• Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Snapchat
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

MsMarmiteLover

  • Food
    • Recipes
    • Vegetarian
    • Vegan
  • Travel
    • France
    • Italy
    • Spain
    • UK
  • Wine
  • Gardens
  • Supperclubs/Events
  • About
    • Press
    • Books
  • Shop
    • Cart

The oil crisis and Sicilian olive oil

November 17, 2015 3 Comments Filed Under: Uncategorized

OLIVE OIL SICILY
OLIVE OIL SICILY
OLIVE OIL SICILY
OLIVE OIL SICILY
OLIVE OIL SICILY

There is a crisis in the olive belt, the Mediterranean fertile crescent that spreads from the Lebanon, via Israel, through Greece, Southern Spain and Portugal, the South of France and Southern Italy, which could destroy olive oil production. The bacteria ‘Xylella fastidious’, which admittedly sounds like a spell from Harry Potter, is spreading rapidly through Italy, starting from Puglia, the largest olive oil producing area, where they are having to chop down trees that are hundreds of years old. The first symptoms started in Europe in 2013, but this year, in 2015, the disease has literally gone viral.

The bug doesn’t just affect olive trees: it ravages citrus groves, vineyards, almond, palm and fruit trees, leaving them dessicated and withered. It has led to the destruction of a million olive trees in Italy so far. There is no cure, only containment, cutting down the infected trees and all those alongside them. The landscape of Southern Europe could be changed for generations, not to mention the economic, cultural destruction. Just as Asia is a rice culture, the Mediterranean is an olive oil culture. This historic product, mentioned in the bible, is essential to the food. 
CARMELO SCALIA, OLIVE OIL SICILY

This past week, I visited Sicily, which as an island off the toe of Italy remains unaffected so far. I went to find out about Pomora, a start-up food business initiated by two British men, Alun Johns and Paul McGuigan, which aims to produce and distribute high quality olive oil. These guys are not your horny-handed sons of the soil but soft-pawed office types hailing from the world of IT and digital marketing. Alun worked for Amazon.co.uk and Paul for online sports merchandisers, their business experience is the detached and laundered world of online. But they wanted to get their hands dirty so together with two farmers – Carmelo Scalia, who lives in Catania, huddling under the rich mineral soil of Mount Etna, and Antonio from Campania, inland – Pomora form an interesting mash-up of the ancient and the sparkling new. Johns and McGuigan were inspired during a trip to Sicily by the quality of the olive oil.

 “You can’t get olive oil like this in the supermarket in the UK,” Alun exclaimed.

 They work in tandem with their olive farmers, ensuring a fair trade, sustainable market for the product, using an ‘adopt a tree’ system. 

OLIVE OIL SICILY

On a clear blue mid-November day, warm enough to wear a summer dress, I visited the Sicilian oil mill owned by Carmelo Scalia. The floor was bustling with farmers and crates of olives. Smallholders drove up with shopping bags of olives in the back of their car while bigger farmers emptied trucks of green and purple olives into crates. One man turned up with just two buckets of olives – the fruit of half a day’s work, enough for perhaps just a couple of litres of olive oil. No matter, the important thing is that it’s your oil, from your trees. Almost every family has their own olive patch. The farmers give 50% of their oil to Carmelo in exchange for using the mill for free.

Two of the rules for labelling olive oil as extra virgin: 1) you must harvest and press the olives within 24 hours; 2) the weather must not be above 27ºC. Today is perfect at 23ºC, dry and sunny after two weeks of rain. Hence the industrious atmosphere with farmers queuing up, huddling in groups, sucking on cigarettes as they wait to get their olives pressed during this fair weather window of opportunity.

The smell as you enter the mill knocks you back off your feet: it’s the classic profile of good olive oil, fruity grassy scents in your nose and the front of your palate followed by the peppery bitterness, the characteric polyphenols as it hits the back of your throat.

