Los Angeles herald., 1892-01-28
OLIVE OIL OF TUSCANY.
Method of Securing the Best Grade oi
Oil That Comes from Over the Water.


Oil That Comes from Over the Water.
IA salad must be salted by wise
man, receive vinegar from miser and
oil from a spendthrift. So says an
Italian proverb, but first of all acquaint
yourself with the character of the latter
fluid or the consequences are more awful
than human lips can describe. Those
happy beings who have sojourned in
Tuscany refuse oil in any country save
that of its birth, and as it fell to my lot
to be in that lovely province during the
olive harvest, made point of finding
out about the chief industry Of the
swarthy sons and daughters of Italy
who make the fertile hills resound with
their songs and laughter while they
pluck and sort the fruit from the shapely
trees.
Men and boys were perched on ladders
amid the dark green leaves, and pictur-
esque figures they made with their bright
colored shirts and brilliant eyes. Each
of these gatherers has strapped around
his waist an odd wicker basket shaped
like a crescent. This is called the
ssbugnolo," and receives all the perfect
fruit its bearer plucks. 1t is about a
foot deep, and admirably adapted for its
special use, being light and not likely to
impede the workers movements. The
fruit deposited in this is neither bruised
nor crushed, one of the chief require
ments for oil of the FIRST quality"
The work of the women and children
consists of carefully picking up the olives
dropped by the men from their lofty
perches. This fruit, which is usually
bruised in its tumble, is put aside for the
''second quality"
The first olive is gold, the second silver,
| the third worth nothing, says the old
proverb Olives are most delicate crop
and require constant attention. The
Tuscan looks down with proper contemp,
upon the south Italian for his careless.
ness and want of cleanliness in the oil
preparation.
In Tuscany only the freshly picked
fruit is used to make the first quality of
oil. The second quality is made from
the fallen berries, while the third quality,
which is used only for lamps, comes
from the olives blown down by the wind
or knocked off by heavy rain or hail.
From lying on the ground these olives
acquire an earthly taste, and, as they are
kept for some time before crushing, the
oil has not that brilliancy of color which
is so much priced.
There are countless varieties of olives.
Enough fruit of the first quality hav-
ing been gathered for the press, the
crowd of pickers enter huge vaulted
the center, in which the olives are all
emptied. In this basin is milestone
about six feet in diameter, set up on end
and revolving around wooden column
An OK is harnessed to pole projecting
from the centerpiece, and as the beas
PAGES around the basin man follows
and shovels the olives, soon reduced II
greenish pulp. When sufficiently crushed
| two men bring in hand barrow will
| long handles, on which lie the ''gabbia,
circular baskets with hole through tn,
middle of each.
These baskets look as if made of cocos
mating, but are of thick cord manufac
tured from rushes. AS they are filled
with the pulp they are carried to pres
and heaped with great care one on tol
of the other. Many taps and pushes arr
given by the padrone to the pile O.
''gabbia," out of which great drops O.
yellow green oil already exude. A disl
of new wood is then placed on the top O
the oily mountain, and then begins th'
hard work.
The oil press, upon which the ''gab
bia" are placed, consists of an enormou
beam through which goes the screw ant
is finished below by square block O
wood pierced with two holes supporte'
by two massive posts. A pole is inserte'
into the block, and with many odd erie
and exclamations the men turn tn
screw round and the oil comes gushin,
out on all sides, mixed with dirty look
| ing water Olives contain only one thir
| of oil and two of water.
The liquid runs into conduit Gu
around the press in the marble floor an
disappears down hole at one side GOV
cred with a wooden lid. When this
raised small vat is exposed, and as tn
oil of course is floating on the top, it
| delicately SKINNED with a fiat tin 5000
followed in the center.-Cor. Philadel
| nhia Times