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 HARVEST - PRODUCTION - STORAGE
Oil Of Magnesia | Olive Oil Production Volos Magnesia
The olive harvest may be very complex and depends largely on weather conditions and the olive variety as well as the type of oil extracted.
Green eating olives and green oil are harvested a few days before the emulsification (galaktoma) of the fruit, the Chalkidiki variety being first normally on 3 Sept. and Amphissa 7 days later. After the emulsification period the fruit ripens and colour changes to yellow, light red, coffee, purple and black.
Beginning of Nov. is picking time for kalamon,when purple and amphissa when black until 14 Nov. From this date on the harvesting of oil olives starts. There are, however, differences of opinion between quality and quantity, health issues, weather conditions,insect infestation.
We harvest manaki and koroneiki in late october when yellow-red which we press separately and continue the harvest with old type kalamon, which now are discontinued from eating olive classification,and amphissa varieties.
During harvest we perform some pruning by cutting high grown branches to facilitate and protect the fruit from damage. We do not use mechanical tools or canes since bruising will cause damage to the tree and increase oil acidity levels.
Collecting the crop from the plastic sheets, nets, cleaning and selecting unwanted items of leaves, wood, rotten or damaged, insect infected fruit takes place, supervised by two very experienced persons, Agnes Milarska and her assistant Agatha.
A second inspection follows before going into plastic crates which are stacked on the road side ready for loading on the pickup truck, an average load of 1 ton. As we are Registered with Green Control for Organic Growing the Oil Press must be registered with the same Authority.
The Association of Magnesia Farming Co-operative is based in the outskirts of Volos which is also the administrative center off the region,who also run another Olive press in Argalasti, South Pelion.
The Association also administers the area including the North Sporades islands.
We press our crop in their 2 presses by appointment, collect the oil and the detailed results of the oil extraction.
We offload the oil in our storerooms,situated in Milina and Volos.
The oil is kept in 500 liter stainless steel steel containers,well sealed, allowing sufficient space for sediment deposits. The store rooms are kept dark and in cool temperatures of12-16°C.
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