Liquid Gold: The Olive Oil Story

This past weekend I decided to take a little trip to Jaén, the capital of the province Jaén, Spain where Siles is located.  Considering all the amazing places to visit in Andalucia, Jaén is not the most impressive however there was plenty to see and do.  One Day 1 I hiked up to the Castle of Santa Catalina that began as an 8th Century Moorish fortress.  Most of the outer walls have crumbled back into the earth but the main structure at the top was turned into a luxury hotel.  The views were impressive.  You had a 360° view of the entire city and beyond the city limits were hundreds of thousands of olive trees.  I managed to take a few photos with my cellphone but they don't do justice to the beauty of the landscape.

You are looking down at the World Capital of Olive Oil.  About 117,000 people live in Jaén.

From the top of the castle you could see a village that is on the other side of the mountain.  Sorry for the lack of clarity but if you look towards the right center you can see the olive groves in their perfect linear patterns.  Now imagine this green dotted textured covering every hillside as far as you can see.  It's spectacular!

More from the top as you approach the western most boundary of the fortress.  The structure on the bottom right was really impressive and seemed very old...maybe a monastery?

This cross is at the very end of the fortress wall.  It is about as tall as a 2 story building.  On the base were many messages of love and romance.  "Te quiero" was probably written about 100 times in all kinds of handwriting and ink colors. 

On my way back I met a mule in a almond tree orchard.  My favorite thing about almond trees is that they bloom in February.  It seems like Spring is coming but there is still about 6 more weeks of winter.

Mutual curiosity!

On Day 2 I took a trip to Begijar which is a tiny village about the size of Siles.  There I experienced the world of olive oil making and the importance of what is equivalent to liquid gold.  I was lucky enough to have a private tour of the facility because I booked my tour on a Sunday during the off season.  

The first lesson was to explain that about 80% of the economy of Jaén depends on the olives for oil, olives for eating, cosmetics, lubricants, and other products made with oil.  This year the olive production had a high medium yield which was significantly better than last year according to the owner of the factory.  

The second lesson was all about how olive oil is the fruit juice of an olive.  No one would use a bad orange to make a carton of OJ and the same goes for making olive oil.  These fruits are super sensitive and can spoil very quickly from oxidation (the process that turns bananas, apples, and avocados brown for example).  Though there are 200 varieties of olives growing in Jaén, the most common and important one is called Picual.  It contains the most oil and has the lowest rate of oxidation.  

The third and most impressive lesson was on the process.  The best olive oil comes from olives that were picked off the tree and not allowed to fall onto the ground.  These olives get the honorary labels of Virgin and Extra Virgin Olive Oil because they are of the highest quality.  The idea is to think of this oil as pure olive juice made only from the work of machines (never through chemical extraction).  The olives are freshly ground into a mash.  The mash is spread onto mats and stacked into layers.  The stack is pressed by a heavy weight that forces the olive oil to drain off the sides and down in to a reservoir.  Here is a wiki with some photos Wikipedia on Olive Oil Making.  Then it's filtered and bottled.  The final step is for it to be evaluated by highly trained olive oil tasters called catas.  Many factors can influence the taste including minerals from the earth in which the tree was growing, particles from the processing, oxidation, species of the plant, and time of harvesting.  My personal favorite was the olive oil made from the first olives of the season.  At this time the olives are still very green and the flavor they produce is a little bitter with a sting at the back of the throat.  Sounds terrible but actually it was the most unique flavor and the best to me.  The last harvest occurs in January and at this point the olives are fully ripened into a purplish black color.  This olive oil is very smooth on the tongue and slightly sweet.  Also very good!

The last lesson which was the most interesting was on the use of the olive parts that don't become oil.  The skin of the olives gets processed into fertilizer for the olive trees and also added to animal feed.  Olives are super healthy and loaded with anti-oxidants that fight disease including cancer.  Pretty amazing!  Next, the pits are ground and dried to become a source of fuel for heating homes.  Lastly, the watery mixture with suspended bits of oil is sent off to be processed with chemicals to extract the oil which will be used for non-edible products like lamp oil and lubricants.

