L'Oliveto

today we have about 15.000 italian’s olive plants, mostly of the following varieties: rotondella, frantoio and leccino. the moderate climate, the calcareous and argillaceous soil, and the geographic position of the farm, all contribute towards making our land perfect for growing olive trees

Furthermore, our parents – Annibale and Anna – still today work hard every day to obtain fruits that are an authentic expression of our land.

farming

Conscious of the importance of nature’s role, we practice a sustainable and diversified type of agriculture in the olive orchards which causes less impact on the environment, as we do what we can to protect the environment and keep the natural habitat.
We put in place different methods to manage pest and olive tree diseases such as Integrated Pest Control (Reg. CEE 2078/92 and DPR 290/2001). To limit the attacks of flies on the olives – using techniques with low impact on the environment – we use specific insect traps with natural baits.

olive oil mill

With the experience and know-how gained with our grandparents, our father Annibale in 1988 took the decision to buy a 19th century olive oil mill and to build a “Pieralisi Olive Oil Mill” where he could transform into olive oil his own organic olives that he would grow at the farm. During the years the azienda kept adapting itself to the changing times, and as a result, our machines became more technologically advanced. With time we paired a traditional extraction system with presses with a continuous (or decanter) centrifugation system which allowed us to extract our unique L’Oliveto extra virgin olive oil from the Picentine Mountains.

In 2008, our brother Mario decided to continue to invest in a new type of machinery: a revolutionary Muliphase DMF8 system, which guarantees high quality production, producing superb olive oil without the addition of any water to the process. The modern method of olive oil extraction uses an industrial decanter to separate all the phases by centrifugation at a controlled temperature of 27°C; this system guarantees a final product of excellent quality with no environmental impact.

production

Olive oil is not all the same. Similar to wine, the cultivation, the soil, the climate and other conditions determine its ultimate characteristics, tastes, and aromas. To all of this knowledge in olive oil production we add the experience, passion, and hard work of Annibale and his family.

Our production process is as follows:

Harvest
At our farm our olives are picked straight from the trees by forced detachment. This is usually done by hand with the use of combs or other pieces of machinery which makes the olives fall from the trees into a net on the ground. This takes place from October to December.

Transportation and Storage
The picked olives are stored in aerated open boxes, and moved around our mill with the use of forklifts. The olive oil transformation takes place as soon as possible, and always within 12 Hs, to ensure that the wait doesn’t cause any changes to the olives and therefore to the quality of the olive oil (such as increasing in acidity or organoleptic defects).

Cleaning and Washing
The leaves and branches which are normally picked together with the olives are already partially removed in the field prior to the boxes being sent to the mill. At the mill, there is a mechanical process which removes all the unwanted items from each of the boxes. The olives are then washed to remove any soil.

Olive Oil Extraction
Our olive oil mill "Mario Salerno" is equipped with two different extraction systems: a traditional system that uses olive Presses and a modern system that uses a Decanter Centrifugation System.

Storage
The oil is stored in stainless steel tanks at temperature between 10 - 18°C to avoid heating or freezing of the olive oil and guarantee a perfect storing of the product.

Packaging
The choice of the material used has been driven by three factors: non-permeability to fat, non-permeability to gas and protection from light. For this reason we use dark glass bottles and tinplate tins. In particular we prefer dark green glass in order to slow down the la photo-oxidation.

Nocciolino
From the olive oil extraction we obtain three components: olive oil, water and olive pits. The olive pits are then dried and crushed so that they can serve as a natural fuel which can be used in stoves.