Pressing when olives are at their maximum freshness produces vibrant flavor and a bright yellow and green color. Huge stone wheels, six feet in diameter, grind the fruit. Unlike the grindstones of a flour mill, which are horizontal and turn one atop the other, the grindstones of an olive press are vertical and rotate in a tub, crushing the olives against the floor. The mill (frantoio) is chilly, to keep the fruit fresh. In the early 1900s, in the olive-growing regions of Italy, local fruit growers brought their olives to a communal mill, where donkeys turned the presses. Today the process is largely automated, but some presses are still turned by hand to minimize the bruising of the fruit. Read more about olives and olive farming 100 years ago and today in Tazia and Gemma (see NOVELS).
