Harvesting and Grinding : timing and methods

Late October, beginning of November: in Sardinia the summer seems endless, hot and bright days, climate remains pleasant for some weekend at the seaside .....

IN THE GROVES:

Olive grove

Is during this period that takes place the olive harvest.
The drupes appear still green with some yellow reflection mentioned, is beginning veraison, the process that will bring the olives to full maturity within a month.
It is now that we can obtain the best oil: green, spicy, acidity almost zero and a thousand aromatic nuances, what did the extravirgin of Gonnosfanadiga one of the best and most famous in the world, although unfortunately, having regard to the limited production, destined for a small niche of consumers, no doubt the most careful and demanding.
Remember that if in this period (October-November) the quality reaches its maximum, it occurs at the expense of the total amount: the yield is 40-50% less oil compared to the months of December and January, when the olives, now fully matured, they come in yields also of 20-25 liters per quintal. But this is the price to pay if you want to get an oil with exceptional characteristics.

Harvesting (only from plant!)

The tools required for the collection are the curtains, the olive harvesters and perforated crates.

You leave the house when is still dark and when the sun peeps you are already at work: stretch tents under the trees and shake the foliage with olive harvesters, or manually combing with a special comb to make the olives fall . Then the olives are picked from the tents and placed in plastic boxes.

Here it is very important to remember that only olives pull directly from the tree are picked to produce the noble extravirgin, unlike other zones where even the olives fall to natural fruit drop is used.

This very bad choice to pick even the olives that are not fresh is dictated by the search for maximum profit: who also collects the fallen olives for natural fruit drop will obviously greater amount of the final product, but on the other hand will be very low quality and an oil contaminated with mold, rot and other impurities with plus values ​​organoleptic absolutely unacceptable if you want to propose a virgin healthy and genuine.
It is clear that is not remotely comparable to the oil obtained with the two different philosophies of collection: the one obtained with our method exclusively from olives harvested directly from the plant is really a completely different product, genuine and guaranteed.

IN THE MILL:
At the end of the day the olives are taken to the mill, where we ourselves personally also deal with their transformation, a few hours after their collection (maximum 5-6 hours),  in extra virgin olive oil.

As a further guarantee of the highest quality we grind at the mill FODDI, the one with the greatest experience in our area (being a family run business for over 50 years), which combines perfectly tradition with technology and modern innovation.
All processing stages take place at extremely low temperatures and the final product is obtained by cold pressing. Also feature that should not be underestimated for the final quality is the very small amount of water during the entire process and the only proceed  through mechanical processes: we leave the chemical to those who produce oils for the shelves of supermarkets ..... Needless to say, maximum cleanliness and attention to hygiene and for all the smallest details ......

Here the olives are discharged in large bins, weighed, identified to ensure maximum traceability (which is very important so that there is no risk of confusion with other consignments from other manufacturers:  from OUR olives we will get OUR oil!) and immediately started for processing.

The first step in the mill is  the defoliation and washing in running water: the olives are now ready for grinding.

The grinder used for this purpose is a crusher hammers, tool that has the peculiarity (compared to other types of crushers) to retain intact and enhance the robustness, the piquancy and the aromaticity of our product, in accordance with the characteristics of the Black Gonnos cultivar dominant in the oil that we get.

Checking  gramola

From this process we obtain a fluid and fragrant paste that is deposited inside large stainless steel tanks, calls Gramole, where occurs a continuous mixing of the same pasta for about 30-45 minutes: in this phase the oil molecules begin to separate from the other components and to aggregate together.

The decanter

The next phase is the transition of dough from this tanks into the horizontal centrifugal separator, or DECANTER, where the dough is centrifuged at a speed of about 4000 revolutions per minute and, by difference of specific gravity, the oil separates definitively from the other compounds.

The separator

The last phase of the process is entrusted to the vertical centrifugal separator, where again simply for mechanical action the oil is completely cleansed of impurities and residual of vegetation water:
OUR EXTRAVIRGIN OIL is ready to use.

After a full day of work we can taste it and enjoy its beneficial, as well as pleasant smell and taste characteristics.
And even if the amount obtained is never equal to our expectations, its excellent quality always pays us back for all the efforts, making us proud and happy for his achievement.