I’ve got access to olive trees and I’m considering pressing my own oil and considering hardware. Anybody do it and have opinions?

It would be pretty small scale as we don’t use much olive oil, choosing to go with animal fats usually.

However, I would use it to make mayo. I’m currently thinking about getting a stainless steel pot with strainer, like the type used for seafood boils. I’d just need to at a spout to the pot and a straining bag. Then I’d put the whole thing into my brothers hydraulic shop press and just use that for the squeezing.

Thoughts?

It’s a cool idea. I’ve no idea how to go about it, but I assume the types of olive might be important? Bumping to top so I can follow this.

quote:

Originally posted by irreverent:
It’s a cool idea. I’ve no idea how to go about it, but I assume the types of olive might be important? Bumping to top so I can follow this.

Yea I’m sure the variety makes some sort of difference, but I have access to what is there, so I haven’t bothered looking into it. The olives just go to waste so might as well try. The only thing I really need is the strainer and pot.

Once I started paying attention I started noticing a ton of olive trees around town too, in parking areas, on city land along roadways and canals, and of course on private yards. I’m sure I can get more than enough olives to meet my personal demand for oil for a year. If so we might even try curing some as the kids love to snack on canned olives.

I collected 7lbs of ripe ones the other day in a church parking lot. They have 6 large trees making a huge mess on their walkway and parking lot. Those 7lbs are washed, vac sealed, and in the freezer.

Essentially, from what I’ve read:

1) grind whole clean olives into a paste
2) stir paste for 20-30 minutes
3) presses paste, first the juice then the oil comes out
4) allow the oil to separate naturally, drain off water/juice, add more water and repeat a few times to clean/remove solids
5) filter oil
6) bottle

The older I get the more I truly enjoy “making our own” of whatever…. And I really enjoying making use of resources that otherwise would be thrown away… such as the abundance of citrus fruit around here, free firewood in the form of removed trees the city trashes, or now olives.

Well, my first thought was, "if you live in the Central Valley, you can easily acquire those type olives."

Check, you got that.

In this case, I might go out to some of your rural areas where a small mom-n-pop type place do this. (if you were down near Exeter, I know a gal who might be able to help).

Are Olive Fruit Flies an issue in your area? They can really degrade the quality of the olive oil.

quote:

Originally posted by clang:
Are Olive Fruit Flies an issue in your area? They can really degrade the quality of the olive oil.

I don’t know… olive isn’t a huge industry here, though it is present. We have one significant olive oil producer in town.

That being said, one of my buddies is currently transitioning 50 acres from almonds to olive and he might know. However, it is his first foray into olive production and the orchard they are putting in will be for canned table olives.

It is good for your health and I consume one to two tablespoons a day of CA Ranch:

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Cal...REGULAR&from=/search

https://naturalremedyideas.com/how-much-olive-oil/

Our daughter works for E&J Gallo in Modesto. They make olive oil from trees on their HQ property and sell to their employees in the employee store.

It is very good. She sent a bottle last week.

quote:

Originally posted by SW_Sig:
Our daughter works for E&J Gallo in Modesto. They make olive oil from trees on their HQ property and sell to their employees in the employee store.

It is very good. She sent a bottle last week.

Oh yes, I’ve had one bottle of it before, a Christmas gift from a cousin whose wife works there! I had forgotten, it was good stuff.

Gallo is a huge property owner here and a huge employer. They likely run this county.

Don’t you have to soak the fruit in lye before you can eat them? Would you have to do the same to get the oil?

quote:

Originally posted by MikeinNC:
Don’t you have to soak the fruit in lye before you can eat them? Would you have to do the same to get the oil?

Lye is the fast way to cure, you can also use water or brine if you are willing to take more time. Or a dry salt method as well, apparently. I only know that from recent reading.

It’s apparently not necessary for the oil, though. They can be pressed unprocessed.

My wife and I have been watching videos of Italian properties for sale and they frequently mention that there are X number of olive trees on the property yielding something like 500 liters of oil per year.

I’ve thought about how hard it would be to make it but apparently you don’t need some major operation to do it.

I say go for it and don’t forget about a Karma!!

quote:

Originally posted by smlsig:
My wife and I have been watching videos of Italian properties for sale and they frequently mention that there are X number of olive trees on the property yielding something like 500 liters of oil per year.

I’ve thought about how hard it would be to make it but apparently you don’t need some major operation to do it.

I say go for it and don’t forget about a Karma!!

