olive Oils and who has been begging to come watch how the olive oil is made for months. All I can say is, thank you Yvonne and Jerg, for inviting us over to witness this grand production. When we arrived around 4pm the trucks were pulling up from at least three different sources including olives from John Schaeffer own farm, CEO of Real Goods in Hopland. The olive crates were lifted off the trucks and brought inside to the milling area where they were first weighed and then positioned for processing. The first run was Terra Savia's own Olio nuovo, Moraiolo Harvest 2009. Yvonne explained to me later after assisting the olives up the convair belt to be stemmed and cleaned (output in the video above), that they would not be using the stone mill on their own oil (this is why they went first). The next batch, after cleaning, was dropped into the mill "bed" with granite stone crushers spinning around and around (video below). A fine mist of oil was drifting through the air. The scent coming from this process was heavily.
After the stone milled the paste it was sent to a Malixer which uses large wheels to mix the paste and begin the process of separation. When the mix is right, the paste is transferred to a horizontal centrifuge that will separate the oil and fruit-water from the paste. The paste is transferred outside the building where it is loaded into trucks and taken off site to compost and eventually be used as fertilizer in Olivino’s olive groves. Following the oil and fruit-water are separated and the oil decanted into containers ranging from 5-gallon jugs to 500 gallon tanks.
Here is Jerg below decanting the GREEN glorious oil.
It is not every day that you get to see this process. I know when I left at 8pm that they still had a long night ahead of them. When Yvonne told me that they were doing this practically everyday of the week this month my respect for her and her products was elevated even more. Making great wine and oils is hard work and Terra Savia is committed to quality.
If you are on Facebook, please become a fan of Terra Savia to see several photographs I recently posted from my evening watching and documenting this process. All I can say is it was INCREDIBLE!
Thanks again Terra Savia & Olivino, Patricia Watts
