How Organic Olive Oil Is Made?

Most people picture olive oil starting at the press. It starts years earlier, in a grove, with a young tree and a farmer deciding how to feed it, protect it, and pick it. On an organic farm, the farmer does all of that without synthetic chemicals, and that changes the work. This post follows one olive from the tree to the bottle.

This post draws on four sources: a guide to olive oil production from an olive specialist at the University of California (UC) farm advisory service, the pest guidelines from the same university for the olive fruit fly, the California Rare Fruit Growers olive fact sheet, and a USDA fact sheet on organic production and certification. It also uses what we know firsthand about our own farm in Turkey. None of these are clinical studies, so the post makes no health claims.

At a Glance: How Organic Olive Oil Is Made •  Olive varieties cannot be grown true from seed. Growers root cuttings or graft, and trees grown from cuttings bear fruit in about 4 years. •  Land must go 3 years without prohibited fertilizers or pesticides before its crop can be sold as USDA Organic. The farm also needs a written plan and a yearly inspection. •  Against olive fruit fly, University of California guidelines list traps, kaolin clay, a spinosad bait, and cultural controls as acceptable on organic crops. •  Hand picking is the gentlest method. The goal is to keep the skin unbroken and get the fruit to the mill within a few hours. •  At the mill, the paste is mixed for 45 minutes to an hour at 80 to 86 degrees Fahrenheit. Hotter paste loses fruit flavor. •  On our farm in Turkey, we pick by hand and start cleaning and pressing within 4 hours. The farm covers almost four million square meters.

What Makes an Olive Farm Organic?

To sell olives as USDA Organic, a farm has to follow a set of federal rules. It cannot use synthetic fertilizers, sewage sludge, irradiation, or genetic engineering. The land matters too. If anyone used prohibited fertilizers or pesticides on it in the past three years, the crop cannot be sold as organic, so a new organic farm has to wait three years for its first organic harvest.

Organic does not mean the farmer sprays nothing. A short list of approved materials is allowed, and the pest section below gives examples. What really sets an organic farm apart is the paperwork and the checking. The farmer writes an Organic System Plan that describes the farm’s practices, keeps records such as a field history and a map, and passes an on-site inspection by a USDA-accredited certifier. The farm has to renew its certificate every year.

How an Olive Grove Gets Started, and Why It Takes Years

Growers do not plant olive seeds. The California Rare Fruit Growers explain that a tree grown from seed reverts to the small-fruited wild type, so no cultivated variety can be grown that way. Instead, growers root cuttings taken from mature trees, or graft the variety they want onto a young rootstock. A cutting is about a foot long and comes from two-year-old wood. A tree grown from a cutting bears fruit in about four years, and the same fact sheet says an olive tree can live for 500 years.

Our oil comes from İlhan Sarı Organic Olive Farm, in the hills of rural Turkey. The farm covers almost four million square meters of rocky land, far from cities and industry. Our groves stay free of pesticides, pollution, and other chemicals from the young trees to the harvest. All of our oil comes from one variety, Ayvalık, grown on that one farm. For how Aegean Turkish cooks use olive oil, see Zeytinyağlı: The Turkish Way of Cooking With Olive Oil.

Once the trees are growing, pruning becomes the main yearly job. An olive tree grows its fruit on branches that sprouted the year before, and a spot that has fruited once will not fruit there again. So the pruning a farmer does this year decides how much fruit the tree can grow next year. Trees also tend to bear heavily one year and lightly the next. The UC guide says pruning harder in a big flowering year helps even out the harvests.

Feeding the Soil Without Synthetic Fertilizer

Without synthetic fertilizer, an organic farm feeds the soil in other ways. The fact sheet notes that many growers in Mediterranean countries apply organic fertilizers every other year. Many organic farms also let plants grow between the tree rows instead of leaving the soil bare. In a study of an organic olive orchard in Spain, researchers removed that ground cover and the number of ground spiders changed sharply, which shows how much small life depends on it.

Here is a point that surprises people. The UC guide says fertilizer studies in Spain and other Mediterranean countries found that soil nutrients did not change the quality or makeup of the oil. Organic farming matters for how the land is treated, but it does not automatically make better oil. What shapes the oil, the same guide says, is the variety, how ripe the fruit is at picking, and what happens after picking.

