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Extra Virgin Olive Oil
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- Olive Oil
Olive oil has been constantly present as an indispensable element
of nutrition and social survival in all Mediterranean cultures
for four millennia, and probably longer. The archaeological evidence
of prehistoric oil lamps shows that long before proper comestible
oil had been perfected by about 2000 Before Our Era, the rude
greasy muck extracted by pre-agricultural man served to satisfy
his need of making light, of illuminating darkness, of keeping
at bay the terrors of the night . . . and in fact, oils not of
comestible quality were used for home illumination in many Mediterranean
rural areas until well after World War Two. Besides their alimentary
uses, good oils have always been vitally important as medicinals
and cosmetics and as deeply-rooted symbols in religions and mythologies
. . . Noah’s olive branch, sacred ritual anointings, Odysseus’
marriage bed built out of the living trunk of an olive tree, a
recently-founded Italian progressive political party, to name
a few.
By the time of Moses, around 1800 Before Our Era, olive cultivation
- the Old Testament speaks often of it - had spread to all the
then-known arable lands around the Mediterranean, an economy carried
farr afield many centuries later by Roman expansion. Many different
kinds of trees and fruits came out of this, partly by natural
selection in different soils and climates, partly by empirical
observation and grafting for desirable traits. In the course of
the eighteen centuries between Caesar and Napoleon, nearly all
of the then-populated Italian peninsula lying below certain temperature
limits broke forth in olive trees that bore fruits of widely different
characteristics. Today the oils from the lands around Lake Garda
in the north are considered the lightest, those from Liguria the
most fruity, the Tuscan ones the most balanced in extremely fine
olivy flavour, robust consistency and durability, the Apulian
ones the pepperiest, and so on through many zones and regions.
The long-proven healthfulness of diets based on ample lashings
of extra-virgin olive oil need hardly be reit-erated here . .
. by now universally known, it attracts new and contented adherents
every day.
HISTORY
The oldest traces of plants that may be thought of as the ancestors
of olive trees have been found in south-central France and dated
to about fifty million years ago. Olive-tree fossils have turned
up in the Sahara Desert. Prehistoric man doubtless ate the small,
harsh, bitter olives he found on wild trees. After roughly 2000
Before Our Era, olive culture and the complicated science of
oil extraction spread outward from the eastern Mediterranean
basin into Anatolia, Egypt and Greece. Much later, by the first
century Before Our Era, oil production had become so vital to
Roman Italy that thousands of Greek slaves, trained and specialised
in these arts, worked vast estates for domestic use in the endless
empire and for export to the barbarian north. After the fall
of Rome in the fifth century of Our Era, Italian production
fell on hard times and eventually all but perished, but the
Arabs in Spain not only carried on old traditions but developed
new and better methods.
Around the year One Thousand, in the times of the Italy of the
City-States (Comuni), new impetus was given to this so very
vital economy, at first especially in Tuscany around Florence
and Siena but soon, by about 1300, all over the peninsula. Not
only did good extra-virgin oil become an indispensable staple
of diets but also an index of prosperity, even of wealth. Ever
since about 1880, all of southern Italian agriculture has been
pivoted on oil production in great quantities, with less attention
to quality. For long now the extra-virgin oils of the Centre
and North, especially of Liguria, Tuscany and Umbria, have led
in quality by unbeatable margins, as is recognised by demanding
gourmets the world over.
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PRODUCTION METHODS
Unlike wine, olive oil doesn’t improve with age - it deteriorates.
Within one year most of the good qualities of a pressing can
be lost. For maximum conservation and general quality, only
olives picked from the tree must be used, never windfalls or
other gleaned from the ground because these have already begun
to ferment. All the succeeding phases from storage to washing,
crushing and pressing must be undertaken very quickly. Conscientious
producers will limit storage of the picked crop to forty-eight
hours and perform the separation of leaves from the fruit, the
washing and the crushing within two days more. Only cold pressing
will do for obtaining really good products - hot pressing yields
much greater quantity but severely impairs quality. Oil is extracted
from the crushed pulps by centrifuge or vertical presses. An
oil qualifies for extra-virgin if the acidity is kept to below
one per cent and if no chemical additives of any sort have been
used in the production. A good oil must be kept in a dark place
at temperatures not above 20°C.
AREAS OF PRODUCTION
Italy boasts of between 550 and 715 different types of olive
trees, among them, in the North and Centre, the Biancheira of
the Friuli; Casaliva, Favarol and Grignan of the Veneto, Lombardy
e Trenton; Taggiasca of Liguria; Nostrana di Brisighella of
Emilia; and Tuscany’s rich, fruity Frantoio, Moraiolo,
Leccino and Pendolino. In the Centre and South, to name a few
prominent ones, Rosciola, Sabina, Rotondella, Carpellese, Gentile
di Larino, Coratino, Ogliarola, Pizzuta, Carolea, Ottobratica,
Biancolilla, Nocellara, Bosana and Tonda of Cagliari. Apulia
has the densest concentration of trees and yields forty per
cent of Italy’s oil output, or ten per cent of the world’s.
Calabria and Sicily, too, are major contributors to this economy.
- More information http://www.giovaniolio.it
- http://www.lebaccanti.com/travel-incentives-tuscany.php?id=34
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