Olive oil harvest and production at Stasi Aziende Agricole, a family owned masseria in Torre Santa Susanna, Puglia, Italy
Day 49: October 20, 2023
Olive Oil Farm: Stasi Aziende Agricole
So, technically this is not related to wine.
I had an opportunity to visit an olive oil orchard that harvested and produced their own olive oil from olives in their estate. Their estate is very large, about 120 Hectares. So the harvesting is done using machines. This was fascinating to me because I had never witnessed an olive harvest before. The machine literally shakes the entire tree until all the olives fall onto a tarp. The olives are then collected from the tarps in buckets and loaded onto a truck that takes them to the production facility. In an orchard that is this big, the harvest takes about 2-3 months. Harvest usually begins in the middle of October and ends in December.
In the production facility, the olives, stems and leaves are fed into a machine that separates the olives from the stems and leaves. The olives are then sent through another machine that washes them in water. Then the olives are sent through a horizontal centrifuge that separates the water from the olive paste. The water is discarded and the olive paste is further pressed and sent through another vertical centrifuge. Upon exiting the centrifuge, you literally end up with olive oil.
We also toured the masseria in their property that was built in the 16th century. The masseria has been converted to house a conference room, a dining/tasting room and a living area. The views were really good from atop the masseria.
Check out the video below.
