Olive Oil Harvest at Kalikori

One of these days, I’m going to go to Greece when the olive harvest takes place in autumn. Olives can be found all over Greece and as if taunting me, I pass by the idle olive oil cooperative in the town where our summer home in Halkidiki is. All over Greece, farmers and families with plots of land with olive trees take their olives to a cooperative (they keep a percentage) where the olives are pressed into liquid gold – extra virgin olive oil.

Until I can arrange to go to Greece in the Fall, I can only fantasize about placing a piece of crusty bread under the spout of tepid, fresh pressed olive oil at a co-operative. In the meantime, I have t he pleasure of sharing last year’s olive harvest from the Kalikori olive groves near Kalamata in Messinia, southern Greece. An avid reader of this site (and friend) Spyros Bourboulis granted my request of him to take some photos of the harvest.

Spyros got involved in the olive oil business through his marriage to Effy and their family, the Ligris’. The paternal grandfather, Vassiily planted some olive trees in the 1950’s and now the third generation of the family is taking full-charge of the operations. The name “Kalikori” is a compound Greek word meaning ” good girl”…paying homage to the family’s past and their striving for a pure, virginal product.

Back in Greece, Effie’s Uncle Kosta is the caretaker of operations. At Kalikori, the small green Vatsikes variety of olives are solely grown for oil. There are over a hundred other varieties olives cultivated in Greece, varying from region to region, picked for either making olive oil or for table olives and choice varying according to taste.

The Kalikori premium label is named after Effy’s grandfather (Papou), “L’olivier de Vassily” and it is not a blend. The olives are picked early in the harvest season when they are green. This early harvest gives Kalikori’s olive oil a peppery/piquante taste and olive oils and flavour not only determined by type of olive or region or soil but also when the olive is harvested. Kallikori’s early harvest oil falls into the category or “agourelaio”.

If there’s one integral part of Greek cuisine it has to be olive oil and olives. I cannot imagine cooking without it nor can I ever recall our home NOT having olives in the home. A plate of olives are usually on the table and if not, there’s olive oil somewhere in the array of dishes.

The curing & preservation of the olive and production of olive oil has changed little since as early as 3000BC in Crete. From the very very beginning. olives were simply plucked and eaten right off the tree. Some of you may know that the raw olive can be bitter and even then, the Greeks were notorious for experimenting in the kitchen.

Curing olives served two purposes: to make them more palatable and to preserve them. Back then, olives were a staple that fed farmers, shepherds and travelers. Farmers back then would take a break in the field and have a lunch that consisted of olives, some dried rusks and cheese. A scene that’s not all that different from the lunch break in today’s olive groves.

Ancients Greeks knew that they could cure and preserve olives in sea salt and then soon after they discovered that olives could also be preserved in olive oil and vinegar. They made salt brines, preserved olives in honey and grape must. Wines were added into the mix, indigenous herbs like oregano or wild fennel offered another dimension of flavour.

Although olives back then were far more important in feeding the masses, early eating habits shaped the way Greeks eat to this day. As I mentioned early in this post, olives are almost always placed on t he dinner table. The family gathers at the table, waiting for the meal to be served. An Ouzo may be served, bread is certainly on the table and there are the olives…the earliest form of meze/appetizer.

The ancients placed olives in the category of “prosfagio” or food to be eaten before the main meal. Olives and other appetizers are placed on the table to encourage appetite, not sate it. Greeks today still eat like the ancients did. The methods used to harvest olives, press olive oil and preserve olives have changed little since then. Why fix something that’s not broken?

Before I share a delicious and easy dish that screams for good olive oil, I want to share with you how Kallikori’s olive oil grows from Greece’s ancient soils, gets picked, sorted, pressed, bottled and sent to the tables of those who enjoy the very best on their tables….Greek extra-virgin olive oil.

Nets are spread out and placed under each olive tree. At this time, some of the larger branches are pruned so that new shoots spring up next year. The cut branches will pass through a machine that will separate the olives from the branch and leaves. Just like the ancients, long sticks are used to whack the higher-reaching branches and release the olives. The olives fall onto the nets that were previously place under each tree.

