Following these tips will produce quality olives.

Following these tips will produce quality olives.


Antonio Bruno *

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Continue the story of the beautiful evening spent in Tricase immersed in the enchanting forest of olive trees in the Salento Lecce heard of olives, of how to make a healthy fruit juice is able to provide a high quality oil

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A good wine is the result of work of a "agronomist of the" who oversees the production to get a quality grape that, once harvested and transported to the winery, it becomes labor for another professional who is the winemaker who looks after all the processes from the delivery of grapes to achieve a wine of quality

The Agronomist Caramel Buttazzo states to get a quality olive oil, please adhere to specific professionals who oversee the various stages of production first and then the olive oil extraction and storage.

The Agronomist "field" is the one to trust for obtaining quality olives, this professional determine what to do and when to do it and communicate it to the producer. And you, you dco it to you! Read these words I am about to write dictated by Mr Buttazzo which are addressed just to you and that you read me, I know, you're one of 60 thousand olive producers of Salento in Lecce.

The olive tree, to express through his product and that is the fruit of the olive, the highest quality, it must be well fed. What food and how much give is what establishes the Agronomist that assess the characteristics of the land on which there is the olive tree, how many nutrients have already been eaten from the tree to produce olives in the previous year and many other things that are the result of "wisdom" of many years of trials and attempts to produce what we call all the experience. The Agronomist also has to deal with the balance of the plant olive trees by giving precise rules for pruning cuts to be made with them and how to reduce the costs of collection.

The Agronomist field must therefore ensure the health of the olives because he is the doctor who takes care of the earth by determining the olive trees, how and how much medication to give to the plants, always paying attention and monitoring of climate trends' infestation of pests.

The Agronomist is the physician of the land that detects the disease by bacteria, fungi, insects that jeopardize the health of the olives. In light of these observations and with his "wisdom," the olive Agronomist decides which drugs and how much should be given to the olive trees. Again, thanks to the wisdom of the olive Agronomist decide the date on which the olives must be harvested to ensure the best organoleptic quality and healthy product that you are going to extract oil.

Even the olives! But like olives? Are those of the varieties that are more present in Salento Lecce, first of all the Ogliarola of Lecce and then Cellina of Nardo. But there are also varieties of olive trees as the introduction of new varieties of olive leccino, the top of Melfi, crusher, carolea, nociara, Picholine, Corato. For all these varieties the Agronomist must decide the most appropriate day to pick olives, bearing in mind that the time of veraison, which occurs when the change in color from olive green to a final color varies from purple to black is that where there is maximum concentration of aromatic substances and antioxidants in the fruit.

At this stage, the olives are rich in alpha-tocopherol is a vital nutrient and essential vitamin for humans, a powerful fat soluble antioxidant, found in many plants but not in high percentages found in olive oil. Tocopherol is vitamin E, but then there are other aromatic substances that are produced with alpha tocopherol from olive fruit, because they can defend the embryo (oleouropeina, tyrosol beta carotene etc.)..

The Agronomist Caramel Buttazzo explains the presence of these substances in the olive drupe, drawing a comparison with the pregnant mother, who protects and nurtures her baby with the yolk sac and placenta, transmitting all the immune substances.

The drupe with its mesocarp, rich in nutrients and antioxidants, protects and nurtures her embryo.

The 'alpha-tocopherol and antioxidants in general act as self-destruct or suicide bombers to defend the nutrients easily attacked by oxygen (oxidation) and become free radicals that are hazardous to health but also human embryo.

To get a quality product several times Buttazzo colleague insists on the concept of health and the olive is why tackling the subject of one of the worst enemies of the olive or the Fly, also known as the olive fruit fly and olive fruit fly (Bactrocera oleae Gmelin, 1790).

You should know that it is an insect belonging to the subfamily Dacinae Munro, 1984. (Diptera Brachycera Schizophora Acalyptratae Tephritidae). It's kind carpofaga, which means it feeds on the fruits of olive, or olive. The larva of Moscow is a leafminer tunnels in fact makes the olive drupe. It is the most severe hardships borne olive.

When the larva eats the flesh for food, produces an enzyme which is soluble lipase. This enzyme is the need to digest fats, producing energy, so this enzyme is very dangerous for the process of acidification of the oil contained in the olives.

Do you know what enzyme? It 's a protein that accelerates the speed of chemical reactions, the compound A to compound B and vice versa.

So if you have an olive in the larva of the fly, also has within the lipase, which is capable of performing the hydrolysis of lipids, transforming triglycerides into glycerol and fatty acid (acid oil).

The Agronomist Caramel Buttazzo said without fear of contradiction that if an olive is not healthy, when to squeeze to get the oil, we'll take overt acidity in the oil, what? Nosa what it is blown? And you worry, now you write me, is a full-blown disease is clearly recognized, leaving no doubts as to the accuracy of his diagnosis. But even if this were not so there is always the possibility of lipase in the oil that will trigger the process of acidification of the oil during preservation.

My colleague finally Buttazzo shows that this position is that exogenous lipase, which means that the olives come from outside, while not underestimate a small amount of lipase which originates from the embryo and that the olive is called endogenous and serves to 'olive embryo to digest the fats that mother nature has provided in the pulp. So when the oil is healthy we'll always have this endogenous lipase.

And so the Agronomist Buttazzo Caramel says that in this period or late November - early December we have a percentage of lipase in the olive is more than 2% and you can rest assured that even the olive oil that is inside you acid.

Understand what is the Agronomist olive? If you want to do a quality olive oil, or sound, you can not pick up in this period, we must certainly do so before. But when? When determining the Agronomist of olive grove!

Another danger to the olive oil are the oxidative processes, protected by antioxidants described above but also by the chlorophyll pigment that colors the green oil but then as we have seen veraison turns reddish.

Chlorophyll is an antioxidant in the dark while a pro oxidant in the presence of light. Do you understand now why the oil should be stored in dark bottles and in the shade where? The Agronomist Caramel Buttazzo reveals that he is protecting his bottles with foil to prevent light from entering. So you can too, take your bottle and wrap it in aluminum foil. Now he has learned how to produce an olive healthy, but my story does not end here, in fact there is to know how to squeeze this healthy oil to get a quality oil. But that's another story.



(Continued)



* Agronomist