We shall see how many olives we end up with. I've got permission to harvest a line of trees nearby... not sure how many there are, perhaps 12-15 smaller trees. They are just starting to ripen so I'll give them a few more weeks, I think.

^^^
Awesome. I’m curious how you harvest the olives. Are they picked by hand or is there some sort of tree shaker that makes them fall into a net?

Any idea of the variety of olive you're harvesting?
Is there a processor that you can take your olives to? Northern CA is a major olive oil producer, within 100-mile radius of where you're at, instead of investing in a lot of equipment that gets occasional usage, there maybe a small processor available or, maybe things have advanced and there's a mobile operation like wine bottling.

Check these guys out
https://olivemillonwheels.com

Olive Oil Producers Go Mobile in California

quote:

Rambling along California roads and highways to the rhythm of the olive harvest, North America’s only two mobile mills work their way up the coast, making many stops along the way. Just a couple harvests into this very new venture, the demand for mobile milling is almost more than these innovative services can handle. But the operators of Olive 2 Bottle (O2B) and Mill on Wheels (MOW) wouldn’t have it any other way and can’t wait to do it all again.

Mobile mills could not have come at a better time for this booming industry. Of all the factors that contribute to the making of great extra virgin olive oil, from olive variety, to terroir, to irrigation, there’s no denying the importance of getting olives from the tree to the mill as quickly as possible.

“It’s pretty amazing the quality you can get even from mediocre olives by milling them quickly,” said Thom Curry, general manager of Temecula Olive Oil Company, owner of O2B. The reality for many growers and most small growers, who don’t have a mill on their property, or are not close to one, is that time is not always on their side. Loading and hauling tons of olives in what may be rented bins, trucks, and trailers to the nearest mill, is an often expensive and timely endeavor.
...

quote:

Originally posted by corsair:
Any idea of the variety of olive you're harvesting?
Is there a processor that you can take your olives to? Northern CA is a major olive oil producer, within 100-mile radius of where you're at, instead of investing in a lot of equipment that gets occasional usage, there maybe a small processor available or, maybe things have advanced and there's a mobile operation like wine bottling.

I imagine there is someone there can identify the specific variety, but I don't know who that might be. I can look at varieties that are common to this area and see if there are significant visual differences that I can identify.

It certainly isn't worth taking it to a processor... I'll be surprised if I end up with more than 5 gallons of fresh fruit and I would think that the end product we might reasonably obtain won't be of the highest caliber since I will literally be using roadside trees that are not maintained for fruit output.... It really is just more of an adventure/enjoy the process then a serious attempt at a high quality product.

As far as expenditures I have ordered a pair of plastic rake heads for about $10 and I'll have to buy the strainer/stock pot combo and a nut-milk filter bag... so maybe $75 total. The rest of the equipment I have (meat grinder) or a family member has (shop press to provide the squishy power).

I have a lot of salvaged solid maple butcher-block table tops. I'll cut one of those to a circular shape to fit in the strainer when I get it and that will serve as the direct-contact squisher.

quote:

Originally posted by smlsig:
^^^
Awesome. I’m curious how you harvest the olives. Are they picked by hand or is there some sort of tree shaker that makes them fall into a net?

It seems what is common, at least for small operations, is laying out tarps and raking the fruit off the tree onto the tarps.

I've seen some mechanical equipment that unfurls a net-type device under the tree and then the tree is shaken like almonds. I wouldn't be surprised if something like that is used in larger scale commercial operations.

The 7lbs worth we gathered the other day were a mix of picking fruit that was already fallen off the ground and just hand-picking what I could reach from the ground. There was a lot more that was out of reach for me, but a simple hand rake on a broom stick would have doubled our take in a maybe 10 minutes.

For the trees I'm going to harvest in the coming weeks, they are MUCH smaller than the previous trees. I think we'd be able to hand pick nearly 2/3 of the tree. But the rakes will speed it up, I think, and let me kids do more of the work.

Do it if you can there is nothing like it.
Even kids can do it.

quote:

Originally posted by thumperfbc:
I imagine there is someone there can identify the specific variety, but I don't know who that might be.

If you're in Stanislaus County, you might want to check with the UC Cooperative Extension there and see if they could help with ID. UC Cooperative Extension - Stanislaus County

quote:

Originally posted by Butch 2340:
Do it if you can there is nothing like it.
Even kids can do it

I saw that video a week ago, and it is real similar to what I envision! What I don’t really understand about that video is the color of the discharge. It looks like they are getting only oil which shouldn’t be. I guess maybe they are pressing unripe green olives so the juice just looks pale. The juice from the ripe olives we already got was dark purple.