The olives that have fallen on the nets are gathered and then the olives are gathered and placed in sacks. The local co-operative that presses the olives comes by and collects the olives. The pressing of the olives will take about 12 hours.

At the oil press, the sacks of olives are emptied into large hoppers. The olives are then separated, washed/rinsed and then ultimately cold-pressed into olive oil. This particular co-operative/press uses modern technology for efficiency purposes…extracting all the olive oil in one press!

There are three basic methods of extracting oil from olives:

1. The Olive Press. The method used by the Greeks for thousand of years. First the olives are ground into a paste by large millstones. This basic method is still widely used today and if monitored properly, it can still produce olive oil of very high quality.
2. The Sinolea Method- Cold Dripping. This method was first introduced in 1972 and it’s a cold pressing milling system that applies no pressure or no water is added. A stainless steel comb or blade is dipped in the olive paste and then with each dip, a thin layer of oil covers the blade (or comb) and it then gets wiped off in a bowl. This method is based on a very simple law of physics.
3. The final method and the one Kallikori employs is the Modern Method – Decanter Centrifugation.In this method, the olives are crushed into a paste. This paste is then mixed or stirred for 30-40 minutes to allow smaller droplets to combine with larger droplets. The aromas develop at this stage as the fruits enzymes take action. Afterward, the paste is past through a decanter where water is added. A horizontal centrifuge that rotates at 3000 rpm allows the oil and water to easily be separated. This method’s advantage is that it results in the highest yield of all the methods.

Kalikori’s olive oil is best reserved for finishing dishes (not cooking). Drizzle on your favourite salad, offer a bowl of Kalikori with some crusty bread, drizzle on pasta or soups.

The only thing left to do is to taste the olive oil. I decided to feature Kalikori’s extra-virgin olive oil in a simple but delicious salad that’s also seasonal…beet greens. Much like “horta” or wild greens like “vlita” (amaranth), the beet greens are usually boiled until just tender and then strained and tossed in good olive oil, some minced garlic, sea salt and your acid of choice. Personally I like a good squeeze of lemon juice.

There’s two ways you can go about cooking the the beet greens: either boil them or steam them. I prefer  to steam the greens. I have a steamer, the greens cook quicker and I retain most of the beet greens nutritional properties and I lose no flavour boiling them in water.

Beet Greens Salad

1 bunch of beet greens

1 clove of garlic, minced

1/3 cup Kalikori olive oil

juice of 1/2 lemon

sea salt to taste

1. Cut your beet greens off of the roots. Fill your sink with water and soak the greens. Change the water until you feel no grit (sand) when you rub the stalks. Rinse and set aside.
2. If boiling, bring a large pot of water to a boil and then season with salt. Add your beet greens and boil until fork tender (about 5 minutes). Strain and run under some cold water. Strain again. MY preferred method is to place your beet greens in a steamer and cover. Steam the beet greens for about 5-7minutes or until fork tender.
3. Empty the beet greens into a bowl while still hot and add your minced garlic, some sea salt and the olive oil. Toss to coat the beet greens and add a squeeze of lemon juice. Toss again and taste. Adjust accordingly (salt, olive oil, garlic or more lemon juice).
4. Serve warm or at room temperature as a side dish with some fish or seafood.

BONUS…..here’s a video that Effy and Spyro shot last year during the love harvest. Enjoy!

Kalokori is a proudly Canadian company based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

Where to Buy Kalikori:

Kalikori Extra Virgin Olive Oil is available for purchase online through The Olive Oil Emporium (a Toronto-based company) and their website http://www.OliveOilEmporium.com. Kalikori can be shipped throughout Canada and the USA, and is delivered for free within the Greater Toronto Area with a minimum purchase of $50. The 2009 harvest oil will also be available for purchase as soon as the Ligris family has released their liquid gold to North America.

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© 2007-2010 Peter Minakis