Chapter 1, A Work in Progress

Chapter one, tentatively named Makings of Olive Oil, starts to take form, and that through an initial draft written over the past two weeks. First, my nights and days were spent working with it during a writing retreat in Ostuni, the place where much of my fieldwork took place. It is in my heart, the fieldwork yes, truly, but also that place, Ostuni, for it brings me so much inspiration and joy, let alone, happy memories and an instant sensation of the makings of olive oil. So, apart from my fond recollection of my fieldwork, the place itself occurs a great one to spend a week initiating the writing of my thesis.

The following week, I spent continuing working, night and day, with crafting the chapter in my temporary home in Casamassella. And form it took, the chapter, processually and artfully so, for I have let the ethnographic material narrate itself as my fieldnotes, textual and visual in kind, have cultivated the stories inherent the chapter. Starting with an introduction to harvest, also, to how I was introduced to it, the section of La raccolta sets the stage for the motioned phases inherent the Cultivated Flows of olive oil from the heel of Italy. Subsequently, the chapter illustrates the practices through which producers are Caring for the Flow of L’olio Extravergine through Mechanical Crafts. Having detailed methods of harvest of unripe olives for these particular makings of extra virgin olive oil — from a situated, let alone culturally cultivated, perspective — the chapter is Moving Into and Through Late Season Harvest. The chapter ends, after the unfolding of how mature olives occur harvested by means of for instance nets and rakes, with describing two methods for transforming olives into oil. This as the section of Tecnica Tradizionale, Metodo Moderno: Processes of Extraction recounts techniques of pressing raw material into end-products. In being completely wrapped up, consumed really, by my notes and photographies, I had initially written a final part of this chapter called Learning the Rhythm, Embodying Tranquilla, but processual as the writing of a thesis occurs — similarly to the craft of cultivating olive for olive oil production — I had that part moved into chapter four, where it opens the workings of Cultivated Rhythms. As hinted, the first two weeks of this year took off with quite some spirit, passionate crafting really, just like the olive oils that the chapter considers. Below follows an excerpt from the last section of the almost forty pages of initial draft written. Joyful partaking!

Notably engaged by the experience, Donato, a man who works in the frantoio and has done so for over 50 years, approaches me and considers my fascination. I let him know, somewhat faltering and much gesticulating – that is, in a mode of communication allowed by my all but fluently spoken Italian, let alone little knowledge of dialect, and my lack of vocabulary for expressing all the parts of the processes – that the rolling wheels with its metal rail, by which the paste becomes scrapped off the stone surface, intrigues me in its movement. It is the first time that I observe one of these traditional stone wheel presses in action, and I am captivated by it; as much by the actual functioning of it, as by the pungent fumes its motion over the olives sets off. Smilingly, Donato bends down, pointing inwards and under the large stone tub with one hand, encouraging me to follow his movement with that of the other hand. I bend down beside him, and in doing so, I am shown the generators affording the machinery. I take a photo, and he laughs. I point to my notebook, trying to explain how the photo acts sort of a visual note. Not sure he understood what I was actually trying to tell him, he understands my intention to learn about tecnica tradizionale, and so, with a rather quick straightening of his body, he takes me on a tour through all stations by which olives using this technique transform into oil. The first stop is the spreading of the olive paste onto fiscoli, which is a sort of porously knitted plastic rug that becomes stapled with iron weights before put into the hydraulic presses[1]. Sidi does this job, and methodically, he presses his foot on the pedal by which a layer of paste becomes spread from the gramola onto the rotating fiscoli. He then places the paste-layered fiscoli onto the stacked assemble and repeats the movement until the staple is ready for Giovanni to move to the presses.

The olive paste is lukewarm, amounting to a degree of about 26, as it comes out of the gramola. Giovanni, the man in charge of replenishing the supply of olives into the stone wheel press, also for releasing paste into the gramola (middle photo above), has, as I stood curiously beside him during the practice of pouring the grinded paste into its next kneading phase, noted how the gramola must be somewhat heated. The olive paste needs to be riscalda, as he has it, for the oil to become extracted from the solid mass. However, only moderately so, not to interfere with the eminence of making high quality oil. The quantity–quality dimension correlated to the heat used during the oil extraction process occurs of vital importance, and this as heat, while required to a certain extent for the oil to extract, runs the risk of decreasing its quality. Up to 28 degrees, the oil is yet considered cold-pressed; that is, pressed in such a (not-too-heated) condition that the quality thereof remains intact. It is especially the phenolic compounds by which the oil gets it pungent character, also, many of its health benefits, that one wishes to preserve by pressing it at rather low temperatures. It is this content of polyphenols, this feature of phenolic compounds, that correlates the sharp tickling felt in the throat when eating a high-quality oil. In other words, when consuming an oil extravergine classified of sorts.

[1]While these presses occur driven by hydraulic power in current-day production, they used to be turned by manpower, and this not too long ago. Hence, traditionally much more manual in its procedures, this technique has evolved to incorporate more automized features of production, though it still requires step-by-step attention.