You may find that the ones being picked at the moment are for eating, before they get bitten by bugs.

For oil they usually are a bit later, down here close to Portugal we picked ours around Christmas time, or keep an eye out for the neighbours and do it when they do.

We take the olives to a local mill, in Portugal, and return with about 1 litre of oil per 10 kgs of olives. It varies from year to year depending on how much water they contain but since we came some seven years ago we have not had to buy any olive oil. We only have a few trees onone hectare but usually collect around 150 - 200 kgs.

Not economically very viable when you take my labour and the transport into account but extremely satisfying to be able to offer 'our own olive oil'.

Well it nearly is our own even though it all goes into one great big tank and we get whatever comes out!

To be able to have our own specific oil we would need around 500 kgs and then to make and appointment at the mill.

I doubt you will make enough to supplement your income by much but again worth while for the experience.



Steve

Didnt realise you could actually get your own specific ,but I am a bit like you at the mo ,about the same quantity have a few more younger trees so may get up to 500k in the future (although dont know if I really want to lol ) Handy piece of info though ,Cheers

So

If you have your own olives but not a lot of them. How do you get olive oil from them without special equipment?

I saw a youtube video once where they used a Greek method where the olives were scored, placed in a large wine glass (which is placed in dish) and the olives are held at the bottom by another small glass, the large glass with the olives is filled with water to overflowing.
This was left overnight when the oil floated to the top. A tiny amount of water is dripped into the glass and then you catch the oil in the dish, as it runs down the side of the glass, trying to avoid any water getting in.

Quite a lot of trouble for a very little oil so is there another way?

Someone in my Spanish class had (just) enough olives to justify trekking 50km to a mill to get their own olive oil - the local Spanish teacher was very complimentary! ... I'll try to remember to ask how much was involved & what cost etc.
Hadn't heard about the micro-mechanism for producing your own oil, sounds laborious but interesting. Have you considered simply preserving them? The ones around here were way way too bitter for us the first two years - I mean the ones served up in bars etc - but now we've been here a while we've got to quite like them. And in all honesty the ones I did were better! Had a problem with mould on the top of the jars, though- I think I didn't fill them full enough of oil.

hola

When we looked up the home mills last year, I was put off by the price.

I've not heard of that Greek method.. we lived next to the mill so did the group thing anyway. When I've scored them here and brined them as you describe, I don't get any quantity of oil.. hmmm, another experiment to try!

To make oil at home you do need some serious money and the space to fit all the machinery. In olden times it would be first the mule turning the grinding stones to mash the olives and then the heavy wooden screw presses to squeeze the mash to extract the oil. Well I assume that is the traditional method. I am informed that there is a glut of olives again this year thanks to rains and prices will be very low in Andalucia. There are several varieties of olive trees hereabouts and some will be bearing fruit that is good for pickling / eating. They have ripened now but the ones for oil are slower.
Olive trees require a lot of work. The cutting and pruning of the suckers and old branches is very necessary. And the suckers grow at an alarming rate.

My local Spanish sage says that the olive tree is only good for the winter fire these days as the money from oil doesn't make it pay.

What about doing a weekly or monthly market stall selling your home grown produce either on your own or as a joint venture with neighbours? Might have to check with sanidad first although I wouldn't imagine everyone else does.

Sounds good (and I do mean that, I'm a veteran of PTA cake stalls/jam making, preserving, etc.,) however round here markets don't seem to last very long & the Spanish must surely make their own stuff so your only clientbase would be foreigners/tourists which is a bit hit & miss?

Stick on a sombrero, play the guitar and sting the tourists then lol

Not in a million light years .... besides, we're not exactly on a tourist trail here

When selling food stuffs, using a market stall, I understand the police, to who you pay for a pitch could ask you if you have the proper credentials like a food handlers certificate and an inspection for food safety at the point of manufacture, (i.e. your home kitchen). Well that is what has happened up here several times. It is no real big deal to do either but hassle if you do not obtain the right credentials before opening up for business.

Only marginally off topic, but this makes it sound like it's easier in Spain - of maybe it's regional - to obtain the right bits of paper for producing food in your own kitchen which you can then sell to the general public (at a location which might of course need other bits of paper but that's a different matter)...... there was quite a lot of controversy a few years back in the UK when food handling & kitchen requirements made the WI almost unable to hold their usual markets.

I do not think is off subject, as your comments prove that this legislation is all over the EU and is not down to Spanish bureaucracy. What I posted has happened twice in the vicinity. The traders, both non-Spanish, but EU citizens, had to get the proper permissions. Fortunately they were not fined, but that maybe because they were both apologetic.

What I meant was that in the UK it was a big deal, if you were going to follow the rules & regs, to be able to produce food from home. Double sinks come to mind, as a start..... it wasn't just a case of show your kitchen to be clean, your understanding of food storage to be within acceptable parameters & your hygiene ditto, it was dotting the i's crossing the t's and adding a few bits & bobs for good measure. Your description made it appear rather more straightforward here (which of course it may be)... if so, good on the Spanish for making it possible for people to sell the food they've been serving up with success to friends and family for yonks!

Olives ripen from green to black; the flesh encloses an oval stone and is the source of olive oil - the fruit stoned or stuffed is used as an appetiser and as a flavouring and ingredient in dishes. Originating in the East the Olive was consumed by both the ancient Egytians and Greeks and was spread in its cultivation to all Mediterranean regions by the Romans. More recently the low level of saturated fat has made the olive more popular as a healthy and tastier alternative to other vegetable oils.<<admin edit - rest of article removed>>