Olive Planting and Oil Appreciation Seminar

March 22 Dennis Black organized another successful seminar for those planning olive planting.  The location this time was Santa Rosa Junior College.  He started out with an overview of the history of olives in California and spoke of his involvement with NovaVine Nursery. 

Shari DeJoseph of McEvoy Ranch presented a wealth of information on propagating olives, orchard planning in general and discussed pollination, fruiting, pruning, irrigation, etc.

John Deane of the Olive Oil Source discussed the basic stages of making olive oil using their home press as an example. Pneumatic pruners and harvesters were available for inspection.

After a lunch break the miller from the Olive Press spoke about processing the olive fruit and factors which go into determining the final flavor.  The Olive Press has a Pieralisi centrifugal decanter system.

A formal olive oil tasting was conducted with several California and imported oils. Some of the attendees also brought oil to be tasted. 

Dennis has an MBA and has worked in sales at Spice Islands, Campbell Food, and Hershey Foods Company. He owns Black Emerald Vineyard, a 16 acre Chardonnay vineyard, and is a member of the Russian River Valley Winegrowers, and on the Board of Directors of the Sonoma County Grape Growers Association. 

For information on future seminars, contact Dennis Black at NovaVine: 707-539-5678

The Ancient Olive Grove
by Davina Michaelidou

The ancient olive grove is on the Greek island of Aegina, only a one-hour ferry-boat-ride from Athens’ bustling, usually chaotic port, Piraeus. Its exact location, I’ve been advised to leave vague, as it’s a protected Wildlife Refuge and can, fortunately, be reached only by foot after about a forty-minute trek along country pathways. Its remote location has saved it from the ravages of modern-day life and it exists today as it has for centuries.

This area is extremely beautiful and serene, dramatic and unspoiled with only sheep bells, bird song and the tinkle of water gurgling over rocks in the streambed to interrupt the silence. Our fear of it becoming too well-known, is in the interest of keeping it, for as long as possible, unspoiled by man and his ability to destroy the country tracks by building a tarmac road and car park, to leave his noise and rubbish behind

Although a Scot, I’ve lived in Greece since 1969, and first saw the grove with other members of The Mediterranean Garden Society on a day excursion in the early spring of 2002. (This wonderful non-profit society, with branches all over the world, has a very interesting website which you may want to check out. The section “News and Views” has two of my articles, one of which is about The Ancient Olive Grove.)

I had with me a brand new digital camera, given to me as a Christmas gift, (perhaps here I should confess that I’d never owned a camera before), and started really ‘looking’ at things. These photographs are therefore my first and I’m inclined to think that the camera is the ‘star’…….. not the photographer!!! The ‘masterpiece’ of the grove is the 1800 years old grandmother. She is one of the oldest olive trees in Europe. (The oldest one, ‘Pedras d’el Rei’, is 2000 yrs. old, according to the Carbon 14 dating method, and is in the Algarve in Portugal.)

Stratis Myrivillis describes the ancient olive tree beautifully in this translation from Greek. “ The trees’ trunks are tormented by an agonized striving. They are twisted, they kneel to pray, they raise their arms, members tyrannized by movement, all elbows and knees. The bent roots suck the golden oil from the heart of the earth for the lamps of the saints and the salad of the poor.”

 A close-up of the gnarled trunk of the ‘Grandmother’. The plants in the foreground are Sea Squill (urginea maritima). These bulbs, the size of a baby’s head, are dug up when the first leaves appear and given as New Year gifts. They are then hung over the doorway to offer protection from evil spirits and unwelcome guests and to impart a life force to the house…especially to men! The leaves disappear into the bulb during the hot summer months and a tall candle-like flower appears in the autumn.

This tree, although not so old, exhibits foliage of. two distinctly different colors of green. There’s a white horse grazing in the background to the right of the tree.

The ‘Grandmother’

The ‘Grandmother’ taking backstage, with a slightly younger relative in the foreground.

The ‘Grandmother’s’ trunk has split over the centuries into three separate trunks with a hollow interior. I’ve been told by friends who live on the island that a gypsy family of five made their home inside this old tree. I’ve been inside it and, though a tight squeeze for five adults, it would certainly be roomy enough for two adults with three young children who would be afforded protection from the punishing hot sun in summer and the cruel winds and bitterly cold winds and rain in winter.

