In Italy, olives are harvested and made into olive oil during two months of the year. Recently, some dear friends invited us to go and see how it is done. We went to one place where they used the old way of making oil, and then we went to another place where they used modern equipment.
First, the olives were put into this bin and then sent to be washed.
The washed olives were gathered here and then sent into the machine to be mashed.
Two granite wheels, each weighing 2000 lbs. mashed the olives.
They also added some leftover dried olive remains from previous olive oil processing to add some bulk.
The mashed mix went into machinery where the waste was removed and the water was removed. It was done inside machines, so I don't have more photos of the process.
We went to the second facility which processed a great deal of oil. We couldn't see much of the process at this place.
We went out and enjoyed some beautiful scenery and food in the mountains by Terni before we headed home. Thanks, friends, for taking us!