Mas des Bories Olive Oil in it's Natural Habitat
- Thread starter rox
- Start date
- Views: 4542
Egon
Epic Contributor
rox:
I am here in Southern Califonia with 5 acres and 40 olive trees I planted about 5 years ago. I wanted to make table olives and some olive oil for myself. The temp rarely gets low enough for enough days to get a harvest. I have been waiting this year I have a modest one. I wish to make oil from some of the olives. I cannot buy an oliomio so I have to figure some other way. Do you have any suggestions on how to do ones own mill? I have solidworks skills, metal machining skills, welding skills, and am retired. Any advice? I know the thread is old but I've been seeking help and so I am asking now.
I am here in Southern Califonia with 5 acres and 40 olive trees I planted about 5 years ago. I wanted to make table olives and some olive oil for myself. The temp rarely gets low enough for enough days to get a harvest. I have been waiting this year I have a modest one. I wish to make oil from some of the olives. I cannot buy an oliomio so I have to figure some other way. Do you have any suggestions on how to do ones own mill? I have solidworks skills, metal machining skills, welding skills, and am retired. Any advice? I know the thread is old but I've been seeking help and so I am asking now.
I would look at how olive oil pressing was done in the past, in the old days before there was even electricity..
In the past the olives were crushed with big huge stones they rolled over the olives.
The crushed olives are then a paste once they are crushed. Then you have to extract the oil out of that paste.
What you could do is spread the paste on top of some kind of a mat, in the old days they wove mats for olive presses. You would have to figure out what to use as a mat. Then you put a mat on top (so now you have a mat both under the paste and on top of the paste, then you push down and literally squeeze out the olive oil from the paste.
It wouldn't matter if you applied upwards or downwards pressure you just have to figure out a way to squeeze the paste. The olive juice will run out so you have to squeeze it on top of some kind of containment article, like a little kids swimming pool.
You gather up that juice, now you have to pour that juice into a smaller container, like a jug. Olives naturally contain water in them also, so the juice at this point is a mixture of olive oil and water. You have to let the juice sit undisturbed for like 2 weeks.
What will happen in that two weeks is, the little bits of ground up olives that made it past your filter will fall to the bottom of the jug, then on top of that the water will sit, then on top of the water will be the olive oil. These products will naturally separate just by letting them sit undisturbed.
Next drain off the water from the bottom of the jug, and once the olive oil comes running out after the water has been drained out just capture the oil in a good clean bucket so you can then use that bucket to fill glass bottles or a food grade container with the oil.
I'm thinking like you know when you are in the hospital and you get an IV, and they have that IV bag with the hose at the end? Something like that. Knowing you first need to draw off from the bottom the sediment and the water. It is important that the jug you first put the olive juice into you can see, like glass. This way you can literally see when the decantation (the separation of oil & water) has taken place.
Hefty Makes big zip lock bags now, I think like 3 gallon plastic zip lock bags, maybe you could come up with an idea using that. It is going to be really really hard for you to pull the oil out from the top, as that creates turbulence and the oil ends up getting mixed in with the water and sediment again. You really want to drain the water off from below as opposed to sucking the oil out from on top. Does this make sense?
I image a straw hat type material would make a good mat to spread the olive paste on, which you then are going to press down on and squeeze. Also clean panty hose maybe?
I hope this information is of help to you. Hey good luck my friend!
In the past the olives were crushed with big huge stones they rolled over the olives.
The crushed olives are then a paste once they are crushed. Then you have to extract the oil out of that paste.
What you could do is spread the paste on top of some kind of a mat, in the old days they wove mats for olive presses. You would have to figure out what to use as a mat. Then you put a mat on top (so now you have a mat both under the paste and on top of the paste, then you push down and literally squeeze out the olive oil from the paste.
It wouldn't matter if you applied upwards or downwards pressure you just have to figure out a way to squeeze the paste. The olive juice will run out so you have to squeeze it on top of some kind of containment article, like a little kids swimming pool.
You gather up that juice, now you have to pour that juice into a smaller container, like a jug. Olives naturally contain water in them also, so the juice at this point is a mixture of olive oil and water. You have to let the juice sit undisturbed for like 2 weeks.
What will happen in that two weeks is, the little bits of ground up olives that made it past your filter will fall to the bottom of the jug, then on top of that the water will sit, then on top of the water will be the olive oil. These products will naturally separate just by letting them sit undisturbed.
Next drain off the water from the bottom of the jug, and once the olive oil comes running out after the water has been drained out just capture the oil in a good clean bucket so you can then use that bucket to fill glass bottles or a food grade container with the oil.
I'm thinking like you know when you are in the hospital and you get an IV, and they have that IV bag with the hose at the end? Something like that. Knowing you first need to draw off from the bottom the sediment and the water. It is important that the jug you first put the olive juice into you can see, like glass. This way you can literally see when the decantation (the separation of oil & water) has taken place.
Hefty Makes big zip lock bags now, I think like 3 gallon plastic zip lock bags, maybe you could come up with an idea using that. It is going to be really really hard for you to pull the oil out from the top, as that creates turbulence and the oil ends up getting mixed in with the water and sediment again. You really want to drain the water off from below as opposed to sucking the oil out from on top. Does this make sense?
I image a straw hat type material would make a good mat to spread the olive paste on, which you then are going to press down on and squeeze. Also clean panty hose maybe?
I hope this information is of help to you. Hey good luck my friend!
Last edited:
I gave you a fuller answer in a seperate comment but I thought I better come back and add, that you do not need to pit the olives first, hardly anybody pits the olives we just grind up the pits when we grind up the olives. The pit actually has a tiny bit of oil in it, grinding the pits with the paste does not affect the flavor in any way.
roadhunter
Elite Member
What about something like a centrifuge for extracting oil.
It is not just spinning the oil in a centrifuge, you have to have some kind of a spout in there to drain off the spinning oil, and that spout has to be movable to move up or down to find that sweet spot where the water is spinning and hanging out at the bottom. In one batch that sweet spot is different then the very next batch. Some olives will have more water in them then others in the same field so the spout needs to be able to be movable.
We use a centrifuge as virtually everyone does, the engineering in that centrifuge is really advanced.
I just thought of another idea, this is on crushing. Remember the old fashioned wringer washing machines? I imagine if you could feed the olives between the ringer, the first pass the ringer is set up high, then pass it again through the ringer where the ringer has a more narrow gap. Always try and capture the juice, there is oil in that juice.
See our blog and look at the pictures of the Moulin (Mill) there is a picture of our crusher in there. Basically our crusher does not actually "crush" the olives , it uses effectively spinning knives to chop it up real fine. You need the paste to be finely chopped, or ground. You won't get the oil out if you have to big of hunks of olives pieces.
Https://MasDesBories.Wordpress.com
See our blog and look at the pictures of the Moulin (Mill) there is a picture of our crusher in there. Basically our crusher does not actually "crush" the olives , it uses effectively spinning knives to chop it up real fine. You need the paste to be finely chopped, or ground. You won't get the oil out if you have to big of hunks of olives pieces.
Https://MasDesBories.Wordpress.com