Two trees, standing close together, side by side, like two sisters! The one on the left rather staid and serious (Big sister?) The one on the right more frivolous, a dancer, all movement and curves!  And just look at the lush, green foreground with Sea Squill growing everywhere.

More pictures of the ancient grandmother. One is a photograph taken from inside the hollow trunk showing the beautifully aged wood.

ADM Kao LLC Launches Enova Cooking Oil
by John Deane MD

Enova is a soybean/canola combination that has been found to reduce body weight and fat mass via diacylglycerol (DAG), a naturally occurring substance found in many vegetable oils. It promises to heat up the competition in the "healthy oil" category.

The oil in Enova has the same fatty acids as olive oil; Oleic acid, Linoleic acid, and Linolenic acid.  Fatty acids are rarely found free in cells; three of them are bound to glycerol as a triacylglycerol lipid in most cooking oils.  Most oils also have a few diacylglycerols (DAGs) in them. 

These natural DAGs have been extracted and concentrated in Enova.  So how does eating DAGs instead of triacylglycerols manage to lower one's weight?  When we consume oils they are absorbed through the gut wall and are assembled into little packets with a membrane around them.  These packets flow through the blood to every part of the body.  They can be picked up by fat cells leading to obesity. 

The body has difficulty packing up DAGs in these little packets so they end up going by themselves to the liver where it clears them and burns them for energy, instead of storing them as fat.

Of course just adding Enova to the diet wouldn't cause weight loss unless it replaced other fats.  Unlike other designer fats, Enova isn't a "fake fat" that can't be used for cooking.  It is useful for baking, sautéing, and frying.

Company literature claims that consuming 20 grams of the oil a day lowers serum triglycerides by about 50% and can lead to lower weight and lower body fat percentage. Enova is one of many new designer oils  which are competing for the healthy oil title.  California boutique olive oil producers who sell a premium and flavorful oil may have to start stressing the taste instead of the health benefits of their oil.

If this article wasn't technical and dry enough for you go to the Enova site for a full scientific discussion.

Olive Oil Tasting Comes to the Local Market

Olive oil tasting is no longer practiced by foodies and patrons of high end Italian restaurants.  Thanks to seminars at food shows such as the NASFT and at meetings of chefs and culinary professionals, the word about olive oil is getting out. Olive oil tastings are even making it to the neighborhood market.  In a typical example of this trend, Chef Ira Meyer directed a comparative oil tasting at Woodlands Market in Kentfield, CA recently to demonstrate the differences between premium and medium grade olive oils and other cooking oils.  The premium oil was McEvoy Ranch from Marin county California, while the inexpensive oil was Mustapha's brand from Morocco.  Oil was offered by itself for tasting and also incorporated into foods. 

Chef Meyer offers this recipe to showcase a pungent premium oil:

"KEKE"

Servings: 4

A raw tomato sauce with many uses; can be used with 1 pound of cooked pasta then served either cold or just with the heat of the pasta.  Can be used as a bruscetta mix; make the recipe then add 1/2 tsp of hot red pepper flakes and drain off the liquid before using.  Can be used as a sauce for grilled chicken or halibut steaks. Great over poached eggs instead of hollandaise in Eggs Benedict.

• 4oz Premium Extra Virgin olive oil

• 1 pound tomatoes, very ripe

• 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped

• 1 teaspoon salt

• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper, coarsely ground

• 10 leaves basil, chopped

• 2 tablespoons parsley, chopped

Coarsely chop the tomatoes and place in a bowl.  With a gloved hand or a potato masher, crush the tomatoes to help release some of their juices.  Add the rest of the ingredients mixing well, allow to marinate at room temperature 2-3 hours covered before using.

Website Updates

New or updated Pages:
oliveoilchemistry
pieralisi presses
Pneumatic Pruners
Pneumatic Harvesters

 

Pieralisi Day Pieralisi Day - The latest equipment for making olive oil explained - June 8th Sacramento, CA. -  Pieralisi makes more olive oil centrifuges than any other manufacturer worldwide. Factory representative Claudio Vignoli will come from Italy to speak about: a new model of washing machine, new malaxers, new decanters and new hammer crusher. He will also talk about husk and waste water treatment, new olive oil quality concepts, how to produce a high quality olive oil, and 2 – 2 ˝ and 3 phase processing systems (advantages and disadvantages of each system).  Speakers will also include third generation oil maker Nick Sciabica: maximizing flavor and efficiency from a centrifugal press U.C. Davis olive specialist Dr. Louise Ferguson: pruning and olive tree cultivation.  Jerry Guffey, from Production Finance, LLC will explain farm equipment leasing options.  Call for free invitation and details - 805-688-1014  more information:  Pieralisi machines

All about Expeller Presses

Olive oil is increasingly competing with other "healthy" oils on the market shelf.  Health food stores and upscale markets are offering expensive "expeller pressed" seed oils.  Many web visitors to the Olive Oil Source are asking why olive oil isn't expeller pressed if that is a more healthy process.

