> Which olives, the black or the green, are more suitable for the
> production of olive oil.


There is no such thing as Black Olives... Black Olives are treated or
De-Bittered for eating- The Black color comes from the process. All Olives are
green for oil.

Which olives, the black or the green, are more suitable for the
production of olive oil.

Thank's Thorsten

{and, before everyone choruses 'Search the archives!' I will direct Thorsten to
the archived messages on htis list. A search of all messages from the website
main page will give a nummber of messages related to this topic.
John Attwood
Co-moderator}

there are purple/black olives, they deepen in colour when processed in brine
- we pick our Frantoio when some of the olives have turned black and the
bulk of the tree is green or turning purple so I'm not sure where the
statement that there are no black olives comes from




> There is no such thing as Black Olives... Black Olives are treated or
> De-Bittered for eating- The Black color comes from the process. All Olives
> are green for oil.

Ohhh... I just couldn't let this pass without comment!

SummitTalent@aol.com wrote:

>Which olives, the black or the green, are more suitable for the
>production of olive oil.
>
>
>There is no such thing as Black Olives... Black Olives are treated or
>De-Bittered for eating- The Black color comes from the process. All Olives
are
>green for oil.
>
>
I have, in my olive inventory, olives that have been allowed to fully
ripen on the tree and have been picked when black right through to the
pit. They are naturally black, no chemical treatment has been applied.
They have been dry salt cured and then with the salt brushed off are
submerged in EVOO. (or it was when they went in, the salt might have
changed the characteristics of the oil somewhat!). These olives are black.

At my small frantoio, I have pressed olives that range from bright green
(Maturity index = 0) as far as black skin and purple flesh to the pit
(maturity index = 6). True, the riper olives do not necessarily have as
good a quality of oil, but they are still oil producing.

Sorry to disagree but we usually use a mixture of green and black to make oil.
They become black as they hang on the tree longer. I'm sure someone will
explain better than I.

Trudy Hollinshead
Quoting SummitTalent@aol.com:


>
> Which olives, the black or the green, are more suitable for the
> production of olive oil.
>
> There is no such thing as Black Olives... Black Olives are treated or
> De-Bittered for eating- The Black color comes from the process. All Olives
> are green for oil.

> Which olives, the black or the green, are more suitable for the
> production of olive oil.
>

Olives on the tree start off hard and green. As they ripen the colour of the
skin will change from green to a yellow green. At this stage the centre of
the olive is still white and contains both oil and water, but there is a
high proportion of water to oil, so although you can extract some oil,
generally you won't get very much. I have seen green olives give as little
as 4% oil.

As the olive ripens the skin colour changes from green to yellow to pink to
purple to black, sometimes with a blue tinge. Eventually the olives will
start to shrivel as they lose water. At the stage where the purple / black
change is happening on the skin, the flesh of the olive is also changing
colour, from white to eventually, red to black. In coastal NSW we start to
pick green olives in March, finish picking with black in May or even June.

As the olives ripen the amount of green pigmentation drops and the amount of
red pigmentation increases (amongst many other changes). As this happens the
amount of bitterness in the olive also decreases, but the proportion of oil
increases. Olives crushed at the colour change from purple to black stage
may give a much higher proportion of oil to green crushed olives - I have
seen 28% oil extracted from olives picked at rhe shrivelling black stage,
but the resulting oil tends to be bland and insipid.

So you have a choice - pick early for small amounts of green coloured,
vibrant, spicy, peppery oils or pick later for considerably higher yields of
soft, nutty, buttery oils. Or somewhere in the middle, its pretty well up to
you. The general theory is that the best oils contain a higher proportion of
green olives (which also contain the highest proportion of the good
attributes of EVOO) but as these olives will give a smaller amount of oil,
expect them to cost more.

I hope this helps,

Mike Wilson
Hunter Valley, NSW. Au

Hi,
both is suitable to make oil but green is more softer.
right now is the time to make oil till to ~end of jan.
gr.
Mehmet

{talking Northern Hemisphere, of course. The harvest in the Southern hemisphere
gets under way about April(ish)}

SummitTalent@aol.com wrote:


In a message dated 12/21/2005 3:05:51 A.M. Central Standard Time,
satzwu@yahoo.de writes:

Which olives, the black or the green, are more suitable for the
production of olive oil.


There is no such thing as Black Olives... Black Olives are treated or
De-Bittered for eating- The Black color comes from the process. All Olives are
green for oil.

Olive must be harvest green ,because oil qualite
is better than the black and it lasted long time (2
year)

--- SummitTalent@aol.com wrote:

> satzwu@yahoo.de writes:
>
> Which olives, the black or the green, are more
> suitable for the
> production of olive oil.
>
>
> There is no such thing as Black Olives... Black Olives are treated or
> De-Bittered for eating- The Black color comes from the process. All Olives are green for oil.
>

I am not an official expert but at least I can say following based on my
knowledge and experience;
I this season measured the yield of the oil content by harvesting my
grove in three different times. First I harvested in late October, the
olives were totally green and I had green coloured 1kg oil out of 10kgs
olives {or 10% oil}. The second harvest took place in early december, the
colour of the olives were half green and I had 1kg green coloured oil out of
6,5kgs olive {15.4%}. And I yesterday picked the last bid and I had 1kg
slightly greenish oil from 5,6kg olive {17.9%}. The more the olives ripen
the more oil you get. Last season I had harvested in mid January and the oil
content was in its peak 1/4,5 or 22.2%} and the oil was yellowish. However I
am talking about my own olive grove meaning it usually depends on 1. the
olive variety 2. climate, rain and irrigation 3. desired oil quality.
It is obvious that early harvest olive oil is the superior quality but the
quantity is not that much. I would choose early harvest for my own
consumption.
Ozgur Akoglu
Aydin/Turkiye


{moderator note - Thanks for the explanation, hopefully it is much clearer
now. All the points you make are very relevant.}

This is great, straightforward information.
As a serious consumer, always on the lookout for the ultimate olive oil..I
enjoyed this post.
Thanks!!
bob

_____

From: OliveOil@yahoogroups.com [mailto:OliveOil@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf
Of Vulture
Sent: Friday, December 23, 2005 6:18 AM
To: OliveOil@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [OliveOil] Green or black olives


I am not an official expert but at least I can say following based on my
knowledge and experience;
I this season measured the yield of the oil content by harvesting my
grove in three different times. First I harvested in late October, the
olives were totally green and I had green coloured 1kg oil out of 10kgs
olives {or 10% oil}. The second harvest took place in early december, the
colour of the olives were half green and I had 1kg green coloured oil out of
6,5kgs olive {15.4%}. And I yesterday picked the last bid and I had 1kg
slightly greenish oil from 5,6kg olive {17.9%}. The more the olives ripen
the more oil you get. Last season I had harvested in mid January and the oil
content was in its peak 1/4,5 or 22.2%} and the oil was yellowish. However I
am talking about my own olive grove meaning it usually depends on 1. the
olive variety 2. climate, rain and irrigation 3. desired oil quality.
It is obvious that early harvest olive oil is the superior quality but the
quantity is not that much. I would choose early harvest for my own
consumption.
Ozgur Akoglu
Aydin/Turkiye


{moderator note - Thanks for the explanation, hopefully it is much clearer
now. All the points you make are very relevant.}