Secret of the Gods (Olive Oil in general)

Member Name: Praskipark

Product:	Olive Oil in general
Date:	26/10/08 (181 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Very vesatile in cooking, good for your skin, health, and helps you live longer.

Disadvantages: Some people may not like the taste.

Apart from beer and wine the only other liquid that is consumed in large quantities in my household is olive oil. I love everything about olive oil - the gnarled trunks of the trees, the colour of the leaves and the fruit, the smooth texture and the taste. It is a very important substance in our family and if you bare with me I will tell you all I know about olive oil.

It all started about 23 years ago when my husband's parents bought four hectares of land in the valley of Monchique in Portugal. They had been searching for land to buy in Spain but for what they wanted the prices were too high so they opted for Portugal instead. For many years they never lived on the land but lived on a boat in the marina. Occasionally they would take a trip to the land to tidy the place up a little as it was always overgrown and apart from the run-down cottage and an adega had no other buildings on the land.

After living on the boat for about three years they suddenly decided to sell the boat and move on to the land in a make-shift way. It was a bit like camping on a grand scale. They had a small caravan and for a while until they built a better abode this was their home. Apart from the many orange and lemon trees they also acquired several ancient olive trees. At first they didn't do anything with the olives as they were too busy building a home but as time passed they cultivated the terraces and with the help of Manel, the old Portuguese guy who lived down the valley, they learnt about how to care for these ancient trees.

In 1990 I moved over to Portugal with my husband and son but we lived on the coast. We often went up to the land to help and from July to November this plot of land and beaten up old caravan became our home while our parents went back to the UK for a few months. This is the time I became initiated in to the olive growing business.

As the olive tree is a native of the Mediterranean Coast the climate has to be just right and olives are not generally found in high altitudes. Although Portugal is situated on the Atlantic Coast it does still have a Mediterranean climate. In order for the fruit to ripen properly, it needs mild winters as temperatures lower than 15 degrees can be fatal - sufficient rain in autumn and spring and hot summers. For olives to survive, the rainfall has to be at least 8.5 inches annually. If it fell lower than this then we used to switch on the irrigation system which was quite basic really - just a network of pipes spread over shallow channels amongst the groves. The water came from the nearby well as there was no running tap water in the valley. This is normal in the valleys. Following a period of winter dormancy lasting from November to February, the olive's growing cycle begins in March - April, with the appearance of new shoots and buds which will produce flowers and fruit. Olive trees blossom in May-June. The fruit develops over the summer and ripens in October. Depending on the variety, harvesting takes place from September (for green olives) until late February (for black and late-ripening varieties). Most of the olives grown on our land were green and the harvesting usually took place in late September/October.

Harvesting the olives is hard work but fun. In the valley, the old traditional methods are still used. Choosing the best time and method for harvesting is essential: whether the olives should be allowed to fall from the tree by themselves, at the risk of damaging much of the crop, or picked early; whether they should be picked by hand using a long stick or knife, or by the modern vibration method. The quality of the harvested olives will depend in part on the method chosen. With the help of the locals we always used sticks to knock the olives off the branches where they would then fall on to the ground which was covered with large sheets. All traces of rot and debris must be then carefully removed. Although, often invisible to the naked eye, this can affect the oleic acid content, and thus the quality and classification of the oil.

After the olives have been harvested they have to be scooped up and placed on a trailer to be taken to the mill. This was generally done by Manel who had an old tractor. Apart from our olives there were two other Portuguese families' quota of olives which were transported as well. The miller usually stores the olives a few days until he thinks they are ripe enough to be crushed. Crushing the olives prior to pressing is the first step in the process of producing olive oil. It is his job also to sort the olives and and to clean them so all evidence of chemical sprays have been removed. The principle is simple: the olives are crushed - with or without their pits, depending on local custom until they are reduced to a paste which can then be beaten to facilitate pressing. In the past, the crushed olives were allowed to drain and in some mills in Portugal this stage still takes place. This step produces a pure unpressed oil marketed under the name fleur d'olive, or premium virgin oil. Crushing is just as important as pressing, and it is carried out with particular care. In the old days, animals were used to turn the mill stones but have been gradually replaced by water power and the single grindstone by two or three grindstones installed one above the other. The more recent development of course, is electricity but we didn't get electricity in this valley until about 8 years ago. Instead diesel generators were used. Consequently, the old techniques were used and sometimes even manual crushing. Certain archaic techniques are sometimes more profitable for small volumes of production.

We are not talking about massive quantities of olive oil being produced here - it's three families' quotas of olives picked from their own trees on their land, collected together and then taken to the Cooperative to be pressed. The other families had lived in the valley all of their lives and depended on agriculture for their livelihood so their quota of olive oil was more important to them than us as it had to last them all year not only for cooking but other uses which I will mention later. It is a known fact that at various times in history those depending on agriculture for their livelihood have formed cooperative organisations in order to relieve the problems associated with natural or economic difficulties. Cooperatives are most common in the wine and olive oil industries. In Spain, Portugal and Greece they are omnipresent.

