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Homepage » Olive Oil Production » Primitive Production

• Primitive Production
• The Rotative Mill
• The Spreading of the Presses
• The Subsequent Alterations

Primitive Production (without press)

If we squeeze in our hand some olives in a bottle full of water, we will notice that on the surface of water, oil will float. This primitive method of oil production in stone pots (mortars) is improved if stone pestles are used for smashing the olives and the water used is heated. In The Bible this method is named "washed oil" and is preferred more than the other methods for some ceremonial uses even though a small quantity of oil is extracted. Indeed this method can even be improved if, after the crushing, we smash the pulp by foot and we finally add hot water to separate the solid matter that remains. In that way, the women from Kabylia even nowadays produce oil (zit Uberray).

There is also another method for the crushing. We fill a sack with the olives and we put them in a bucket where we smash them on foot. Then we pass a stick through the two edges of the sack and we revolve it until the oil comes out. In Egypt they became aware of that technique and they used it for the wine production and probably for the oil production as well (Montent, 1925.Meeks, 1993). During the earliest years that method was used in Venice and in Spain and is being used even today in Turkey and in Corsica (Casanova, 1990. Mattozzi, 1979. Gonzalez Blanco, 1993).