Attempting to make olive oil

Being in lock down means that we can only leave the house once a day for exercise (and essential shopping). Thankfully we live very close to the Acropolis and the parks that surround it. When walking last week I saw a tree that was still full of olives and thought I would have a go at getting some oil out of them. 

I had to do a lot of research on the easiest way to do this with very little resources. The video above takes what I learn't from all the video and combines them into a quick and easy method. 

If you are unable to watch the video then here is a summary of how I made olive oil. Like I stated earlier there are many ways to do this, this was just the easiest way for us. 

1. Pick and wash the olives
2. Blend the olives into a pulp (best to take the stones out to avoid damaging the blades of the blender, however, I didn't bother)
3. Heat the olive pulp up in a pan for between 5-10 minutes
4. Put the pulp into a cheese cloth (I used a fabric tote bag instead), then put the cloth in a sieve and collect the juice in a container. Allow the pulp to cool. 
5. Once the pulp has cooled, squeeze as much juice out through the cheese cloth. 
6. Put all the juice in a glass/ container and allow to sit overnight.
7. Overnight the juice and the oil should have separated,  use a tea spoon to skim the layer of oil into a separate container.  
8. Use your olive oil however you wish. 

We only managed to get a little shot glass of olive oil out of a bag full of olives so it wasn't massively productive but it was a fun little project to pass the time while in lock down. If you can think of a better way of doing this process then feel free to leave a comment. 

Written and published by Alex Hood (@Alexjohnhood)