The olive oil process:

 The olives are weighed. An average crate is around 200 kilo OLIVE OIL SICILY

1. The olives are weighed. An average crate is around 200 kilos. This year, most of the olives are green with the odd purple one. Last year, due to the wet weather, almost the whole crop was purple, for they had ripened, having been left on the trees till later in the year. Olive oil from purple or black olives has a different flavour profile; it’s smoother, less bitter, fruitier.

2. The olives are put into a huge hopper where most of the leaves are sifted out.
The olives are put into a huge hopper where most of the leaves are sifted out. OLIVE OIL SICILY
 3. The olives are lifted onto a machine which washes them and further separates out any leaves.
The olives are lifted onto a machine which washes them and further separates out any leaves. OLIVE OIL SICILY

4. Then the olives are crushed, spitting out the gravel-like stones, separated out to use as fuel to power the machine. 

5. The olives are ‘malaxed’,  massaged, allowing tiny oil droplets to coalesce into slightly bigger droplets, which makes it easier to extract the oil and increases yields. It looks like a foliate green tapenade swivelling on huge metal screws. In this part of the process, which takes 20 minutes, the olives are covered with a thin gas layer of nitrogen or carbon dioxide to prevent oxidisation. Oxygen is the enemy of good olive oil. This is a delicate operation, for the machine must not heat up the oil or the olives in order to retain the benefits of cold pressing.

6. Then the olives go through two centrifuges. The first, a horizontal centrifuge, dehusks the olives creating pomace as a side product, which is used as a fertiliser. The second centrifuge is faster and vertical, separating oil and water. Some olives are more watery than others, it depends on the variety and on which side of the slope they are grown. How much sun do they get? How ripe are the olives?

7. Lastly, the oil oozes from a tap into bottles or steel churns – thick, syrupy and verdant. The farmers then weigh how much oil they have extracted. From 200 kilos of olives, you get approximately 20 litres of olive oil. Once the oil has been collected at the end of the pressing process, it is put into large storage tanks (with any empty space in the tank filled with nitrogen rather than air to prevent oxidation) and allowed to settle (it’s not filtered). The longer you leave it to stand, the more of the tiny particles drop to the bottom and the clearer the oil becomes. You then bottle from a tap hole slightly above the bottom of the tank.

OLIVE OIL SICILY

Sometimes there are fights between farmers (I saw a bit of a spat between two farmers’ wives) about when their oil starts and the other finishes. But each farmer’s olive batch is carefully labelled, the labels following the process along the machine route and there are gaps between each new farmer’s lot. 

We tasted the latest Pomora batch at the mill; unctuous leaf-green ooze lubricating rough triangles of sourdough with a sprinkling of sea salt.  Like all good olive oils, there is a simultaneous bitterness and butteryness, fullness and astringency. It’s no surprise that olive oil is good for you when the flavour verges on the medicinal. 

If you are interested in getting quarterly deliveries of olive oil, you can sign up for a minimum of £58. This is two quarters, for which you will receive 6 x 250ml of olive oil. You will get the newest olive oil, flavoured olive oil or extra virgin olive oil, depending on the quarters that you choose – olive oil is a seasonal product when it’s this fresh. You can even go and visit your adopted tree. Strikes me that this would make a rather nice Christmas gift for a keen cook.  Check out Pomora here.
OLIVE OIL SICILY

Recent posts

Book for my first supper club since the pandemic: Midsummer

May 19, 2022

caponata budget gourmet recipe pic: Kerstin Rodgers

Two delicious budget recipes for the cost of living crisis

May 13, 2022

budget gourmet recipes pic Kerstin Rodgers

Cost of living crisis: three gourmet dinner party recipes that serve 4, for around £2.50

May 6, 2022

Previous Post: « How to make tacos: the perfect formula
Next Post: 23 foodie gifts for Christmas – Part 1: kitchen equipment »

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Jessica E

    November 22, 2015 at 9:44 pm

    What a fabulous idea! I've added this to my Christmas wish list…

    Reply
  2. Pasta Bites

    November 24, 2015 at 3:48 pm

    Thankfully this year's harvest is not, generally, as bad as last year's, due to a combination of favourable weather patterns… and indeed, I had a few bottles in my Christmas stocking (sotto l'albero) last year.