Keeping Pests and Weeds in Check Without Chemicals

Olive trees get fewer pests than most fruit trees, so the olive is one of the least sprayed crops, according to the fact sheet. The oil in the fruit also picks up the smell of chemical treatments, which gives growers another reason to hold back. The main insect pest is the olive fruit fly, which damages the fruit.

The UC guidelines list four things an organic grower can use against the fly: cultural controls (changes to how the grove is managed), a spinosad bait, sprays of kaolin clay, and mass trapping. Kaolin is a fine white clay that coats the fruit. Mass trapping means hanging a trap in each tree to cut the number of flies, though UC says it works best alongside other treatments. Clean tools matter too. A bacterial disease called olive knot spreads on infected pruning tools, especially in rainy months.

Weeds are the other chore. Without synthetic weed killers, organic farmers usually mow, till, or manage the ground cover instead. Our farm is USDA Organic, so we follow these same rules.

How the Olives Are Picked

Harvest is where the grove meets the clock. The UC guide says the oil inside the olive is in excellent shape while the fruit is still on the tree. Its quality changes during and after picking. Hand picking is the gentlest method, but it is slow and is the most expensive part of growing olives. In flatter groves, growers use tree shakers or hand-held vibrating combs that drop the fruit onto tarps.

Whichever method a grower uses, the goal is the same: keep the skin unbroken and get the fruit to the mill within a few hours. Olives left sitting in bins can ferment and mold. Fruit picked up off the ground makes a low-quality oil that usually has to be refined.

On our farm, our team picks by hand at peak ripeness, then starts cleaning and pressing within four hours at our on-site facility. Ripeness matters because the fruit’s oil and flavor change as the olive ripens. For what ripeness does to polyphenols, see Early Harvest Olive Oil: What It Is and Why It Costs More.

How the Olives Become Oil, Step by Step

Step 1: Cleaning. The mill removes leaves, twigs, and dirt. A few leaves do no harm, but twigs and wood can give the oil a woody taste, according to the UC guide.

Step 2: Crushing. The mill crushes the olives into a paste, which breaks open the cells that hold the oil. Older mills use stone wheels. Most large modern mills use stainless steel hammers that spin at high speed.

Step 3: mixing the paste. The mill slowly mixes the paste for about 45 minutes to an hour. This lets tiny oil droplets join into larger ones that are easier to separate. Temperature matters here. The UC guide says to keep the paste between 80 and 86 degrees Fahrenheit (about 27 to 30 degrees Celsius), because hotter paste loses fruit flavors and turns more bitter and astringent. This is the stage the label cold pressed refers to. European rules reserve the term for oil extracted under a limit of 27 degrees Celsius, which sits at the bottom of the UC range. The United States has no legal definition, so a bottle that says it has not necessarily been checked.

Step 4: separating the oil. A large horizontal centrifuge called a decanter spins the paste at about 3,000 rotations per minute. The heavy solids move outward, the water settles in the middle, and the oil collects on the inside. A second, faster centrifuge then cleans the oil further. The guide adds that decanters that use no added water keep more polyphenols than ones that do. At our facility, the olives go into oxygen-free containers before extraction.

Step 5: storing and bottling. Many mills store the oil in stainless steel at a steady 45 to 65 degrees Fahrenheit. Some let it rest for one to three months so sediment and water settle out. Light wears down olive oil, so we bottle ours in Italian dark glass. The leftover solids and fruit water can be composted and returned to the land.

The clock runs through every step, which is why the hours between picking and pressing matter so much.

What the Organic Seal Tells You, and What It Does Not

The USDA Organic seal tells you how the olives were grown and handled. Inspectors check the farm, and the mill or bottler that handles the oil needs its own written plan and inspection too. That is a real safeguard, and it keeps synthetic fertilizers and pesticides out of the grove.

The seal does not tell you how fresh the oil is, how fast the olives were pressed, or how much flavor and polyphenol content the oil has. Those depend on the variety, the ripeness at picking, and the hours after harvest. For what the seal does and does not guarantee, see USDA Organic Extra Virgin Olive Oil: What the Certification Actually Guarantees. A good bottle of USDA organic olive oil pairs the seal with dark glass, a named origin, and a producer that tells you how fast it presses.

