The Portland daily press., 1892-01-08
OLIVE OIL OF TUSCANY.


Oil That Comes from Over the Water.
"a salad must be sailed by a 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 Lou
to be in that lovely province during the
olive harvest, l 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 q
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 aud 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 contempt
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
apartment with large stone basin in
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 a wooden column.
An OK is harnessed to a pole projecting
from the centerpiece, and as the beast
PAGES around the basin man follows
and shoyels the olives, soon reduced to
greenish pulp. When sufficiently crushed
two men bring in hand barrow with
long handles, on which lie the s'gabbia,"
circular baskets with hole through the
middle of each.
These baskets look as if made of cocoa
mating, but are Of thick cord manufac-
tured from rushes. AS they are filled
with the pulp they are carried to press
and heaped with great care one on top
of the other. Many taps and pushes are
given by the padrone to the pile of
''gabbia," out of which great drops of
yellow green oil already exude. A disk
of new wood is then placed on the top of
the oily mountain, and then begins the
hard work.
The oil press, upon which the ssgab-
bia' are placed, consists of an enormous
beam through which goes the screw and
is finished below by square block of
wood pierced with two holes supported
by two massive posts. A pole is inserted
into the block, and with many odd cries
and EXPLANATIONS the men turn the
screw round and the oil comes gushing
out on all sides, mixed with dirty look
ing water. Olives contain only one-third
of oil and two of water.
The liquid runs into conduit cut
around the press in the marble floor and
disappears down hole at one side cov-
cred with wooden lid When this is
raised small vat is exposed, and as the
oil of course is floating on the top, it is
delicately SKINNED with fat tin scSpp
followed in the center.-Cor. Philadel-
phia Times.