    Reply

Trackbacks

  1. A Christmas shopping wish list says:
    November 30, 2020 at 4:05 am

    […] too spicy for me. I used the lemon flavour on pasta and the rosemary flavour on home-made focaccia. I went to visit their Sicilian grower Carmelo Scalia a few years […]

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe Rating




Primary Sidebar

MsMarmiteLover aka Kerstin Rodgers.

Chef, photographer, author, journalist, blogger. Pioneer of the supperclub movement.

This is my food and travel blog, with recipes, reviews and travel stories. I also stray into politics, feminism, gardening.

Subscribe to my mailing list

msmarmitelover

Kerstin Rodgers/MsMarmiteLover
Me as a punk. #pinkhair @caplanmelissa Me as a punk. #pinkhair @caplanmelissa
Sniffin’ glue: Me n @Jaybladesmbe at the Loctite Sniffin’ glue: Me n @Jaybladesmbe at the Loctite pop up yesterday. I’m all about repairing and upcycling my brocante finds: this time a beautiful pale wood lamp shade stand which had broken off at the bottom. I’m going to rewire it with 2 core sky blue twisted fabric wire, pop on my hand sewn pleated lampshade I learnt to do @workshopminerva and it shall be beautiful. Don’t chuck out your chintz: repair it! #therepairshop #selfie #interiors #popup
in June I’m having my first supper club in two y in June I’m having my first supper club in two years: here is the link to book: https://msmarmitelover.com/product/midsommar-supper-club £50 18th June  Saturday night. Byo.
#chelseaflower coming up. Last year I bought these succulents and planted them in a vintage zinc garden sieve. Now they are flowering. My balcony is like a little greenhouse: I can grow aubergines & other plants that usually need to be under glass. #londongarden #may #plants #succulents in the garden
Lemon drizzle cake. The trick is not to stint on t Lemon drizzle cake. The trick is not to stint on the citrus. I used 7: 2 Italian lemons (from Lidl):some ordinary lemons and some limes (18p) at Lidl. Don’t be afraid to mix and match your citrus. I also used buttermilk from @fenfarmdairy in Suffolk from their honesty shop. Last night we ate it still warm from the oven. #cake #lemondrizzle #homebaking #citrus #buttermilk
A Simple tomato, goats cheese and basil salad, spa A Simple tomato, goats cheese and basil salad, spanking fresh asparagus / fried in olive oil, season, then add a little boiling water, not too much, put on the lid, dressed with lemon zest & Parmesan, @fenfarmdairy baron bigod cheese, good bread. This is how I like to eat. Claire’s plates found at the beccles brocante. #suffolk #suffolkfood #supper #dinnerwithfriends  #vintageplates
Can’t wait to see what they will be like when th Can’t wait to see what they will be like when they are fired. All my favourite themes: gingham and scallops. Thanks to @clairebelljar for a wonderful weekend and pottery workshop. Such fun! #workingwithyourhands #playtime #creativity #ceramics #pottery #suffolk
Making plates with talented potter & old South Ham Making plates with talented potter & old South Hampstead girl @clairebelljar in Suffolk. She has the most beautiful house I’ve ever seen. Such a joy to be reunited with her. #friendsreunited #makers #potters #scalloped #wildflowers #cowparsley #pottery
Another budget gourmet recipe, the Sicilian capona Another budget gourmet recipe, the Sicilian caponata, which is like a more interesting ratatouille, in which you add capers, olives & vinegar. £2.50p. I was asked to develop a series of recipes which were delicious enough to serve at a dinner party but also cheap. I shopped at Lidl. #costoflivingcrisis #budgetgourmet #recipe #vegetarian #vegan #lidluk
Mackerel pâté, a recipe that cost under £2.50. Mackerel pâté, a recipe that cost under £2.50. Lemon & herb smoked mackerel fillets from @lidl (take off skin)3 big scoops creme fraiche from Lidl and juice of half a lemon. Blend. Plenty of black pepper. Serve with bread. #budgetgourmet #costoflivingcrisis #eatorheat