Why Four Hour Olive Oil Starts on Its Own Farm Most olive oil passes through many hands between the grove and your kitchen, and freshness fades from the moment the olives are picked. A farm that grows, picks, and presses in one place controls the clock in a way a long supply chain cannot. We press our Ayvalik olives within 4 hours of harvest at our own farm in Turkey. Our oil is a high polyphenol olive oil that is USDA Organic, single origin, and bottled in Italian dark glass, so you can trace it from grove to bottle. Ultra Premium is made for finishing and raw use. Premium is made for everyday cooking. If you are going to choose organic olive oil, the oil should actually be as fresh as the farm behind it. Ultra Premium EVOO  |  Premium EVOO  |  Duo

Frequently Asked Questions

How is organic olive oil made?

It starts on an organic farm, where growers raise the trees without synthetic fertilizers or pesticides, and an inspector checks the farm each year. Workers pick the olives, and the mill cleans them, crushes them into a paste, mixes the paste, spins the oil out, then stores and bottles it. The mill steps are much the same as for any extra virgin oil. What makes it organic is how the olives are grown and handled.

How is olive oil made step by step?

There are five main steps. The mill cleans the olives, crushes them into a paste, and mixes the paste slowly so the oil droplets join together. A centrifuge then separates the oil from the water and solids, and the oil goes into storage and then into bottles. Speed matters throughout, because olives left waiting can ferment or mold.

What is olive oil made of?

Olive oil is the oil pressed from the fruit of the olive tree. According to the UC guide, about 98 percent of it is fat, and the rest is a small mix of polyphenols, pigments, aromas, and flavor compounds. That small share is a big part of what gives a fresh oil its taste.

Is olive oil made from olives?

Yes. Extra virgin olive oil comes only from olives, and the mill extracts it only by mechanical means, such as crushing and spinning. It uses no chemical solvents.

Is olive oil made from green or black olives?

Both. The color of the olives at picking changes the oil. The UC guide says the trend is to harvest earlier for an oil with a green color and a more peppery character, while fully ripe black fruit gives a sweeter oil.

Is olive oil made from the pits?

In most mills, the whole olive, pit included, is crushed into a paste, but most of the oil comes from the flesh.

How is extra virgin olive oil made?

The mill extracts it by crushing and spinning only, with no refining. Then the oil has to pass lab tests and a tasting panel that finds no flaws. Fresh fruit, fast handling, and a cool paste give it the best chance of passing.

How long does an olive tree take to produce olives?

Trees grown from cuttings bear their first fruit in about four years, according to the California Rare Fruit Growers. Olive trees can live for hundreds of years, so a grove can feed many generations.

Can you grow olive trees from seed?

You can, but the tree will not match its parent. Seed-grown trees revert to the small-fruited wild type, so growers use cuttings or grafting to keep the variety they want.

Why does it take so many olives to make one bottle?

Olives are only about 10 to 35 percent oil by weight at full maturity, depending on the variety, according to the UC guide. The rest is water and solids, so it takes several kilograms of olives to make one liter of oil.

Is organic olive oil made differently from regular olive oil?

The mill steps are much the same. The differences come before and around them. On an organic farm, growers cannot use synthetic fertilizers or pesticides. Both the farm and the handler also keep a written plan, and an inspector checks them every year.

How fast do olives need to be pressed?

The UC guide says olives should reach the mill within a few hours of picking, and that olives left in bins can ferment and mold. We start cleaning and pressing within four hours.

Which of your olive oils should I buy?

Our Ultra Premium Extra Virgin Olive Oil is made for finishing and raw use, such as salad, bread, soup, and drizzling. Our Premium Extra Virgin Olive Oil is made for everyday cooking. Both are USDA Organic and pressed within 4 hours of harvest.

References [1] Vossen, P. "Olive Oil Production." University of California Cooperative Extension, the university farm advisory service. View source [2] "Olive (Olea europaea)." Fruit Facts. California Rare Fruit Growers. View source [3] "Olive Fruit Fly." Olive Pest Management Guidelines. University of California Statewide IPM Program. View source [4] "Making the Transition to Organic Production and Handling." USDA Agricultural Marketing Service, National Organic Program. October 2015. View source [5] Cárdenas, M., Castro, J., and Campos, M. "Short-term response of soil spiders to cover-crop removal in an organic olive orchard in a Mediterranean setting." Journal of Insect Science 12(61). 2012. View source [6] "Our Process." Four Hour Olive Oil. View source

The sources cited in this post are publicly available university, government, and farm resources. This content is for informational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. Consult a qualified healthcare professional before making changes to your diet or health regimen.