The olive pressing process

.
Continuing our olive saga (see here and here) which began last week in Kibbutz Gezer:

 November and December are the time for making olive oil.
High season, so each grower's bin(s) of olives have to wait their turn at the olive press.

Here the Thai worker spreads out the fruit and collects the twigs.
(The olives I helped pick were much cleaner because we took the time to go over them already in the field.)
Much of Israel's agricultural work gets done thanks to hard-working guest-workers from Thailand.
These men working at the olive press live on-site.

Next, Mikki watched the olives climb up the "ladder" conveyor belt.

The olives got their first shower from the jets of water as the rolling rods shook leaves to the side and let any little stones fall through.
It's fun to enlarge the photos and see all these details up close.

Then they got a serious bath.

Here come the olives, dropping off the moving belt.

Once the olives are all clean they say goodbye to their firm bodies and get mashed up, pits and all.
The big rotating screw grinds them and pushes the pulp forward to the final stage--oil!

But lest this post become way too long, let's see the beautiful oil come out in tomorrow's post.
.