A couple weeks ago we went out and did the olive harvesting for the center! There are tons of trees on the property and we got to pick all of them! It was a fun afternoon. They told us to try one if we wanted to. I highly DO NOT recommend it. It tastes nothing like when you buy olives from the store. They are just so so bitter right off the tree!
Then just this week we got to press the olives for our own olive oil. The machinery we used is authentic and is exactly how they pressed olives anciently. It was such an interesting experience to watch and be involved in!
This machine mashes the olives. It's just a stone that rolls around. Except we're the ones that make it move! We had about 4 people each turn pushing the wood around the circle to make the stone move. Then there were two people on the sides shoveling the olives back in and making sure they were all getting smashed!
These are Dr. Mulestein's cute kids! We love having them around!
The mashing made this cool swirly design on the stone!
You then take the mash and put it in these baskets
And then you take them over to the next machine which actually presses them.
You can see the olive oil dripping down!
The olive oil drips down and fills that hole and then overflows to the next. You let it sit and the oil and water separate and then you can skim the oil off the top and voila! Olive oil!
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