Modern Olive Processing

After seeing our ancient olive press, you might be wondering what modern inhabitants of the Holy Land do with their olives. 

My friend Sahar shared photos from her family's 2009 harvest.  First of all, picking olives is not an hour-long novelty, like it was for me, but a week-long endeavor for the whole family.  The best olives are tapped with a rock, packed with peppers, lemon or lemon leaves, and salt water, and stored for 10 days before eating. My friend Samia helped me pack two bottles of olives using this process, and I get to taste them in a few days.

 The rest of the olives are taken to a state-of-the art olive processing machine. "Within half an hour, about 119 kgs of olives were pressed into 18 liters of extra virgin olive oil."