Olive Press

Noise, smell, people, oil and dimly lit. Not quite what is expected. The press is actually a collection of several large machines. The olives go in at one end and come out as oil about 50 meters away!

Sacks of freshly collected olives waited in the doorway on pallets.

Each sack, has the owners name and some containers for the resulting oil. Most people had between 20-30 sacks of olives waiting to be pressed.

If you have olives, they are weighed and you pay for the olives that have been pressed, not the amount of oil extracted. The olives are processed in batches. A short gap is made between each batch.

First, the olives are tipped into a large hopper.

A fast-moving conveyor belt whizzes them up into the first part of the press.

A machine that would not look out of place in a gold mine, removes the leaves and twigs, washes and then shakes the olives. The noise was deafening.

The leaves and twigs are sucked up and emptied out side onto a huge heap.

The cleaned olives drop into another hopper where an Archimedes screw lifts them up into the masher.

The olives are turned into a paste. The machine is so large, that a raised walkway and ladders are required so that the machine can be monitored.

Next, hot water is added to help thin the paste (increase the flow) and heat the mixture. The next stage of the press is much slower. Two identical sets of machines now take the olive paste. This enables two different batches of olives to be processed at the same time.

The olive paste mixture is spun to remove the heaver pips.

The pips fall out the bottom of the machine as a coarse dust. An Archimedes screw set in the floor, takes them outside to a huge boiler and burnt.

The boiler is used to heat the water that is used earlier in the pressing stage.

The oil is further refined in a centrifuge and then pushed through a filter at high pressure.

The extracted oil is poured into a barrel. It takes between 7-10kg of olives to produce 1 litre of oil.

At this stage the quality is measured, by calculating the acidity of the oil. Less than 0.5% acid is considered perfect.

These locals have olive groves above Gaios and wait their turn. From start to finish, it can take 3 hours to process the olives. The machine at one time is able to process up to 5 batches of olives.

Small chalk signs hung on the machines indicate whose olives are inside. As that batch of olives moves through the press, the sign is moved along too.

It's a long process and yet, among the noise, local people still manage to enjoy coffee together and gossip. Olives have a huge influence on local people and play an important role in the Greek diet.

The next time you enjoy a salad dressed in olive oil, remember what it has been through.

Homer called it "liquid gold." and in ancient Greece, athletes ritually rubbed it all over their body. Drops of it seeped into the bones of dead saints and martyrs through holes in their tombs! Olive oil has been more than mere food to the people of Paxos: it has been medicinal, magical, an endless source of fascination and wonder and the fountain of great wealth and power. The olive tree, the symbol glory and peace, gave its leafy branches to crown the victorious in friendly games and bloody wars. Olive crowns and olive branches, were ritually offered to deities and powerful figures: some were even said to be found in Tutankhamen's tomb.

The history of the olive is a long one, dating back to Biblical times. The olive branch was the symbol shown by God to Noah to indicate the end of the flood. According to Greek mythology, the olive tree was a gift from the goddess Athena to the people of Athens. The Olive itself has been eaten and enjoyed by all the peoples of the region for thousands of years. Throughout the Mediterranean, the olive has always been highly valued; olive oil was used as fuel; as a preservative; as an analgesic; and as a perfume and the wood was used for decoration.

The olive has been an essential part of the history of the Paxos agriculture, and cooking for over 3500 years. The Greeks, including the Paxiots, consume more olives per capita than any other people in Europe. Consequently, the Paxiots take their olives very seriously. Every region produces its own distinctive olive; Paxos is no exception. Of course, the locals of Paxos are always convinced that their particular olive is the finest.

The Olive Museum on Paxos is on the main road between Gaios and Lakka (Glyfada) and is interesting and presents artefacts found on Paxos, ranging back over the years. There are oil lamps, old tools used for collecting olives (a speciality on Paxos) and pots and pans. Well worth a visit as it provides a good insight into how people lived in the early days on Paxos.