The olive press

The mill has state-of-the-art, stainless steel machinery with a production capacity of 40 quintals per hour, allowing us to process olives on the same day in large quantities and offer a milling service to a wide range of customers.

To offer a product of excellent quality, we have chosen to cultivate a highly prized olive variety: the Nocellara Etnea. The harvest is carried out strictly by hand, using traditional methods passed down from our father. The harvested olives are placed in the hopper and, via belt elevators, proceed to washing.

They are then channelled to the hammer, which crushes them, obtaining a creamy paste that will be poured into perfectly sealed containers, the “Gramole”. The paste will be kneaded for 20-30 minutes and by means of screw pumps it will be fed into a centrifuge called a “Decanter”. Here the extraction will take place, a process that is carried out without adding water to the olive paste and at room temperature. This will lead to the formation of two elements:

The first is extra virgin olive oil; the second, however, contains spent paste mixed with mill water, which is why it will be directed to the designated outlet where the crushed pits will be removed. The extracted oil will be channelled to a second centrifuge, which will remove 99.1% of the impurities. This process also takes place at room temperature; it is therefore referred to as “cold extraction”.