| Olive Oil Production... |
|
|
|
|
FRONTPAGE_NO_TRANSLATION_AVAILABLE .................will soon be underway....................... Hundreds of olive oil producing mills in the countryside of this region are working flat out this next few weeks to harvest the best olives in the world, producing the finest of Pugliese extra virgin olive oil . 
In the countryside the farmers are hard at work to gather the olives and transport them to the mill for pressing.
Once pressed the best extra virgin olive oil in the world will be produced.
In the province of Bari alone there are about 130,000 hectares of land home to 22 million olive trees, producing 5 million quintal (100 kilograms) of olives, which is further transformed by the 350 mills to produce one million quintal of oil; representing 40% of all olive oil production in Puglia. In the whole of Puglia there are 360,000 hectares of land with 60 million olive trees reaching a production of approximately 2.4 million quintal of olive oil per year. Italy produces on average 600 thousand tons of olive oil. The region of Bari is split into macro areas of olive growing; prevalent in the north, the Coratina, towards the centre there is more a concentration of the Ogliarola barese or the Cima di Bitonto, and in the direction of the south Cima di Mola is more widespread. In the province of Brindisi, from Ostuni and Fasano, production of olive oil is harvested from the ancient olive trees, the Ogliarola brindisina. It is possible to keep this oil without altering its taste for as long as three years in the right conditions. From Bari to Brindisi, the countryside harvest period will soon be full on and because of the favourable climate, it has been suggested that this year’s production of oil is going to be of excellent quality and equally the quantity is very promising. During the harvest period it is possible to visit the oil mills, the frantoi, to taste the new extra virgin olive oil which is obtained from the first pressing of a diverse variety of olives giving the olive oil its distinctive colour, yellow-green and its sweet fragrant taste, with an intense aroma that is apparent when the olives are first pressed. Puglia has 5 DOP (Denominazione di Origine Protetta): “Terra di Bari”, “Collina di Brindisi” (Ostuni, Cisternino and Fasano), “Dauno”, “Terra d’Otranto” and “Terre Tarantine”. Other useful links are: Apulia Blend Life in Italy Book reference: Olive Oil by Charles Quest-Ritson, Dorling Kindersley Production References: Original article written in Italian by Corrado Rodio of Sette 7 Magazine |
| Pros. > |
|---|
