Suflí Olive Oil Mill 1/6

Olive harvest, hopper and belt

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Façade and building 

We welcome you to the Suflí Oil Mill, in this interpretation center you will be able to contemplate the process of grinding and squeezing olives to obtain oil. This factory where you are and where this precious “liquid gold” was obtained, is an old oil mill recovered as a tourist interpretation center.

Already in Antiquity man began to use all his ingenuity to cultivate olive trees, harvest their fruits and extract oil. From the most primitive systems to the current continuous centrifugal system, there is a wide range of techniques to obtain more and better oil. According to places and times, these systems have evolved, both in the materials used to make the necessary devices, as well as in the traditional oil extraction processes, which is why the Suflí Town Hall welcomes you to the ” Interpretation Center of Suflí Oil”, a reflection of the immeasurable cultural heritage of our municipality and of our region as a whole, the Almanzora Valley.  

 

Olive harvesting, hopper and conveyor belt

The harvesting of olives, which must be done when the fruit is at its ripest, is the first step in the olive oil production process. The harvesting season for mill olives was typically November, December, and January, with the largest and most valuable olives being collected during this time. Olive oil with various properties can be obtained depending on the harvesting date. Extra-early harvesting, for example, yielded the most intense fruitiness. 

After the customer received the olives, they were processed via a leaf stripper to remove the leaves, then washed to remove any dust or dirt that had attached to them, and then delivered to a weighing machine. This procedure took place before the oil was produced, and it served as a warm-up for the series of steps required to extract the highly desired “liquid gold.”

The olive harvesting is the first step in the production of olive oil. After shaking the olive branches, the olives needed to be sent to the mills as soon as feasible. The machines that assisted in this step were the hoisting hoppers. Their primary purpose was to assist movement from the olive reception area to the production center, employing stainless steel conveyor belt types, as shown.

The olives were sieved to eliminate any leftover materials, such as leaves and branches, and separated by type and degree of ripeness during shipping. Following sorting, the olives were carried to the milling stage..

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