First of all, olive oil is never made with an expeller press.

An expeller is actually a relatively boring and cheap piece of industrial equipment.  The term "Expeller pressed" is less about the expeller and more about what wasn't used to make the oil. It  implies that a seed oil is more healthful because it has been made without solvents and steam or toxic chemicals in a large industrial sized refining plant.

Continuous pressing by means of expellers (also known as screw presses) is a widely used process for the extraction of oil from oilseeds and nuts.  It replaces the historical method of batch extraction by mechanical or hydraulic pressing. Typically the seeds or nuts (sesame, corn, safflower, rapeseed, peanuts, etc.) are  first cleaned, de-hulled, flaked, cooked and dried, then put through the screw press. 

If you want to know how it works read the fine print: 

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations: "an expeller (consists of a screw (or worm), rotating inside a cylindrical cage (barrel). The material to be pressed is fed between the screw and the barrel and propelled by the rotating screw in a direction parallel to the axis. The configuration of the screw and its shaft is such that the material is progressively compressed as it moves on, towards the discharge end of the cylinder. The compression effect can be achieved, for example, by decreasing the clearance between the screw shaft and the cage ( progressive or step-wise increase of the shaft diameter ) or by reducing the length of the screw flight in the direction of the axial movement The gradually increasing pressure releases the oil which flows out of the press through the slots provided on the periphery of the barrel, while the press-cake continues to move in the direction of the shaft, towards a discharge gate installed at the other extremity of the machine. "
 

Expellers are popular because they are relatively crude inexpensive devices which can even be made in small cities in developing countries.  They can be quite small to handle the harvest from a single farmer or large enough to handle a whole village.  They are made by literally hundreds of manufacturers world-wide.  The same expeller can be used for palm nuts one month and sunflower seeds the next.

The disadvantage of an expeller is that even the most sophisticated models cannot remove all of the oil.  It is less of a problem with an oil rich seed such as sesame or peanuts but is a big problem with oil poor seeds such as soybeans where leaving a seedcake with 5% residual oil may represent half the oil in the bean.  Expellers cannot be used with very low oil content agricultural products such as rice bran.

Solvents or steam can be injected into the press to increase yields or can be used afterward on the seedcake to recover any retained oils. If the seeds are not heated or cooked then the yield is lower but there may be health advantages to the resultant oil, hence the "expeller pressed" label.

In contrast to the expeller, most seed oils in the US are made in large plants costing millions of dollars which use heat, solvents and other technology to extract virtually all of the oil.  There are only a few companies worldwide which manufacture such plants which are akin to a petroleum refinery in size and economies of scale.  Trainloads of seeds go in one end and tankers of oil come out the other.  Such large scale technology naturally arouses suspicions in some that the resultant product is somehow inferior.

A seed oil extracted with only the expeller has all of the oil soluble components of the original seeds.  That can include valuable trace minerals, oils and vitamins.  But it can also include undesirable flavors and toxic substances such as are found in rapeseed.

So how is this all relevant to olives?  As stated at the beginning, olives are never pressed with an expeller.  Their moisture content is too high for this type of press. Olive oil is usually separated from the olive pulp using a spinning centrifuge without friction or heat.

As far as the health aspects, 98% of seed oils are produced using heat, steam and solvents.  In contrast, virgin  and extra virgin olive oil is never produced using heat, steam and solvents. 

The 2% of seed oils made with only an expeller are the exception and are considered a whole food product and more healthy.  100% of virgin olive oil is considered a healthy whole food product.  While making seed oils without chemicals might be a new fad, by definition of the International Olive Oil Council,  virgin olive oil has always been made without the use of chemicals.

McEvoy Olive Ranch Tours July 26 Petaluma, CA - Call 707-778-2307

McEvoy Olive Ranch Tours August 23 Petaluma, CA - Call 707-778-2307