Hi,

I have been watching this debate with some interest. It seems as if it is a
debate between the traditionalists and the new agers. If one uses the
example of wine making, I live in an area in South Africa where wine and
olives are produced. Back to my example, if the wine industry had not taken
advantage of modern technology and new ideas we would still be in the wine
stone age, we would have missed out on some beautiful new blends and
cultivars. So why not with olive oil. Don't get me wrong I am not advocating
some awful chemical process for extracting oil. All I am saying is lets
think laterally for a change, its not sufficient to say "The Europeans have
always done it that way so why change"

Regards

Mike and Julie (Olive oil pressers)

-----Original Message-----
From: Brian Chatterton [mailto:tn7685@orvienet.it]
Sent: 19 June 2000 09:11
To: Olive List
Subject: [OliveOil] Oil percentage


Robin,

Quite a list of questions!!

As far as Q 1 is concerned measuring the oil percentage as one does the
sugar in grapes is not a useful means of determining the date for
picking. If you get the Australian Olive Grower you will see in the
January issue the results of trials in the Provincia of Grosseto (page
21) where the percentage of oil varied by something like 5% from year to
year from the same plot of olives that is from 18.2% to 23.5%. for
unirrigated Frantoio.


The same problem occurs with extraction. We have been advised not to
seek the highest possible oil percentage as this will require heat etc
which will reduce the quality of the oil. In Italy I do not know of any
growers who have their olives "tested" in the same way as we had our
grapes tested in the Barossa Valley.

The most important aspect of determining harvest date is fruit fall. We
have described it in our book but it does seem to be too simple for
growers in Oz and NZ to accept!! They believe there must be a more
comlex formula based on oil percentage, colour etc.

Cheers Brian Chatterton.