The factory toured ended with a tasting of 3 gourmet olive oils.  The most important ingredient is love.  Notice the blue glass container.  This glass is used by catas when they are evaluating the oil to disguise the color of the oil because there is a misconception that darker green colored oil has a higher quality. 

Finally on Day 3 of my mini-vacation I found a really nice indoor pool and swam and swam and swam.  All in all, I really enjoyed spending my time as a tourist for a weekend.  One thing is for sure, I can never look at olive oil in the same way again.  Knowledge is so powerful!  Hopefully I will be forever changed by the Spanish language learning too.  Bueno, saludos a todos y hasta pronto!

Spain & Punctuality

Hello all.  The newest news is that I moved into my own place or 'piso' in Spanish and I'm quite happy with my decision.  Of course I miss some things about living with a family like the shared meals and endless opportunities to speak Spanish however, there's a sense of freedom that I've gained that feels great.  The place is small and cozy with a beautiful view of the olive trees and incredible sunsets.  There is one bedroom with a double bed, a bathroom with a small shower, a  mini-kitchen with a full stove range and oven, a living room with a brand new flat screen TV (too bad there's never anything good to watch here or anywhere for that matter), a cool circular glass table with matching chairs, and a large desk where I'm sitting now.  At the moment, I can't show you more than this one photo because Andreas has the camera.  Anyway, I assure you it's great and perfect for living 'sola' (alone f).

La buena vista de mi ventana.  I'm living in the top right corner of Siles which affords me this amazing view.  It is much more beautiful on a sunny day as you can probably imagine.

UPDATE:  here's the sunset photo thanks to an email from andreas

So tonight I had a nice long (30 minutes or so) conversation in Spanish (of course) about punctuality particularly among students and teachers.  To me, there is no such thing as punctuality in Spain and I don't mean it in a negative way.  Everyone seems to be so much cooler about time as I've mentioned before to the point where a shop says it will open at 5:30pm (after siesta) and in fact the shop keeper is just walking up to the door at 6:00pm.  And she does not seem to be at all in a hurry despite the small collection of customers waiting by the door.  It's just the way it goes here.  However there are people here who consider themselves to be punctual.  For example, I heard a teacher express his frustrations with his adult students who walk in late to their evening class.  A non-Spaniard offered him a solution to his problem and suggested that the door be closed and locked at 4:30pm when the class is said to start but it seemed too cruel.  The teacher realized that there might only be 4 out of the 20 students in class that evening.  Then worse when the teacher realizes his students are always going to be late the teacher begins to arrive late as well.  What a vicious cycle!  I especially enjoyed hearing from another teacher who also believes in being on time for things but she explained how it's difficult to be a hurry when she encounters her neighbors on her way to work.  They stop her, ask about the family, and share their own stories without any sense that she might be in a rush.  But to her it is just plain rude to look at your watch and explain how you are going to be late.  So she's hangs in there hoping that the conversation will end with enough time for her to walk into the building before the bell....and sometimes it doesn't but oh well.  So the bigger question was: "Can punctuality be taught in a place where it's not very important?"  For me, I was raised to be earlier than on time but Spain has taken a small toll on me.  I'm often 5-10 minutes late these days and I write it off as nothing.  ¡No pasa nada! (until I'm back in NYC)

Finally, Andreas was able to visit me in Siles which turned out to be quite fun.  We went to the school's training restaurant, took a few hikes in the olive groves and pine forests, had tapas with the locals (and my colleagues), and participated in a mini-flamenco festival in my former host family's house.  Now we are heading to Barcelona together at the end of February and afterwards I'll spend some time in Jerez and hopefully in Cádiz for the big and famous festival, El Carnaval de Cádiz.  More pictures and stories to come!