Just wrote a very personal piece for @hamandhigh o Just wrote a very personal piece for @hamandhigh on my decade as a single parent on benefits, how I learned to cook & how things are so much harder now because not only are ingredients pricier but the cost of cooking them is too. 3 budget gourmet meals serving 4, for £2.50 each. #costoflivingcrisis #budgetgourmet #povertyshame #singleparents #foodblogger
Easter Sunday. Daffodil skeletons. Easter Sunday. Daffodil skeletons.
Just made @davidlebovitz recipe for blood orange u Just made @davidlebovitz recipe for blood orange upside down cake as I had some to use up. It tastes very marmeladey. Probably used too deep a pan. #sundaybaking #recipe #thelastofthebloodoranges #april #easter
Today learning how to build a dry stone wall in t Today  learning how to build a dry stone wall in the cotswolds which is famous for the picturesque walls & hedgerows. My teacher, Richard Gray, told us about the different stones: face, foundation, pin & coping. It is a mortal ( mortar?) sun to use cement on a dry stone wall- it means the stones can’t breathe. These walls last 100 years- they cost £300 a metre. A pro can build 3 metres a day. Richard once did a quote for kylie Minogue. His firm is Hillrise stonework. This course is run by @notgroveholidays There is a world championship for drystone walling. #craft #building #drystonewall #cotswolds #staycation
Ukrainian inspiration: cabbage rolls stuffed with Ukrainian inspiration: cabbage rolls stuffed with rice, mushrooms, garlic, dill. Baked with sauerkraut & mushroom stock for 1.5 hours. Delicious comfort food. #cookforukraine #vegetarian #cabbagerolls #sauerkraut #easterneuropeanfood
Getting there. Making a pleated lampshade for @sie Getting there. Making a pleated lampshade for @siennamarla’s living room. Fabric from @clothshoplondon training by @workshopminerva frame #making #craft #sewing #lampshade #interiors
Stuffed peppers with roasted buckwheat, feta, dill Stuffed peppers with roasted buckwheat, feta, dill and a sour cream, tomato & smoked paprika sauce. Kasha or buckwheat can be bought at polish shops. It’s a grain but full of protein. I did a recipe with it in v is for vegan - a stuffed cabbage. You can buy plain or roasted. #cookforukraine #buckwheat #kasha #stuffedpeppers #vegetarian #visforvegan
Ukrainian quick cucumber pickles dipped in honey. Ukrainian quick cucumber pickles dipped in honey. Strangely addictive. Recipe from next weeks column in the ham and high. #cookforukraine #supperclub #slavaukraini #pickles #dronedowner #ukraine #recipe
An etched glass window in my bathroom to replace t An etched glass window in my bathroom to replace the very fashionable fluted glass I had. Thing is this glass works better in a flat dated 1906. Glass by @baronglass  #interiors #etchedglass #bathroom #trellis #londonflat
Making Ukrainian Easter bread, with sour cherries Making Ukrainian Easter bread, with sour cherries and saffron, adapted from a recipe in Mamushka by Ukrainian chef @oliahercules #slavaukraini #easter #baking #sour #sourcherries #supperclub
Making some Ukrainian inspired recipes for my next Making some Ukrainian inspired recipes for my next column. Quick pickled mini cucumbers & a herring, Granny Smith & egg salad from Black Sea by @edentravels on the way is the Ukrainian Easter bread by @oliahercules and in the oven are roasted kasha (buckwheat)stuffed peppers with a sour cream, paprika & tomato sauce by me. I’ve only been to Kyiv as a stopover on the way to Georgia but I’ve done various Eastern European influenced supper clubs in the past. Maybe I should do a Ukrainian one as a fundraiser? #slavaukraini #supperclub #sunflowerseeds&hope #stopthewar #blue&yellow
Load More... Follow on Instagram

Archives

Copyright © 2022 msmarmitelover