Page:The Olive Its Culture in Theory and Practice.djvu/169

 Extraction, Storage and Clarification of the Oil.

CHAPTER XII.

A short quotation from the distinguished Prof. Cupari, of the University of Pisa, will give a clear idea of what is somewhat inaccurately called oil making, and correct a common error in regard to the process. He says, in his lesson on agriculture, "Olive oil is not like the juice of the grape, which requires a chemical process to transform the sugar it contains into alcohol, in order that it may become wine; the oil is there, ready made within the fruit, and the utmost that can be done is to extract it, just as it is, bursting the cells within which it is enclosed, by crushing the olives and then pressing them." "Olive oil is found, not made." One may fail to extract it, one may injure it in the process, it may lose in quality or even become rancid by careless handling or storage, but the one and only object of the oil mill is to extract, clarify and store the oil, while experience and skill will undoubtedly add much to the result of a given olive harvest, the fact remains that the oil is made and in the berry. A mortar and pestle will crush olives and the oil and water can be strained out, through cloth or crash by hand. The difference is not of process but of quantity to be dealt with. This should be clearly understood in California, as this interest grows. It is not beyond credence that the happy possessor of a few producing olive trees would be willing to devote the time and labor necessary to extracting his own oil for household use, with the simplest of home machinery and especially when the physician tells him the value of olive oil as both medicine and food;