However, as in the wine industry, the disadvantage of the co-operative system lies in its tendency to blend products from different origins and of different grades (sometimes of mediocre value), which can impair overall quality. Due to the relatively small supply and the substantial qualities of olives harvested from ill-tended ornamental groves (an acre or so planted around a holiday villa) for example, many co-operatives are reduced to pressing large quantities of poor quality olives. However, the cooperative we used was very good as it recognised the value of careful selection and sorted the olives accordig to origin and grade, and processed them in seperate lots.

I think at this stage I should probably mention a little about classification although this didn't really affect us as we didn't sell any of our olive oil. Any surplus bottles we had we gave away as presents to relatives, friends, or other Portuguese in the valley. In practice, all olive oils sold on the retail market even the least costly, are classified "extra virgin." In theory this should have a maximum acidity content of 1 per cent ( a sign of quality and purity). In most countries this is not always illustrated on the label. The classification is therefore far from adequate for evaluating the quality of the product or for informing the customer. It establishes a "guaranteed minimum " of purity, but does not specify whether or not the oil is fresh, where it comes from, whether it is a blend made from two different harvests, and so on. Consumers should look for the name of the grower (if specified), the brand, the distributor, or better yet buy direct from the mill whenever possible.

Although olive oil is less unstable than most other vegetable oils, appropriate precautions should be taken for storing it. Like wine, olive oil must be stored away from air and light to prevent it from becoming rancid (i.e. oxidising). Opaque containers are preferable and once a bottle or can has been opened, its contents should be consumed entirely before opening another one. Sometimes we stored the oil in bottles but most of the time we kept it in earthenware jugs which had been left abandoned in the adega (a brick house used for brewing medronha - a Portuguese spirit). It was easy then to decant into bottles for table use. The old cottage which was half derelict became the cellar to store the oil and wine as it was extremely cool. Containers of olive oil should always be kept tightly shut and never stored in an enclosed space where there are strong odours, such as the refrigerator.

Olive oil has many uses and in Portugal these uses are far more varied than in Britain. Although it has become more popular in recent years olive oil was not always used for cooking in UK as most people would use butter or other oils like sunflower oil. Katerina, the old lady, who lived in the next quinta along the valley used olive oil for cooking, salad dressing, medication, tonic for the skin and hair and oil for her lamps. This lady was very inventive and was always bemused with the ways of the English. She could never understand why we never grew vegetables - only flowers. In the valleys, they do not see the point of growing something if it can't be eaten.

Olive oil's benefits to health have always been known in the valleys in Portugal but were well known in ancient times also; Hippocrates and his Greek pals all used it as an ingredient for medications, and especially as a basic ingredient for ointments. When combined with essential oils extracted from other plants, it has a special place in traditional folk remedies, which inspire today's proponents of natural medicine. Its warming, soothing properties make it an ideal as an ingredient in massage ointments. The ancients used it to oil their bodies prior to athletic events and to restore muscles and limbs in an early form of physiotherapy. The olive leaf is also a natural fungicide.

Olive oil and olive leaves are also widely used as cosmetics. The leaf is rich in antioxidants and regenerates the cells of the epidermis. Olive oil protects the skin and adds lustre to the hair. Today, when the extensive mass production of cosmetics and foodstuffs raises the spector of cost cutting practices that could be harmful to our health, olive oil retains its image as a "healthy" household product - to be found in the kitchen, bathroom and medicine cabinet.

Unlike other commonly used oils, which are extracted by refining (i.e. industrial processing), olive oil extracted by simple cold pressing retains components in suspension, which chemists call "unsaponifiable" - that is, the particles which give olive oil its therapeutic properties. These pigments, vitamins and antioxidants act effectively to prevent cardo-vascular disease and retard the signs of ageing. Olive oil is rich in oleic acid, also beneficial to health.

So am I healthy you may ask? If I said yes I would be blowing my own trumpet as the saying goes. Let's just say I very rarely get ill and to say that I have lived in the sun on and off for over 12 years I don't have any lines or wrinkles. I did used to use olive oil as a moisturiser and still do most of the time. I have always used it as a conditioner on my hair when it gets too dry which leaves it shiny and in good condition. I know it doesn't smell too good but you can add herbs or spices (maceration) to improve the smell - even citrus peel, anise and so on. Not sure if I will live to 90 like Katerina but I will certainly give it a go.

Our parents have now moved back to England and we have also moved away but the land is still there and up for sale, at the moment. In fact it has been up for sale for years. Every now and again one family member goes back to tend the jungle as it easily gets overgrown. Some of the old Portuguese have moved away to Portimao and other cities and the plots of land have been sold to other foreigners. The Portuguese who are left still pick our olives and they still harvest them in the way their forefathers did. I don't really miss living there anymore as it has changed so much and all the old ways are dying out but I do miss the hot sunny days when I used to sit under an old bamboo shade, dipping huge chunks of home-made bread into a dish of olive oil, sprinkled with rock salt and garlic. Followed by a cold beer - an end to a perfect day!

Small wonder that the ancients believed the olive tree, its fruit and its oil were a gift from the gods. Such a useful tree could hardly have come about by chance. Today, beliefs have changed but the olive tree is as much a treasure as ever.

Summary: The elixir of life.