Olive Oil Pressing

This is the seventh year that we have had the pleasure of harvesting our own olives, and still there is nothing like the taste of fresh olive oil.  Sure, part of the pleasure is derived from the fact that you have been toiling for the past two days to pick the olives, but even once the physical exhaustion has passed, the green spicey oil makes favourite everyday dishes seem like new.

Last week we did our earliest ever harvest, in twenty degree sunshine.  The oil is amazing, spicey but without the “afterburn” that you sometimes get from fresh oil in the back of the throat.  Phil and Yvette were here helping, and these photos that Yvette took tell the story better than I can…

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

 

Zero Food Miles

Inspired by Hugh FW’s Fish Fight, I just spent 5 euro on a jar of locally caught, artisan-preserved tuna in olive oil.  Tuna will no longer be a standby, but a luxury item.  But it got me reflecting, once again, how great it is hear to have access to this kind of food in Puglia, to be able to make those choices.

Local fruit and veg are abundant at Trullo Solari

We try to grow our own fruit and veg, sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t.  (We’re still learning!)  But when it doesn’t, or when we fancy something different, the Saturday market in Ostuni is full of fresh, beautiful, seasonal produce.  There is a 400 metre stretch of stalls, from the “muddy” end, which are little guys selling what they’ve grown, to the more “shiny” end which sell imported bananas and have carrots wrapped in plastic.  Sure, there are supermarkets, but we also have the choice to go and buy raw milk from the farm, or today’s ricotta, or the mozzerella that you can watch them making.  We go to the coast to buy fish from the little port market.  We go to the mill in Ceglie to buy flour.  One day we’ll grow our own wheat and take it for them to mill, but that day hasn’t yet come!  And of course we have the gift of our own olive harvest and traditionally pressed olive oil.  Those concerned with how the demise of fossil fuels will impact the food supply predict everyone will have to move back to this way of life.  But for now we are loving and appreciating what we have.

Guests at Trullo Solari can obviously join our appreciation for this quality of food while you’re here.  Our sat-nav is loaded with all of our favourite delis and food producers, and is yours for your stay.  And if the short drive to get there spoils your envionmental conscience, you can of course be content picking the fruit from the garden!

 

Extra fresh, extra virgin

How is it that you can take a truck full of purple olives to be pressed, and return with a container of green oil?  One of life’s wonderful mysteries.  And who ever imagined squashing the bitter, nasty fruit of the olive tree would produce anything so fabulous; delicious, health-giving and versatile.  Even more, that you could take the same fruit, drop it in caustic soda for a while, then soak in fresh water for a couple of weeks, salt it and store it for a month and – wow, a tasty olive.  If you’ve never tasted an olive fresh from the tree you may not appreciate the miracle metamorphis that takes place to achieve the olive on your table.  Trust me, if you’ve never tasted a fresh, uncured olive, you don’t want to.

Many years ago olive oil was used as lamp oil, and it is said that the olive oil industry was as important as the petrochemical industry is today.  Hard to imagine, but there are many example of old wealth here in Puglia that indicate a successful industry.  Sadly for the locals, most of the wealth was controlled by landowners who lived Up North, or the church.  Today the focus is on producing the freshest, most virgin (least acidic) oil, to be enjoyed as a culinary delight.  Happily many of the olive producting masserie are now locally owned by people passionate about the area and their oil.

Research shows that extra virgin olive oil is the most digestible of the edible fats.  Olive oil also helps the body to assimilate vitamins A, D and K.  Benefits of consuming olive oil include slowing down the aging process and helping liver, bile, and intestinal functions.  It is, of course, comprised of mono-saturates which are the healthy fats.  Cold pressed olive oil is a pressing process requiring no heat or chemicals, which destroy vital nutrients.

But none of this is that important when you collect your fresh oil from the press.  It is the wonder of how and why, and the utterly delicious taste.

 

Olive Harvest

Early November and it is the start of the olive harvest.  We like to pick our olives early; the result is a peppery, grassy, more virgin oil – and the weather is generally better!  This year our olive harvest has been pretty lean.  Olive trees tend to have a two year cycle of being rampant and then being lazy.  Factor into that the need to prune the trees every three years or so, which significantly reduces the harvest for the following year.  Needless to say we haven’t yet perfected the art of getting all these elements lined up!

Olives waiting to be picked.

Still, we picked 160kg of olives over the last 3 days.  We hand pick the olives; spread a huge net under the trees then take it in turns to stand at the bottom and serenely pull the olives down onto the net, or stand on a ladder thrashing wildly at the upper olives with a big stick to whack them down.  Again, picking the olives produces a greener and better oil than letting them fall naturally.  The other important factor is to get them pressed as soon as possible.  Olives are like any fruit and start to deteriorate once they’re off the tree, or if they’re bruised or damaged, so you want your oil made immediately.  Luckily our preferred frantoio (oil press) was on schedule and our olives were pressed last night.  We’ll pick the oil up later this morning…

 

Mozzerella doesn’t come any fresher than this

Stretching curds to make mozzerella

One of the great things about being in Puglia is that there really are minimal food miles on your plate. Local food is the norm. When we first arrived I thought that this may become tedious, but eating only what is in season and locally grown is so great that we just don’t get tired of it. The markets are bursting with fruit and veg that are grown within 20 kilometres, and of course there’s normally something to harvest from the trees on the land.
For a real treat though, how about going to the local masseria to pick up your cheese? Masseria are old farm estates, mostly specialising in olives or dairy. A couple of kilometres from Trullo Solari is Masseria Nisi where you can greet the cows on your way in, then watch your mozzerella be made, stretched and tied into knots. You can be eating it within minutes. And just to top it off, the first of the figs are ripe on the trees. Delicious.