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The olive oil is the key element of the Mediterranean diet and is essential in thewhole Mediterranean Cuisine. The
oil is extracted by crushing the olive fruit that must be collected prior to the final maturity, so if they have a
green and aubergine color. Thus, the quality of the oil is much better than if it is obtained from ripe fruit. The
fruits are harvested with hands, beaten with long sticks of the upper branches, and then picked up by hardworking
people. They are stored in boxes that need to be well ventilated to vermeidden a fermentation. Within 6 hours after
harvesting the olives the further processing must be started.
In the oil mill, the olives are washed and prepared for the actual pressing. The fruits are crushed by pressure and which
is generated in different manner, the juice is pressed out of the fruits. What remains is the residue that has different
ingredients depending on the process and is recycled. Approximately five kilograms olive yield about a quart of oil.
The earliest deliberate cultivation of olive trees for the purpose of oil recovery is of Crete in the time suspected to
3500 v. Chr., On the Greek mainland olive oil producer applies since Mycenaean times as certain important center was Attica.
This is confirmed by excavations in the cemetery Spedos (2700-2300 BC.) Were carried out in 1903. There, the archaeologist
Stephen Klonos discovered a silvered clay pot containing a clear trace of olive oil.
The research results were checked again thoroughly in the laboratories of the National University by Professor K. Zengelis
and the existance of olive oil was indisputably proved. Stefanos Klonos could find in his investigations at the Archaeological
Society FC 1906 that next to the silvered clay pot even oil lamps (3 holes) were located.
Meli Malisiova
apiculture | agriculture
